Small biz agency graduates first mini-MBA class
The Emerging Leaders program, managed by the Indiana SBA office, runs for seven months and targets entrepreneurs from historically challenged communities.
Entrepreneurship
Articles
Soaring Rx costs lift firm’s prospects, job creation
Rx Help Centers assists employers and customers as they navigate through the confusing web of prescription drug discounts. Business is so good that the company hopes to add 250 workers by 2017.
Research shows benefit of women in startup management teams
Recent research has found that high-growth startups with women on their management teams outperform those with all-male teams—a discovery that has spurred several central Indiana organizations to step up efforts to boost gender diversity.
Co-working space with charity bent to launch in Lawrence
Launch Cause, which will operate out of a new building at the former Fort Benjamin Harrison, bills itself as Indiana’s only co-working space specifically targeting not-for-profits.
Farm family near Grand Park adapted to encroaching development
Craig Wood has spent most of his 60 years on 191st Street in Westfield, living and working on his family farm. For most of that time, the adjacent land has been other houses and farm fields, but that all changed on Nov. 18, 2011, when construction on Grand Park Sports Campus began.
Fast-growing tech companies slow to go public
Indiana hasn’t seen a company launch an initial public offering in nearly two years. When the next IPO comes, it likely won’t be a technology company.
Fantasy-football app developers team with DraftKings, ESPN’s Matthew Berry
Local entrepreneurs Mark Welsh and Charlie Russell last year started an app development company. And this year, they inked partnerships with ESPN fantasy football guru Matthew Berry and daily fantasy sports behemoth DraftKings for their first major endeavor.
Craft breweries rush to open outposts in northern suburbs
Small breweries are tapping the northern Indianapolis suburbs. Four have opened just this year, essentially doubling Hamilton County’s craft beer market. And that growth is expected to continue.
Globe-trotting financier launching angel firm
Indianapolis native Danny Chan, a managing director at Iconic Private Equity Partners, a Hong Kong-based firm, is back home in Indiana and ready to launch an angel investing group here that will help fund Hoosier startups of all stripes.
Steve Hilbert seeks comeback in insurance
The controversial co-founder and former CEO of life insurance giant Conseco Inc. (now CNO Financial Group Inc.) spearheaded the purchase of a small life insurance company operated out of Texas and plans to gradually build up its operations here.
Startup haven Speak Easy taps new executive director
Danielle McDowell, 31, is best known locally for co-founding and selling hair products website Loxa Beauty to an industry giant in 2013.
Uber launches luxury car service in Indianapolis
Want to be chauffeured in a Mercedes from Broad Ripple to downtown? The ride-sharing service is betting upscale vehicles will resonate with modest Midwesterners.
Startup now giving Interactive Intelligence big boost
Interactive Intelligence CEO Don Brown invested three years ago in a startup formed by an exiting employee. Last year, Interactive bought that startup–OrgSpan–and the move is starting to pay off.
Anderson company participates in White House Demo Day
President Barack Obama hosted the first White House Demo Day on Tuesday with more than 31 startup companies throughout the country represented, including one from Indiana.
Few Indy companies embrace state’s new crowdfunding option
Regulations that went into effect July 1, 2014, allow Indiana businesses to solicit capital from rank-and-file Hoosiers in increments of $5,000 or less per investor. The main stipulation: Both the business and the investor(s) must be Indiana-based.
Once-fringe Gen Con powers game industry
Indy’s annual Gen Con convention has become a powerhouse in the growing $880 million international hobby game business—and a boon for homegrown gaming startups, including Plowgames.
Eight young, powerful execs show what’s next for Indy tech
All have led some of the most promising companies and organizations in the city’s burgeoning tech space for at least three years—bootstrapping and collectively raising more than $12 million in venture capital and employing about 150 people along the way.
Indy launches biz portal aimed at streamlining permitting
Indianapolis has joined about a dozen cities in hiring a California startup to develop a portal designed to help small business owners cut through red tape.
Brownsburg entrepreneur is a cryogenic-tooth-banking pioneer
Michael A. Byers’ Tooth Bank is one of a tiny group of U.S. companies catering to the latest iteration of stem cell therapy: harvesting stem cells from the pulp inside baby teeth and extracted wisdom teeth, then culturing, freezing and storing them at a cryostorage facility for later use.