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B-Start selects 2019 startups

Posted on by IU Communications

Some members of the 2019-20 B-Start cohort pose with Ellyn Sallee of BEDC.

B-Start, a pre-accelerator program for entrepreneurs and early-stage startups in Bloomington, has announced its 2019 cohort. Out of 20 applications, 14 startups were selected to participate in the five-month program.

B-Start is designed for entrepreneurs who want to take their creative business idea through a comprehensive refining process to build a foundation for acceleration. The cohort will participate in a variety of workshops that will help the startup develop their business plan, prepare financial documents, understand fundraising and bootstrapping, and more.

B-Start was originally created to engage Indiana University and Ivy Tech-Bloomington students with Monroe County’s growing entrepreneurial, technology and business ecosystem. After the continued interest and success of B-Start, the program has since opened to all Monroe County residents, with the intention that these individuals will be invested in creating and growing their company in the community they call home.

B-Start has graduated 27 startups through the program since it was launched in 2015.The newest group of participants covers a wide range of industries. The seven startups led by Indiana University students are in bold:

  • Blueprint Stats — a sports analytics company that specializes in high school basketball and will provide in-depth statistics, film breakdowns, shot charts and more.
  • CashMD — a platform to bring patients and health care providers together by providing transparent pricing, the ability to book an appointment, etc.
  • Fair Fitness — a gym that will incentivize members to save money on their membership based on the number of times they work out and frequent the gym.
  • Ferryman Fin — a technology company dedicated to creating a suite of applications and services that focus on utilizing Bitcoin and its network
  • Fixit — a home renovation/repair application that streamlines the process of finding the right contractor for the right price. Local contractors can also use the platform to better advertise their business.
  • Hoosier Films — a multiplatform film distribution company that will include a subscription film-streaming service, digital downloads, live screens at fairs and historic theaters, and a mobile cinema for Hoosier-made films.
  • Lefty McGoo — an Instagram-based social enterprise with a focus on creativity fueled charity.
  • Diggity Dog Den — a luxurious dog day care and cage-free boarding facility with accessories to make the canine guest — and owner — feel safe and happy.
  • Misa Digital — designs and manufactures novel digital instruments that enable musicians to play synthesizers and guitar synthesizers in a new way.
  • RadioInstigator — hardware and software that will assess the client’s radio footprint, defend the IT assets against radio threats, etc.
  • Rocks — A mobile social platform to find nearby rock-climbing and belaying partners and to connect local climbers with others around the world.
  • SPINS — A freemium model music-sharing platform that will allow local artists to advertise their own songs and upcoming concerts, explore the top five songs or “Spins” in the area, and share music with friends.
  • The Functional Musician — an online health and wellness business geared toward collegiate musicians with the goal of building a strong, healthy and functional foundation that will help carry their bodies throughout their musical career.
  • Titan Learning — a virtual, educational simulation for any profession, removing the traditional lecture-based learning method with an experience-based one.
Ellyn Sallee

“I’m excited for the 2019-2020 B-Start cohort,” said Ellyn Sallee, project/development manager of the Bloomington Economic Development Corp. “The startups cover a wide range of industries, from basketball and dog day cares to music, and it will be exciting to see their progress and growth over the next five months.”

Each of the B-Start participants has been paired with a local entrepreneur or business leader who will help guide them through the program. At the end of the five-month cohort, the startups will deliver a five-minute pitch in March to a panel of judges with the chance to win cash prizes to launch their business.

Founding sponsors for B-Start are Cook Group Inc., IU Ventures and The Gayle & Bill Cook Center for Entrepreneurship at Ivy Tech Community College Bloomington. For a full list of mentors and sponsors, visit www.b-start.org.

Help your community and state, earn money as a 2020 Census taker

Posted on by Steve Martin

The U.S. Census Bureau seeks to hire thousands of Americans in temporary positions for the 2020 Census count. Census results determine how many congressional seats each state receives and how billions of dollars of federal funding are distributed to states and communities.

Carol O. Rogers, co-director of the Indiana University Business Research Center in the Kelley School of Business is Governor Holcomb’s census liaison. She said serving as a census taker is a great opportunity for students and researchers.

Carol O. Rogers

“It offers good pay and a flexible schedule, and looks great on a resume,” Rogers said. “Participants are on the ground floor of helping to count 330 million people and learn how the census sausage gets made.”

You can find additional information like job details, pay and locations, a list of frequently asked questions, and instructions on how to apply on the U.S. Census 2020 website.

Indiana Manufacturing Survey shows need for skilled, unskilled workers as companies move to automate

Posted on by IU Communications

The 2019 Indiana Manufacturing Survey, released Oct. 16 and titled “Labor Shortages Hit Home,” finds companies across the state are reporting a serious shortage of skilled and unskilled laborers as they move rapidly toward smart manufacturing, known as “Industry 4.0.”

Commissioned by Katz, Sapper & Miller, authored by faculty from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business at IUPUI and promoted by the Indiana Manufacturers Association, the annual survey shows that a record number of respondents expect their product markets to grow rapidly in the near future, but many are finding it difficult to attract younger generations of skilled and unskilled workers who are able to replace the wave of retiring baby boomers.

A news release about the survey’s results and their impact is online.

Is your startup idea worth investigating?

Posted on by IU Communications

Brandon Boynton is a current student at IUPUI and a serial entrepreneur.

By Brandon Boynton, co-founder and CEO, Vemity

Anyone who works in software — especially in mobile apps — will constantly hear, “Oh! I have an idea for an app/website! You build it, and we’ll split the profits 50/50!”

Brandon Boynton

First, ignoring the fact that most people think simply coming up with an idea merits them at least 50 percent of a company, said idea is usually quite terrible. I am always polite and hear them out, and then I lightly explain to them the flaws in their startup idea.

Oftentimes, the flaws I have to explain to them are outrageous, like: “That’s already been done” or “That’s not even possible with current technology.” The seemingly good ideas that filter through the first few questions may be viable as small businesses, but often all have the same issue.

Ask yourself … is my idea scalable?

Read Brandon’s complete opinion piece online.

Patent awarded for IU School of Medicine treatments for spinal muscular atrophy

Posted on by Steve Martin

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued a patent on combination therapies that could treat spinal muscular atrophy. The therapies were created by Dr. Elliot J. Androphy of the Indiana University School of Medicine.

Spinal muscular atrophy is a genetic neurological disorder that results from loss of function of cells in the spinal cord. Symptoms include progressive motor weakness, muscle wasting and paralysis.

The innovation was disclosed to the IU Innovation and Commercialization Office. The mission of the office is to drive innovation to the market for the benefit of the public, the university and innovators for state, national and global commerce. IU personnel can disclose an invention online.

Patent awarded for IU School of Medicine – new endovascular stent design might better treat disease

Posted on by Steve Martin

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued a patent on a stent design that could be assembled in a modular fashion to treat arterial or vascular disease. The inventor is Raghu L. Motaganahalli of the Indiana University School of Medicine.

Endovascular stents can be delivered noninvasively to treat aneurysms, but traditional designs do not allow for stents to be deployed at the intersections of one or more arterial passages. They also do not allow for adjustment or assembly that would accommodate various angles within an arterial space.

The innovation was disclosed to the IU Innovation and Commercialization Office. The mission of the office is to drive innovation to the market for the benefit of the public, the university and innovators for state, national and global commerce. IU personnel can disclose an innovation online.

Patent awarded for IUPUI microinverter that requires less time to be secured to a solar panel

Posted on by Steve Martin

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued a patent on a microinverter designed at IUPUI that can be installed to a solar panel with a single fastener. The patent was awarded to Euzeli Cipriano dos Santos of the Purdue School of Engineering and Technology at IUPUI.

Microinverters convert direct current from solar panels to alternating current for use by a consumer or delivery to an electrical grid. A drawback is their cost. In some systems, several dozen are required, and each must be installed onto a separate panel. Because of this, labor constitutes a significant portion of the installation costs.

The innovation was disclosed to the IU Innovation and Commercialization Office. The mission of the office is to drive innovation to the market for the benefit of the public, the university and innovators for state, national and global commerce. IU personnel can disclose an invention online.

Head of Swiss Federal Institute of Technology’s research division to speak at the Economic Club of Indiana’s Oct. 2 luncheon

Posted on by Steve Martin

Ursula Renold, head of the research division at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, will speak at the Economic Club of Indiana’s luncheon Wednesday, Oct. 2. The luncheon will begin at noon at the Indiana Convention Center, 100 S. Capitol Ave.

Ursula Renold

Tickets for members of the Economic Club of Indiana are $30; tickets for nonmembers are $35. They can be purchased online.

Indiana University and IUPUI are platinum sponsors of the Economic Club of Indiana’s luncheon season.

Patent awarded for IU Bloomington compounds to combat hepatitis B virus

Posted on by Steve Martin

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued a patent on compounds discovered at Indiana University Bloomington that could have an effect against the hepatitis B virus.

Hepatitis B (HBV) causes viral hepatitis that can further lead to chronic liver disease and increase the risk of liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. Worldwide, about 2 billion people have been infected with HBV, around 360 million people are chronically infected, and HBV infection causes more than a half-million deaths every year.

The researchers disclosed their innovation to the IU Innovation and Commercialization Office. The mission of the office is to drive innovation to the market for the benefit of the public, the university and innovators for state, national and global commerce. IU personnel can disclose an invention online.

Cash Equals Opportunities: IU East student innovation for personal finance

Posted on by IU Communications

By Timothy W. Scales, senior lecturer, School of Business and Economics, Indiana University East

At Indiana University East, we like to talk about money. We discuss many things concerning money: how to get it, how to invest it and how to save it. Money is such an interesting topic that three students created a way to teach younger students how to plan and save for their future.

Tim Scales

Paige Gray, Johnny Fike and Joao Vitor de Lima created CEOs, or Cash Equals Opportunities, to participate in the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s “Money Smart Week.” Their work also involved the Indiana Council for Economic Education and the IU East Center for Economic Education.

The key rule of the CEO method is that an individual must save double what they plan to spend. This means if a person wants to buy a product or service costing $50, they must save $100 before spending the $50. The idea is that a person can’t just save money in order to spend it, because that would mean the person has no savings. Instead, with this concept, a person can build their savings alongside purchasing what they want or need.

Paige, Johnny and Joao quickly became known around campus and community as “the student CEOs.” They created and taught curriculum to 130 regional high school students who spent a day on the IU East campus. In the curriculum, the CEOs listed 25 ways an early high school student could earn money.

Following up on the event on campus, the CEOs and I will visit the high schools to assist the teachers with lesson plans in the classroom. Several teachers have expressed interest in having the CEOs meet with the students and follow up on the information shared during the IU East visit. In their ongoing effort to connect with even more students, the CEOs are planning another Money Smart Day on the IU East campus in spring 2020.

IU East students (l-r) Joao Vitor de Lima, Johnny Fike and Cole Fosbrink

The original CEOs have added another member, Cole Fosbrink, to their group. Cole created an on-campus game, Cash Hunch. A jar of shredded currency is displayed at the Center for Economic Education located in Room 127 of Hayes Hall. The value of the currency changes each week, and IU East students are invited to guess the value. The person with the closest guess wins a free lunch with the CEOs, held at the Tin Cup restaurant on Main Street in downtown Richmond. The lunch includes a special presentation from a local company’s CEO, providing professional interaction for student engagement.

Our CEOs at Indiana University East try to make conversations around money both fun and educational. Not only has the Cash Equals Opportunities program reached regional high school students, but it also won honorable mention in the Bright Ideas competition held by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.