Michael Abramowitz, president and CEO of Freedom House, will speak at the Economic Club of Indiana‘s luncheon Monday, Nov. 9. The luncheon will begin at noon. It is a free, virtual event, but registration is required.
Indiana University and IUPUI are platinum sponsors of the Economic Club of Indiana’s luncheon series.
Presentations will cover 10 Indiana urban areas; nearly all are free to the public
By George Vlahakis, Kelley School of Business
The Indiana University Kelley School of Business will present its 2021 economic forecasts for the nation, financial markets, Indiana and communities across the state through a series of live and mostly free presentations delivered via Zoom. It will begin Monday, Nov. 9, with a presentation featuring a focus on Indianapolis and Central Indiana.
Since 1972, Kelley School faculty have presented their annual Business Outlook forecast around the state, usually joined by a local panelist. While they won’t be physically traveling across the state, the school and its Indiana Business Research Center will still host 10 regional events virtually.
Also new this year will be the addition at several locations of an area “C-suite” member of the business community to offer perspectives and responses to the forecast. Michael Huber, president and CEO of the 2,000 member Indy Chamber and a Kelley MBA alumnus, will participate at the kickoff event.
All Business Outlook Virtual Tour presentations will be open to the public, but registration is required. The initial Indianapolis presentation will begin at noon Nov. 9.
The compete tour calendar is available in an online news release.
By Becca Downs, Spoke City Writing
When Jennie Moser began applying for auditions as an opera singer, she soon saw room for improvement when it came to streamlining the process of growing a network and sharing an artistic portfolio. As a result, the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music alumna founded a platform for artists to showcase their work and network without the mess of mixing personal and professional social media outlets.
Now, IU Ventures is shining the spotlight on Moser’s growing success with her company, called Stagetime. The platform allows artists to customize their online portfolios and manage their networks in a professional manner more suitable for the industry.
Earlier this year, Stagetime received an investment from the IU Angel Network and has since achieved significant success and growth. In the last month alone, Stagetime earned second place in the Innovation Showcase put on by Venture Club of Indiana. Shortly after, Stagetime won first place in the Crossroads Pitch Competition hosted by The Mill, where the company got its start.
“The competitions were a fantastic opportunity to tell the Stagetime story in its entirety and to broaden the network of those cheering us on,” Moser said. “It’s a tough time for the performing arts, so it was very inspiring to receive such strong support from those at the Innovation Showcase and Crossroads, and to affirm that our work is important and exciting to those beyond our team.”
Jason Whitney, associate vice president of IU Ventures and executive director of the IU Angel Network, sees great potential for Stagetime.
“We knew from the tremendous response Stagetime garnered from our angels that there were big things on the horizon,” Whitney said. “These results provide affirmation that everyone else sees value in what Jennie and her team are working on as well.”
The 12th annual Innovation Showcase, organized by the Venture Club of Indiana, opened doors for Moser when Stagetime placed second in the competition. To win second-place honors, Moser created a three-minute video pitching Stagetime to be judged against a competitive field of 30 other startups. The Innovation Showcase awarded Moser $4,000 in prize money.
The fifth annual Crossroads Pitch Competition, where Stagetime took first prize, aims to guide promising Indiana-based startups on a path to success. The Mill, a coworking and entrepreneurial space located in Bloomington, hosted the event. Moser recorded a 10-minute video pitch for the first round of pitches, then virtually pitched to a live audience and panel of judges during the finals.
For her first-place win, Moser received $5,000 in prize money, an opportunity to pitch at the Elevate Nexus pitch competition for $80,000 on Oct. 29 and the opportunity to pitch to the Flywheel Fund for $25,000. The company also has access to an in-kind sponsorship from FullStack, which includes payroll, human resources and benefits services.
Moving forward, Moser has set high goals for her company.
“Since the investment in August, we’ve finished user testing and have been able to put the personnel infrastructure in place to scale to meet demand,” Moser said.
As she looks ahead, Moser wants to make sure Stagetime suits the changing needs of the industry during these uncertain times.
“We have entered into key partnerships with notable organizations, such as The Dallas Opera, to ensure that Stagetime evolves alongside the necessary innovation occurring in the live performing arts in the face of the pandemic,” Moser said.
IU Ventures, which assists Indiana University students, faculty, staff and alumni with advancing high-potential, new venture opportunities, has signed a two-year MOU, or memorandum of understanding, with Lead Angels, a venture capital firm based in Mumbai, India.
Jason Whitney, associate vice president of IU Ventures, said the MOU establishes a working relationship between the two organizations.
“We will work together quarterly to evaluate opportunities from our pipelines and portfolios that may have a desire to expand one way or the other,” Whitney said. “Or we might be able to identify resources we can share that may be valuable in the scaling of the business.”
Attorney Shishir Deshpande, an alumnus of the IU Robert H. McKinney School of Law at IUPUI and president of the Delhi chapter of the IU Alumni Association, crafted the MOU after conversations with IU Ventures, Lead Angels and Durjay Puri – an IU South Bend alumnus who is also one of the founding members of the Delhi chapter of Lead Angels.
Deshpande said that as a chapter leader, he has been an advocate of facilitating business between alumni connections, including webinars to educate alumni about opportunities available in other countries.
“I have always believed that an IU education brought with it a lifetime of great professional relationships, but those tend to get lost once you move out of the United States,” Deshpande said. “It’s about reestablishing those relationships, creating new ones and also creating stories to tell.”
Whitney said there are many reasons why making connections with entrepreneurs and organizations in India is important.
“First, there’s the sheer size of the market, but of equal importance is the country’s vast technical resources, key advisors with immense industry experience and a very large IU alumni base,” Whitney said. “Strengthening these relationships both from the U.S. to India and also among IU alumni inside India benefits everyone in the ecosystem.”
Whitney also said the technical skills in India are among the best in the world, which means the startup ecosystem is full of interesting opportunities, including an expanding emphasis on machine learning and artificial intelligence.
“The expanded commercial potential for those services in the U.S. market make the U.S. as attractive to India as India is to the U.S. If we can assist in opening some doors for those companies to explore expansion opportunities, we would love to do that,” Whitney said. “The ideal situation would be partnering their technologies with some existing U.S.-based firms to accelerate their traction and create a more attractive commercial product for someone already in the market here.”
We’re celebrating Indiana University student innovators and entrepreneurs who are clients of the Shoebox, the university’s student-startup incubator. Located in the Shoemaker Innovation Center in Luddy Hall, the Shoebox provides 24/7 office space to help student entrepreneurs build, launch and sustain their businesses.
Meet Joe’s Odd Jobs
Joe Rahaim, a junior finance and business analytics major from Ridgewood, New Jersey, and Jack Joliet, a junior finance major from Carmel, Indiana, founded Joe’s Odd Jobs. Rahaim is the CEO, and Joliet is the CTO.
Joe’s Odd Jobs’ prospective clients include anyone who needs help with a household project. Currently, the company operates in New Jersey.
“Our business fulfills a niche market between do-it-yourself homeowners and general contractors,” Rahaim said. “We have found that professional landscaping, moving and contracting companies will not respond to smaller projects. We wanted to create a service that made our customers’ lives easier by offering a unique working opportunity for college and high school students.”
Clients log onto the Joe’s Odd Jobs website to post a job; more than 100 independent student contractors then have the opportunity to accept the job.
“Customers receive excellent service from local students, and students receive an entrepreneurial experience allowing them to problem-solve and hone soft skills while interacting with customers,” Rahaim said. “Students apply to work via a video interview and a reference from someone already working with us. We are in the process of instituting a rating system so we can keep the quality of the workers high.”
Joe’s Odd Jobs’ present and future
The company has generated over $50,000 in marketplace revenue since its website launched in February. Before the site was launched, Rahaim and Joliet generated over $200,000 in marketplace revenue when jobs were scheduled by phone, text or email.
“For Joe’s Odd Jobs to reach the next milestone, we are in the process of joining a business accelerator or opening a round of funding to jump-start our expansion,” Rahaim said. “With the money, we are hoping to expand to a variety of college campuses including IU Bloomington, University of Miami and Fairfield University.”
Praise for the Shoebox
“Travis Brown is always open to talk, and he brings a distinguished perspective to any business problem that is put in front of him,” Rahaim said. “In addition, the community of student entrepreneurs within the Shoebox creates a great place to brainstorm and work out problems. Finally, the Shoebox offers scholarships for students to apply to their business. This has been very helpful and has been a great way for us to expand our operations.” – Joe Rahaim
Student startups can apply for 24/7 access to the Shoebox’s office space, which is located in the Shoemaker Innovation Center, Luddy Hall 2150. The Shoebox also collaborates with the Hoosier Hatchery pre-incubator at the Kelley School of Business and Bloomington’s Dimension Mill startup accelerator. To apply for coworking space, write to luddysic@indiana.edu.
The 2019-20 fiscal year was a strong one for the Indiana University Innovation and Commercialization Office, said Simran Trana, IU associate vice president of innovation and commercialization.
“This was an unusual year, and not only because of the impact of the novel coronavirus,” Trana said. “IU researchers quickly pivoted their work to create new methods to diagnose and treat COVID-19, as well as other technologies to improve people’s lives during the pandemic.
“The office also grew this year, as additional innovation managers joined the team to vet, protect and commercialize intellectual property developed with IU resources. The office has also created a new roadmap to help managers and researchers move IP through the commercialization process, ending with new products and processes entering the market.”
Highlights from the past fiscal year include:
Congratulations to everyone at the IU Innovation and Commercialization Office on a fine 2019-20. We look forward to sharing the story of future successes.
The novel coronavirus has forced operational changes in many organizations, including sales teams in the commercial and industrial sectors. These changes will be addressed during a free, virtual seminar co-hosted by IU Ventures and Canopy, a business intelligence company based in Indianapolis.
“Selling in Our New Normal, a Hoosier Perspective” will begin at 1 p.m. Eastern Time/noon Central Time on Wednesday, Oct. 21. Register for the hourlong event online.
The event will be a panel discussion featuring four Indiana University alumni from around the country: Brian Bar, founder and CEO of Victory Lap; Mallory Lee, senior director of revenue operations at Terminus; Jon Repka, vice president of sales at Paro.io; and Pat Rodgers, co-founder and CEO of Canopy.
Jason Whitney, associate vice president at IU Ventures, said attendees will gain insights into changes within sales departments due to COVID.
“The panel will discuss changes that sales organizations have implemented since the pandemic, how leaders have changed the manner in which they analyze team performance and goals, and where an organization’s focus should be for the next three months headed in to 2021,” Whitney said.
Canopy is a High Alpha Studio company that empowers frontline sales managers and revenue leaders through automated data analysis and business intelligence. High Alpha and Elevate Ventures led the $2 million Series Seed funding round for Canopy. The company received $300,000 from the IU Philanthropic Venture Fund.
We’re celebrating Indiana University student innovators and entrepreneurs who are clients of the Shoebox, the university’s student-startup incubator. Located in the Shoemaker Innovation Center in Luddy Hall, the Shoebox provides 24/7 office space to help student entrepreneurs build, launch and sustain their businesses.
Meet Mixciti
Garrett Freeman, a senior sports marketing major from Thorntown, Indiana, is founder and CEO of Mixciti. Mixciti is an app that allows students to connect with others around them via communities of personalized interests, passions, hobbies and beliefs. Its targeted users will be students who attend IU and, eventually, other universities.
“On today’s social platforms, there is a lack of community engagement around an individual’s interests, passions and beliefs, especially with those around them,” Freeman said. “Social media has become a dark and toxic place full of groupthink and judging one another. It has become practically impossible to be your genuine self on social media, and it is truly sad.”
Mixciti allows individuals to engage and interact with like-minded students around topics that are important to them.
“Individuals should feel empowered to express themselves and what they’re passionate about amongst their peers. Mixciti will give them the ability to connect with others around them and interact based on what’s personally important to the individual,” Freeman said. “Mixciti will also emphasize events and bringing like-minded people together — not only on the app, but in person. Those seeking interaction with new people who share similar interests will finally have the ability to build friendships using Mixciti.”
Mixciti’s present and future
Freeman has developed a fully functional beta version of Mixciti that will be tested prior to October’s Elevate Venture Pitch Competition. Freeman is looking to onboard at least 10,000 IU students to better validate the app and prove the need within the target market.
“Proving the need will open doors to possibilities including raising funding, hiring on new members and expanding to new schools,” Freeman said.
Praise for the Shoebox
Freeman is thankful for being a client in the Shoebox incubation center. He said the opportunity to engage with other student startups and learn from guest speakers has opened his mind to new possibilities.
“The Shoebox contributes many resources and provides countless opportunities to help propel our ventures through whatever stage we’re in,” Freeman said. “Travis Brown and his graduate assistants have assisted me through many obstacles during my journey, and I can’t thank them enough for their devotion to the success of my company and the rest of the Shoebox.”
Student startups can apply for 24/7 access to the Shoebox’s office space, which is located in the Shoemaker Innovation Center, Luddy Hall 2150. The Shoebox also collaborates with the Hoosier Hatchery pre-incubator at the Kelley School of Business and Bloomington’s Dimension Mill startup accelerator. To apply for coworking space, write to luddysic@indiana.edu.
Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division and the National Security Innovation Network are offering an opportunity for college students to explore full-time employment and internship opportunities.
Students with a background in electronic, mechanical, industrial or computer engineering; data science; math; and physics are invited to register for the virtual Hirethon by the Oct. 23 deadline. A website asks students to submit their résumé and provide personal data.
Students must meet certain requirements in order to submit:
Indiana University is a sponsor of the Hirethon event. Mike Dodd, NSIN university program director at IU, explained how supporting Hirethon fits into the university’s economic and workforce development missions.
“NSWC Crane has a tremendous demand for recruiting a myriad of interdisciplinary students,” Dodd said. “NSIN is collaborating with NSWC Crane to pipeline as many of these opportunities to IU students as possible. The IU faculty and students continue to be a tremendous ecosystem partner.”
The Indiana University Innovation and Commercialization Office again reported a strong year in technology transfer activity.
It received 157 patents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and foreign patent organizations during the 2019-20 fiscal year. Sixty-four current IU researchers were named on the patents. They are:
Indiana University faculty, staff and student researchers can disclose their inventions to IU ICO online or via email. IU ICO personnel will then assess the invention to determine its commercial appeal and if it should be protected.
