We were psyched to have Arnoldo move to St. Louis from Costa Rica for the grant (& would love to see many more international entrepreneurs apply -- we helped Arnoldo w/ his visa and will help future entrepreneurs requiring visas).
we'll be building on feedback gained this year to narrow our focus in yr 2. we aimed to be as transparent as possible in our selection process, providing feedback to applicants at each stage of the competition. with one competition cycle under our belts, we've learned a lot and hope you'll consider recommending arch grants to startups willing to base their businesses downtown and scale.
Hmm, I moved here in October from the Northeast. I was (pleasantly) surprised by the diversity in STL and that doesn't just mean great ethnic restaurants, though large immigrant and refugee communities have resulted in some great eateries. This is a city focused on embracing diversity. There are countless individuals solely focused on multicultural initiatives within the government and within civic organizations. Arch Grants is one of those groups that seeks to embrace a multicultural pool of applicants and award recipients because we want the startups we fund to reflect the diversity of St. Louis that is thriving especially within the startup community.
This is the last comment I noticed on this post so I'm going to address it. Full disclosure: I'm the aforementioned Exec Director of Arch Grants so I'm a tad bit biased. In an effort to enhance St. Louis' entrepreneurial ecosystem, Arch Grants is awarding $50k + immense support services (free legal and accounting services, reduced commercial and residential rent, business mentoring, access to university support, etc.) to startups. Like Israel pointed out, there are challenges with the model that we're addressing but perhaps more importantly, we're asking ourselves, "can we attract tomorrow's entrepreneurs to St. Louis by providing unencumbered grant funding?" Your comment hints at the fact that entrepreneurs will be doing what they do best, whether we fund them or not, similar to how students have to attend class anyway. As we see it, why not throw our support behind those entrepreneurs and fund their efforts in hopes that the funding leads to successful companies?