We have a stereotype of entrepreneurs as geeky types who work in garages or basements to bring their crazy ideas to life. They are working alone and are passionate about launching this venture out of their garage.
Unfortunately, COVID-19 has only reinforced our tendency to go it alone and work alone from home. But that’s not the best way to start a company. In Central Indiana, there are many opportunities to connect and interact with the local Venture Her community and like-minded colleagues. Today, we want you to learn about local incubators, accelerators, and venture studios whose mission is to help entrepreneurs start and grow.
For the past few years, Forbes magazine has ranked Indiana as one of the top two states for starting a business. We have a lot of great resources to help people get started. The Indiana Economic Development Corporation has several programs to help entrepreneurs. Check out IEDC resources at ConnectIND.com. But entrepreneurs can do more than just surf the web. They have a physical place to go for real help.
incubator It is usually aimed at entrepreneurs who are just starting their venture. They provide programming and a place to build a community to help people “nurture” ideas. Incubators typically do not provide funding or take equity in startups. In return, they provide mentorship, access to networks, and a place to live alongside others doing this very hard work. The analogy of a bird sitting on an egg until it hatches works very well here.
The 16 Tech Innovation District in downtown Indianapolis is an incubator with coworking spaces, makerspaces, and a food incubator. 16 Tech’s Indiana Biosciences Institute is dedicated to helping life sciences startups advance by providing space and labs. The Indiana Biomedical Innovation Center, located on the Indiana University Health Methodist campus, is focused on helping IU faculty move their ideas from the bench to the bedside. We also have centers in the Indianapolis border, including Purdue Innovates in West Lafayette, Flagship Enterprise Center in Anderson, and The Mill in Bloomington.
Accelerator It is aimed at startups looking to scale by establishing a foothold and finding ways to grow faster. They tend to run cohort style programs over a specific period of time (like 8 weeks or his 13 weeks). You will work on the next steps in developing your startup in collaboration with other companies. It culminates in some kind of showcase or demo day where all the companies in the group pitch to investors. Accelerators often provide funding in exchange for equity in the startup.
The three major Indy accelerators are Techstars Sports Accelerator (launched in June), Heritage Group Hardtech Accelerator (launched in August), and gBeta by gener8or (with multiple cohorts each year). Elevate Ventures, IEDC’s venture capital arm, offers the Origins program, which gives startups access to pitch competitions that provide funding to top startups. Local Initiatives Support Corp. provides support to underrepresented entrepreneurs through the NICHE 2.0 Accelerator program. Purdue Innovates and The Flagship Enterprise Center also offer accelerator programs.
venture studio Proactively build your company around new ideas by managing the day-to-day aspects of your startup. They may come up with their own ideas or collaborate with entrepreneurs who have ideas. Venture Studio takes the initial idea and does customer discovery work to validate it. We then help you build your product, develop your go-to-market strategy, and provide the human resources, finance, marketing, and design work to get your company off the ground. They typically hire her CEO/team of a startup, which may or may not be the entrepreneur with the original idea.
There are three Venture Studios in Indianapolis. High Alpha and Next Studios for B2B software-as-a-service ideas, and Boomerang Studio for connected care ideas such as technology-enabled medical devices, healthcare informatics, and improved care models. In exchange for the work they do, venture studios typically take a large stake in startup companies and fund the work that needs to be done in the early stages.
Also note that the area is full of coworking spaces like The Speakeasy, which offer space and limited resources for startups. Think of it as a continuum, from coworking to incubators to accelerators to venture studios, based on the intensity and depth of the resources on offer.
It’s clear that Central Indiana entrepreneurs don’t have to do it alone. They have great options for engaging with like-minded others, learning what to know and do, getting help, and pitching fundable ideas to others. . We are all still grappling with how our communities can come together post-coronavirus. Medium to large organizations are receiving a lot of press about whether and how to bring employees back to the office. But these challenges are just as important to entrepreneurs, if not more so.
Look for places where you can accelerate the creative collision that brings your ideas to life. Taken together, these options can help you with everything from eggs to flying eagles and even unicorns.
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Kim Saxton is a Clinical Professor of Marketing at the IU Kelley School of Business at Indianapolis. Todd Saxton is an associate professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at the IU Kelley School of Business at Indianapolis. They are co-authors of The Titanic Effect: Successfully Navigating the Uncertainties that Sink Most Startups.
