Success in today’s digital economy requires a combination of entrepreneurial ideas, talent and capital, but it’s that last element that local communities and Indiana must do better at in order to thrive, said the head of one of the state’s leading technology companies.
Ideas are free and plentiful, and talent abounds, but venture capital is the vital oxygen for fueling the fire and allowing the creative ideas to grow, ClearObject Inc. CEO John McDonald, the keynote speaker at the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce’s 110th annual meeting, told a crowd of about 425 people on Thursday at The Commons.
Indiana lags in venture capital development, ranking 27th nationally, and behind nearby states such as Illinois, Ohio, Minnesota, Missouri, Michigan and Wisconsin, McDonald said.
“It starts with money and pooling resources,” McDonald said.
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McDonald, a 1995 Purdue University graduate, has advocated for statewide policies that foster entrepreneurship as a economic strategy.
His message was pertinent to Columbus, which ranks well for innovation but poorly for entrepreneurial support, said Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce President Cindy Frey. Consequently, the city has embarked on a joint community partnership with Bloomington to develop an entrepreneurship-minded culture and infrastructure in south-central Indiana.
Columbus and Bloomington joined with Elevate Ventures, a venture development organization, last October on a three-year, $2.5 million partnership called Velocities. It will utilize an entrepreneur in residence to help startups and assist with needed early stage capital.
“It’s an opportunity not only for us, but the state of Indiana,” Frey said.
McDonald said the digital economy, which has evolved from agrarian, industrial and transportation economies, is growing rapidly because of an explosion of data that makes products and services “smarter” and capable of doing more — often making current products and services obsolete in a short time.
He noted that a company such as Uber has capitalized on data to change the traditional model of taxis and rental cars as a means of fee-based transportation.
More venture capital is needed to capitalize on digital products and services quickly rather than relying on traditional models of slow, steady growth and investment for businesses, McDonald said.
Ideas can’t afford to wait, he added.
The tech company CEO noted that the founders of Microsoft, Apple and Facebook, for example, didn’t complete college. Instead they seized the opportunity to turn their dreams into reality.
True entrepreneurs are not dreamers, but doers, McDonald said.
“It’s the courage to get off your butt and do something about it right now,” he added.
But without local money early on, such as $10,000 in pre-seed money to test the ideas, and $100,000 in seed money to build the idea, entrepreneurs have a difficult time ever getting the ideas off the ground, McDonald said.
Columbus has a great opportunity with entrepreneurship, Frey said. The city is ranked as the second-most innovative city in Indiana, according to data from the Indiana University Business Research Center.
“John laid out what is happening in our economy. We want to make sure that we are calibrating all of our business members toward the future so that they are making the adjustments they need to make so their businesses don’t get disrupted,” Frey said.
The chamber president said she’d like to see people with ideas find the spark they need, and believes Velocities will provide vital support.
As a result, she hopes the community has more entrepreneurs such as Ganesh Gandhieswaran. He worked in data and analytics for Cummins supplier Cognizant, but started his own company in 2017, which has recently been rebranded as ConverSight. The company provides a national language and voice-based conversion of business data. Gandhieswaran said it’s like Siri or Google for a business.
He used the help of the Chamber and its coworking space for entrepreneurs, called the Fish Tank. Since its start, the company now has grown to a $1 million business, he said.
Gandhieswaran, who attended the annual meeting, said McDonald was spot-on in his remarks about the economy and the relationship between ideas, talent and capital.
“What he mentioned about capital is definitely a big one. A second one … in my view is the testing ground,” Gandhieswaran said.
The opportunity for a startup to work with existing companies in a community to test one’s product and prove its worth is important, he said, and something he’d like to see more of locally.
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Sherry Stark received the Community Service Award at the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting on Thursday.
The award is the chamber’s most prestigious and recognizes outstanding service and leadership in community affairs.
Stark served as the city’s deputy mayor and executive director of community development for 10 years. Among her legacies are the Front Door Project and the downtown Streetscape Project. She also served as director of the Columbus Area Arts Council and president and CEO of the Heritage Fund – The Community Foundation of Bartholomew County.
With Heritage Fund, she worked closely with the Community Education Coalition to secure a $38 million grant from the Lilly Endowment to fund Economic Opportunities through Education (EcO15). She also helped raise $4 million in public funds for a redeveloped Commons downtown.
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Force Construction received the Business of the Year Award on Thursday at the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting. Harold Force, company president, accepted the award.
The company is a full-service general contractor that started as a "mom and pop" company in 1946 and continues to be family owned. The company has built many of the structures in the Columbus area, such as schools, office buildings, medical facilities and churches. It designed and contributed financially to the transformation of the Chamber’s boardroom space into co-working space (called the Fish Tank) for entrepreneurs.
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Bartholomew County’s Alliance for Substance Abuse (ASAP) received the Community Project of the Year Award on Thursday at the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting. The award was accepted by Jeff Jones, who is leading the organization as it prepares to open a recovery support center, The Hub, which is planned to be able to serve at least 1,000 community members in recovery each year.
ASAP launched in April 2017 as a community-wide response to the growing opioid crisis. Since its inception, ASAP has created a strategic plan and now has awarded more than 40 Project Prevent grants to support prevention efforts, addiction education and stigma reduction.
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Karen Nading, who teaches at Columbus East High School and is part of the C4 Columbus Area Career Connection, received the 2019 Edna V. Folger Outstanding Teacher Award on Thursday at the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting. She teaches family and consumer science, and is the sponsor for the local chapter of Family, Career and Community Leaders of America. Her teaching career spans 42 years.
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The Maverick Challenge shows high school students career opportunities through entrepreneurship. The top three Bartholomew County winners, honored Thursday at the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting, are:
1. Emils Vigants, Krista Blackburn and Kiersten Meister of Hauser High School for their business TempSense, which produces electronic sensor kits for the classroom. They received a $1,500 prize.
2. Fatima Arroya of Columbus North High School for Euphoroa nature, an upscale day spa where customers are pampered and treated with customized botanical skincare products. She received $1,000.
3. Avery Spencer of Columbus East High School for his business ADA taxi. He received $500.
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