PETCARE -- STL's Next Tech-Enabled Innovation Ecosystem

Name: PETCARE -- STL's Next Tech-Enabled Innovation Ecosystem
Start: 2026-04-14T17:30:00-05:00
End: 2026-04-14T19:30:00-05:00
Location: T-REX Downtown STL

Schedule

Tue Apr 14 2026 at 05:30 pm to 07:30 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

T-REX Downtown STL | St. Louis, MO

Dive into PETCARE & PetTech – the room will be buzzing as we explore the enormous potential of "pet" as STL's next innovation engine!
About this Event

There's nothing more fun than talking about our pet's -- unless you do that AND discuss how St. Louis is uniquely positioned to become a PetCare and PetTech innovation powerhouse! That is, making St. Louis the place entrepreneurs come to start, grow, de-risk and accelerate new ventures in PetCare.

This event is for you IF you're an entrepreneur, investor or from a corporate, civic, government, innovation or ecosystem organization who wants to see our region own a piece of the rich and growing PetCare & PetTech industry.

Why PetCare?
PetCare is a robust and growing, ~$400 billion, global industry -- nearly half of which is in the US. PetTech, as a category, is exploding -- currently at $12 billion and forecast to double by 2030 and likely double again by 2040.

While not well socialized locally, St. Louis possesses an unrivaled density of PetCare companies today -- a story that began right here in St. Louis, in the late 1890's, by William H. Danforth, Purina's founder -- a startup entrepreneur long before startups were ever a thing (yes, our city is arguably the global ground-zero where the PetCare industry began!).

Yet, given this iconic history and our region's amazing innovation ecosystems supporting Geospatial, Fintech, Biotech, Agtech and Medtech, surprisingly, we lack a St. Louis-based and backed PetCare innovation ecosystem.

Join industry expert and serial PetTech inventor, Mark Donavon, founder & Managing Partner at Launchpad Pet (and ex-Purina!) and Dan Reus, Founder & Chief Instigator at Openly Disruptive, who will share a vision and path towards how we can make PetCare and PetTech a next-gen innovation growth engine in our region.