The Best of 2019 // Episode 0093

The Best of the Bourbon Friday Show 2019

On this episode of the Bourbon Friday Show, we looked back at our highest performing episodes of last year.

Bourbon Friday—Changemakers & Making Changes

Over the last year, we released 51 episodes of the Show and expanded our program from strictly about startups and entrepreneurship that are making changes here in St. Louis, to one that is centered around what we are calling Changemakers. And while that will always include those in the Startup Community, through our Bourbon Friday adventure, we’re grateful and humbled to be able to showcase everyone from distilleries to non-profits to a Grammy Award winner!

The Top 6 Episodes of 2019

#6. 0082 – Jenny Bristow // Anvil Analytics + Insights
Anvil Analytics + Insights was recently named St. Louis’ Fastest Growing Company by the St. Louis Business Journal, so it’s clear that Jenny and her team are on to something huge by focusing on the Data Science of building and managing websites. We found this discussion fascinating, and highly recommend it to anyone in working Marketing.

Watch 0082 – Jenny Bristow // Anvil Analytics + Insights

#5. 0060 – James Forbes // Good Life Growing
We loved learning about the problems that Good Life Growing, a social enterprise, is solving by using aquaponics, a process that combines soil-less farming with aquaculture to the benefit of both. Recently, they have joined St. Louis’ first “greencubator” and opened up Old North Provisions to provide local produce and takeout options to the community.

Watch 0060 – James Forbes // Good Life Growing

#4. 0051 – Meghan Winegrad // Generopolis
How do you solve the charitable “Giving Gap”? For Meghan Winegrad and Generopolis, it was developing an innovative 3rd way to give. Generopolis is a marketplace that allows users to sell goods and services to provide proceeds directly to charities that they support.

Watch 0051 – Meghan Winegrad // Generopolis

#3. 0050 – Peter Martin // Open Studio
Peter Martin, “our first Grammy Award Winner” joined us to talk about how Open Studio leverages streaming technology to bring world-class Jazz lessons from world-class Jazz legends. This episode made us want to pick up instruments and start learning ourselves.

Watch 0050 – Peter Martin // Open Studio

#2. 0053 – Karlos Ramirez // Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce is one of the largest Chambers in the region. Karlos and his team are using both classic and new channels to do great things for the Latinx community here in St. Louis. In fact, they are so forward-thinking that they got approved for LinkedIn Live before we did!

Watch 0053 Karlos Ramirez // Hispanic Chamber of Commerce

#1. 0076 – Adam Stumpf // Stumpy’s Spirits
We love a tasting episode, not only does it make our lives easy for interview prep, it introduces us to entrepreneurs outside of the St. Louis startup scene. If you haven’t visited Stumpy’s right across the river in Columbia, we highly recommend the trip. And if you can’t spare the time, support a local business and pick up a bottle from this grain-to-glass distillery.

Watch 0076 – Adam Stumpf // Stumpy’s Spirits

Expanding the Event & Distribution

Though we started the Show as a Facebook Live event, we want to make sure that we are always looking for new ways to provide content across the channels that people use. The following Honorable Mentions represent a few of the milestones we’ve achieved in the last year.

Most Viewed on Youtube: 0087 – Tishaura O. Jones & Gill Wagner // St. Louis Startup Week
This year we expanded our distribution from Facebook only to include YouTube, and we were incredibly honored to host the Closing Party for the inaugural St. Louis Startup Week. Such a great honor required a great guest, and luckily we had two, Tishaura O. Jones, Treasurer of the City of St. Louis, and Gill Wagner, Global Village Publishing Partner on the forthcoming Innovate St. Louis coffee table book.

Watch our St. Louis Startup Week Double Episode

Most Read Article on EQ: 0042 – Sarah Schlafly // Mighty Cricket
If you read this far then you probably already know that each week, Tenacity’s Megan McDonnell reviews and writes up each episode right here on EQ. This year’s most-read Bourbon Friday article was Mighty Cricket. While this article did have the advantage of being the first of the year, we’d like to think that it has more to do with our audience’s interest in sustainability and alternative food sources.

Read about Mighty Cricket

Most Listened to Episode: 0089 – Connexio // Raj Singh
This year also marked expansion into the audio realm. We are so pleased to offer our Show to listeners on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Play. In this episode, we talk to Connexio about how they are trying to help international students with the issues they face in finding education opportunities.

Listen to 0089 – Connexio // Raj Singh 

Largest Live Audience: 0085 – Balto Software // Marc Bernstein
Finally, we had to recognize our largest attendance at a regular event. Without the event, there would be no show. We were so pleased to host the entire team of Balto, one of the fastest-growing startups in St. Louis and to hear from Marc about the amazing things they are doing.

Watch 0085 – Balto Software // Marc Bernstein

Thx!

We want to thank everyone for watching and listening, and we’re looking forward to further expanding both the Show and Event this year to continue to bring great drinks and better conversations to our audience. While the show is on hiatus until late February, we hope you will join us at our live events at Covo St. Louis.