So, one of the really cool things about my office at iSelect and the entrepreneurs that we work with is that I can look out my window and I can see the laboratory where the Human Genome Project was conducted.

People don’t understand how much economic opportunity that has created for the St. Louis region, but if you look down our block at iSelect, we have a half-billion dollars of development undergoing right now in buildings that are being built for new research labs. We have a billion-and-a-half more dollars of development that’s planned for that region over the next couple of years. That’s on our block where we’re working, on the same block where the Human Genome Project occurred.

Everybody does something special, and what St. Louis did special was really uncover and unlock the DNA sequence. And now that’s having major impact in the pharmaceutical area and in the agricultural area.

And it’s all because St. Louis made an investment, 25, 30 years ago, before I even started my career, and I got to be, fortunately, a part of it throughout the course of my career. We’ve made an investment in those resources, and they’re paying major dividends right now in the form of real tangible development and real jobs that are being created.

That’s what St. Louis does special. There’s a lot of other places that have that same expertise, and with community investment and community support, those areas can grow. They can build billions of dollars of investment too, because the world needs solutions to these problems.