{"id":5958,"date":"2017-08-28T11:34:09","date_gmt":"2017-08-28T16:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/?p=5958"},"modified":"2019-06-04T16:23:01","modified_gmt":"2019-06-04T21:23:01","slug":"5958","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/2017\/08\/28\/5958\/","title":{"rendered":"Incubator welcomes new tenant"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Christopher S. “Kit” Bond Science and Technology Incubator at Missouri Western State University welcomes a new tenant: Grant Company, a creative services company that like the incubator has a strong focus on animal health and agriculture.\u00a0Below is a press release from Grant Company announcing their location in the Incubator:<\/span><\/p>\n

Creative Services Company Locates in the Kit Bond Science and Technology Incubator<\/strong><\/p>\n

Grant Co. joins Saint Joseph\u2019s Innovation Stockyard as part of the growing animal health entrepreneurial experience.<\/em><\/p>\n

Things are moving fast at Grant Company.<\/p>\n

Launched this spring, the company now provides creative services \u2014 advertising, communications and public relations \u2014 to a wide array of clients across North America.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been blessed. We already have more work than we could have ever imagined,\u201d says Eric Grant, the company\u2019s founder and managing director.<\/p>\n

The one thing the company didn\u2019t have was office space.<\/p>\n

That is, until Grant reached out one evening to the Kit Bond Science and Technology Incubator on Missouri Western State University\u2019s campus in Saint Joseph. Mo. By the next day, he\u2019d secured a viable headquarters \u2013 and a better future \u2014 for his growing company.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe looked for months for a suitable location,\u201d Grant says. \u201cBut most offices in the area required multiple-year leases. It\u2019s impossible right now for us to know how much space we\u2019d need in a couple of years, let alone just a few months. The Incubator\u2019s professional staff provided exactly what we needed to get up and running \u2013 plus the flexibility we required to grow. We could tell immediately that they were committed to our success.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Incubator\u2019s location was also perfect.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Saint Joseph\/Kansas City area is home to some of the world\u2019s leading animal health companies and ag associations,\u201d Grant explains. \u201cIt just made sense for us to call the Incubator home.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company \u2014 like the Incubator\u2014 is also committed to contributing to Saint Joseph, a mid-sized city with a rich historical heritage and deep roots in agriculture.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live here. Our kids attend school here. So we wanted to locate here and play a small role in shaping the community\u2019s economic future,\u201d says Grant.<\/p>\n

In fact, that\u2019s what makes the new company a perfect fit for the Innovation Stockyard, an expanded initiative to welcome more ag-based entrepreneurs into the building. It provides innovative opportunities for individual companies to drive their ideas and services to market.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe economic strength of Saint Joseph and ultimately the state of Missouri depends on our ability to attract new businesses and to help them be successful,\u201d says Ronan Molloy, president of Innovation Stockyard. \u201cA business like Grant Company not only generates jobs but also helps promote the use of new technologies and services that can help make agriculture more efficient and productive. It\u2019s very exciting to have yet another new company in our facility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, Grant Co. is moving forward with a small but creative team of top-flight professionals.<\/p>\n

Grant, who spent the last decade with the American Angus Association as director of its public relations department and then as president of its for-profit media company, is joined by Bart Ashford, who provided creative direction for a wide array of consumer brands like NASCAR, Coca Cola and McDonald\u2019s; Crystal Albers, who most recently oversaw the American Angus Association\u2019s advertising, marketing and communications programs; Jeff Meyer, who served the Miami Dolphins and Denver Broncos as a producer\/editor; and Jena McRell, who worked as the digital editor for the American Angus Association.<\/p>\n

Grant Co. now does work for a small but select group of ag-focused clients across North America, including a large animal health company in the Kansas City area, an ag technology company based in Canada and a leading ag organization based in New England.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exciting for us that we\u2019ve attracted so many great clients in such a short period of time,\u201d Grant adds. \u201cBut as everyone knows the key is not so much in the selling, but in the retaining of business. Without the productive work environment that the Incubator provides us, we would no doubt have great difficulty in retaining, let alone growing, business. It\u2019s central to our mission and key to our continued success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Missouri Western State University is a comprehensive regional university providing a blend of traditional liberal arts and professional degree programs. The university offers student-centered, high quality instruction that focuses on experience-based learning, community service, and state-of-the-art technology. Missouri Western is located in St. Joseph, Mo., and is committed to the educational, economic, cultural and social development of the region it serves. Visit <\/em>www.missouriwestern.edu<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Christopher S. “Kit” Bond Science and Technology Incubator at Missouri Western State University welcomes a new tenant: Grant Company, a creative services company that like the incubator has a strong focus on animal health and agriculture.\u00a0Below is a press release from Grant Company announcing their location in the Incubator: Creative Services Company Locates in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[48],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5958"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5958"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8754,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5958\/revisions\/8754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}