Turns out, with accelerators, size really does matter. While startup accelerator Y Combinator has sliced the size of its next class by around 40% after deciding that it grew too fast, competing, smaller accelerators are either maintaining their class sizes or, in at least one case, expanding a little. In the land of startups, changes to incubators is kind of a big deal.

Some people in technology hotbeds such as Silicon Valley, Seattle or northern Virginia must be scratching their heads about what’s going on in St. Louis. Granted, the tech industry here is tiny by comparison, but St. Louis is starting to show up in statistics as a growth market. Dice.com, a technology recruiting site, says its listings are growing faster in St. Louis than in any large city in the country.

When a handful of retired homeowners from Osborn Island in New Jersey gathered last month to discuss post-Hurricane Sandy rebuilding and environmental protection, L. Stanton Hales Jr., a conservationist, could not have been clearer about the risks they faced. “Do you really want to throw good money after bad?” he asked. Their answer? Yes. “It’s really hard,” he said. But the reality, he added, is “there’s no future there.”

Five anonymous donors provided the $6.9 million used to run JobsOhio in its first year, IRS records show.Gov. John Kasich’s privatized economic-development agency and its wholly owned subsidiary, the JobsOhio Beverage System, raised the money between July 5, 2011 — the day JobsOhio opened — and June 30, 2012.

This post was written by Bill Payne in conjunction with Angel Capital Association. Bill is has been actively involved in angel investing since 1980. He has funded over 50 companies and mentored over 100. Bill is also a founding member of four angel organizations: Aztec Venture Network, Tech Coast Angels, Vegas Valley Angels, and Frontier Angel Fund.

The St. Louis Arch Angels announced today that its members invested $3.1 million in early-stage companies during the first quarter. Of that amount, $462,000 represented the group's initial investments in three medical companies: Adarza Biosystems, BacterioScan and Kogent. Members also invested $2.6 million in eight companies that were already in the Arch Angels portfolio.