Most local venture funds are standing pat because the economy is weak and they’re no longer
in fund-raising mode. Having invested most of their funds, the firms have shifted to the nurturing, or “harvesting”
stage, to try to improve investment returns.
Bill Cook, Dean White, Jim Irsay and Herb Simon have made Forbes magazine’s annual list of the richest people
in the world.
A former Toyota exec blasts non-family managers for the company’s problems. Are some Indianapolis-area companies better-
or worse-off after families relinquished control?
No incentive can make a bad deal bankable. But President Obama’s stimulus measures are spurring some promising small businesses
to begin borrowing again, despite the recession.
More industrial construction is going on in Indiana than in any nearby state.
The Indianapolis area is home to myriad unsung entrepreneurs who run interesting companies, make money and create good jobs.
Here are some of them.
Smart-phone fever is heating up the climate for innovation in the local tech community, as firms new and old try to cash
in on the demand for applications that can be used on the iPhone, BlackBerry and other gadgets from the likes of Palm and
Google.
An upstart audio products company with offices at Purdue Research Park at AmeriPlex has brought in big guns to launch sales.
AthenaPowerLink selects Carmel firm Mitsch Design as the first woman-owned business it will assist locally.
Jim Pearson knows a thing or two about raising money from venture capitalists. And he has some advice for BioCrossroads:
Teach entrepreneurs the value of money.
Entrepreneur earmarks 10 percent of profits for charity, honors well-run not-for-profits.
Donnie Babb’s Gauge Media Group started in his basement at tortoise speed but now churns out $2 million
in sales with a staff of nine full-time and 15 part-time employees.
Does Gov. Mitch Daniels’ economic development strategy emphasize job attraction at the expense of entrepreneurship?
Watanabe, son of the late Eli Lilly and Co. scientist, has hired investment bankers to help raise $10 million for his business, Encompass Media.
The city’s Veteran Business Enterprise program aims to increase the representation of veteran-owned businesses on city projects—an
effort that has generated $217,000 in contracts for such firms so far.
Failure does
not have to mean you’re through. Mistakes are inevitable in all businesses. A better test of the character of someone
in business is how he or she reacts to failure.
After no Indiana health and life sciences firms announced venture capital deals in the second quarter, five did so in the
third, and two more have already this month.
Due to high demand, the Orr fellowship will place 20 fellows starting with its 2010 class. It anticipates
placing 40 fellows in 2011 and 80 in 2012. The program is designed to match top graduates of Indiana colleges with entrepreneurial
companies.
Money will help the company refine its tool to treat acute kidney injury.
Recession forces entrepreneurs to rework bills. Cracking down on small businesses doesn’t help bills get paid faster.
