Small biz lending starting to thaw
More small businesses in Indiana are securing loans as owners learn to present their companies better and banks warm to small-business lending after years of hesitation.
Small Business
Articles
Company conducts ‘global warfare’ against invisible cyber threats
Corporate executives, shaken by fears of hackers, are enlisting Rook Security and an explosion of companies like it to monitor and chase cyber criminals across borders and recover stolen intellectual property.
Façade grants available for urban businesses
The city of Indianapolis is stepping up its funding for a facade program that helps small business in distressed areas improve the exteriors of their buildings.
Bold developer stirs up nursing-home business
Zeke Turner, the 36-year-old CEO of Mainstreet Property Group LLC—who frequently sports a boyish grin and a bold-colored dress shirt, but rarely dons a tie—said he’s “just getting started” in transforming the staid nursing home industry.
Technology opens doors for growing Zionsville window dealer
Zionsville-based Apex Energy Solutions is reporting a decade of double-digit annual growth and company founder Michael Foit has licensed his trademarked “Flipside” selling strategy and proprietary technology to independent operators in more than a dozen markets.
Angie’s List earmarks $4M for lawsuit settlement
The Indy-based consumer reviews firm has set aside $4 million to settle a lawsuit alleging Angie’s List automatically renewed membership fees at a higher rate than members were led to believe.
Internet-based weather forecasters offer bolder, more detailed outlooks
A posse of Internet-based prognosticators is offering not just forecasts but sometimes even mounds of data left open to interpretation.
Angie’s List turns quarterly profit, but shares fall
Shares in the Indianapolis-based consumer-reviews service fell 14 percent in after-hours trading Wednesday evening, despite a rare profit in the firm’s fourth quarter.
Purdue, Cook create $12M fund for life-science startups
The Foundry Investment Fund will join with other investors to provide funding for companies that use Purdue-licensed technology or expertise in human and animal health and plant sciences.
New shooting range draws crowd in Hamilton County; another in the works
The northern-suburb county should have two shooting ranges operating by the end of this year; owners of both business say Hamilton County is a ripe market.
Airports find savings with Indy de-icing firm
E Solutions Inc. makes systems that allow de-icing crews to adjust their mix of water and the chemical glycol, which costs $9 to $14 per gallon.
Investors seek payoff from Indiana oil wells that big players ignore
Indiana is experiencing a mini oil-boom, thanks to some big producers, but some small, private investors are also in on the game, through Indianapolis-based Midwest Energy Partners, formed four years ago by former CountryMark executive Bill Herrick.
Investment firm ties crowd-funding to traditional fundraising
The online investing marketplace Localstake brokered a little more than $1 million in private investments for an Indiana distillery and a solar-heating startup in 2013, through crowd-funding. Instead of receiving a T-shirt or other novelty for their money, as with typical crowd funding, contributors received an actual stake in the business.
Website operator for cities expanding
An Indianapolis company that manages websites and processes payments for dozens of cities and towns plans to raise $2 million to grow.
After 9-year hiatus, Caplinger family opens new fish market
Veteran seafood operators Nick and Andrew Caplinger opened a shop in December at East 75th Street and Shadeland Avenue that boasts a wide variety of fresh fish.
Podcasting allows DJs to carry on, without a radio station
Longtime disc jockeys Jason Hammer and Nigel Laskowski are free from the corporate overlords of modern radio, these days operating their own podcast after having lost their full-time on-air gigs.
Pupils learn to talk fast, sell well in auctioneering school
Melissa Davis is a third-generation auctioneer and president of Reppert School of Auctioneering. She helps lead quarterly courses running 10 days straight.
Upswing causing slowdown in startups
The number of newly formed Indiana companies slumped in 2013, the first such dip since the recession, but the small drop could actually be a positive sign for the economy. Established companies have more job openings than a few years ago, meaning workers have less incentive to start their own businesses, as thousands did when the economy tumbled.
Funding drought pinches life sciences firms
Nationally, venture capital investments into life sciences firms totaled $4.9 billion during the first nine months of 2013, down 30 percent from the same period in 2008, according to data from Thomson Reuters and PricewaterhouseCoopers. In Indiana, life sciences firms raised $21 million during the first nine months of the year, far lower than any year since 2003.
Young CEO has big plans for employee-training software firm
Upstart Lesson.ly, an Indy-based developer of training software, is run by a 25-year-old and is trying to cut into a $42 billion market dominated by titans such as IBM and Oracle.