The state of the technology industry in St. Louis reads like a bad Craigslist missed connection: companies need people, St. Louis has people, but the two just can’t match up where it counts.
When Jim McKelvey and Jack Dorsey — both St. Louisans and the cofounders of the ubiquitous mobile payment company Square — needed a home for their new venture, the Lou was at the top of the list.
They needed self-starting, motivated, trained web developers to make that happen. And while St. Louis is full of un- or underemployed development workers ready to build on their tech skills, McKelvey couldn’t find enough with the right credentials to choose St. Louis as a home base.