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.
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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.
Angie’s List hit with shareholder suit
The complaint charges the company and executives with misrepresenting the strength of the Indy-based firm’s business model, financial performance and future prospects.
Therapist helps seniors, families decide when to relinquish keys
Laura Noblitt is a Zionsville-based occupational therapist with 25 years of experience in geriatric rehabilitation. She has spent half a decade riding shotgun with elderly drivers in central Indiana, determining whether it’s safe for them to stay behind the wheel.
Unintentional entrepreneur parlayed consumer-electronics savvy into PR firm
Arland Communications, run by former Thomson Consumer Electronics spokesman Dave Arland, is the only area firm focused entirely on the $200 billion-plus annual consumer electronics market.
Health law small-business insurance site delayed 1 year
The Obama administration is delaying yet another aspect of the health care law, putting off until next November the launch of an online portal to the health insurance marketplace for small businesses.
Peyton Manning wears ankle brace designed by local entrepreneur
Rick Peters, founder of Carmel-based Ultra Athlete LLC—a small manufacturing firm with a reputation for state-of-the-art ankle braces—sent his latest brace to the Denver Broncos head trainer on a whim, and saw Manning wearing it three days later.
Apple buyout in ChaCha’s future?
Apple has applied for a patent that sounds pretty familiar to the folks at Carmel-based ChaCha Search Inc. Enough so that ChaCha founder Scott Jones has suggested that his business is well-suited for an acquisition by one of the largest companies in the world.
Avon firm enters competitive video game industry to promote reading
An Indianapolis firm that makes software for libraries has teamed with an elementary schoolteacher to improve kids’ reading skills by using books’ longtime nemesis—video games.
New law paves way for micro-distilleries to open across state
A new state law allows Indiana distillers to obtain a permit to produce and sell spirits by the glass, bottle or case. Previously, they could sell only to distributors, never to the public.
Digital marketer growing Indy headquarters
StrataBlue plans to hire 25 people in early 2014 as the firm adds services.