If Portland can do it, why can't we??

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Permalink Reply by Jack Pincus on June 1, 2009 at 4:01pm

There is incubator space in Indy. Indiana University built the Indiana University Emerging Technology (IUETC) center at 10th Stree between West and Senate Streets. It is the only incubator in Indianapolis with wet lab space. Purdue built a research park near the airport that includes an incubator with shared space. There is also inexpensive office space near the IUETC at the Stutz Building at 10th and Capital Streets. The Indiana Venture Center provided entrpereneurial resources for about five years until it closed last December. One reason it closed was lack of funding.

There is an entreprenurial agenda for life sciences and IT businesses because like most communities, Indy wants to be high tech. There is a tendancy to ignore other types of businesses.

I too am from NYC. I was born in the Bronx and live in Queens. I haven't lived there since 1966 but always like going back. Where did you live in NYC?

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Permalink Reply by Jon D. Speer on June 1, 2009 at 3:24pm

In case you are interested, a small group will meet soon to discuss the possibility of a TechShop-like resource in Indy. Let me know if you'd like to be included in this discussion.

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Permalink Reply by PK Koduri on June 1, 2009 at 3:37pm

I would love to be a part of that discussion. Please send me the details.

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Permalink Reply by Lou Begnel on June 1, 2009 at 11:02pm

If you need some glue, count me in. We should invite Tom Mason from Rose Hullman Ventures and John Livingston. I connected those two gentlemen together at the MIRA awards and they seemed interested in getting something going.

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Permalink Reply by Jon D. Speer on June 1, 2009 at 11:11pm

I know Tom but haven't met John Livingston. Let's identify a small team to discuss.

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Permalink Reply by John Livingston on June 8, 2009 at 2:48pm

Let me introduce myself :-)
I'm new to this forum and I just read through this thread so here goes.
I contacted the Jim Newton who started TechShop in Menlo Park CA last year about starting a franchise here in central Indiana. It took 6 months for him to respond to my inquiry (no hard feelings I know he was busy). In early 2008 they were looking at aggressively rolling out 10 franchises across the US. When the bottom dropped out of the market last year they decided to scale back their expansion and focus on getting a really good start in a couple of high potential locations like Portland and Durham. After they establish a working model in those areas they are looking expanding to areas that have vibrant Maker/DIY communities (for anyone who isn’t familiar with those terms check out Makezine.com).
The folks in Menlo Park estimate that it would take $600,000 in capital to start a new location. I think this is a 12 month runway. The preferred funding model is to raise the capital through $25,000 unsecured investments from 24 individuals at a 10% return over 10 years (and a lifetime membership:-). As I recall, it takes 150 memberships to break even and each TechShop will support a maximum of 500 members.
Interestingly enough, my friend Scott Vaughn and I were just talking about making a road trip to see the TechShop in NC later this summer. He's in SC on vacation right now and is considering stopping by this week.
Scott and I would be very interested in talking with ya'll about opening up a location. It sounds like we’re on parallel paths.
John Livingston
IndyIdeaGroup
PS I too am convinced that Lou know everybody…

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Permalink Reply by Jon D. Speer on June 9, 2009 at 7:32am

Thanks for the information. I'd like to connect to chat more about this.

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Permalink Reply by George Roots on June 2, 2009 at 11:00pm

I'm sure I'll be invited ;)

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Permalink Reply by Steph Woodward on June 2, 2009 at 12:56pm

Thank God for the open-minded and the optimists! I, like Jon, was getting awfully sick of reading “we can’t”, especially when it’s not being backed up by any facts, but merely personal opinion. People continue to post that they don’t believe there’s enough interest in this, but they have failed on every occasion to back that opinion up with any hard evidence.

As for the discussion of whether this is a new idea… I see both sides to this argument, but frankly, I’m not sure it really matters. Who cares whether this idea is new or old? It hasn’t materialized in this area… YET. Up to this point, it would be a new concept (if realized) in this area, and that’s exciting.

In regards to why the idea might not have become a reality at this point, lots of assumptions are being thrown around, including that this idea has even been seriously discussed before, but yet again… nobody is providing any evidence. For the sake of argument, let’s concede that the idea has been not only discussed, but researched in the past, and the idea wasn’t feasible. Maybe there wasn’t enough interest. Maybe there wasn’t enough capital. Maybe the community wasn’t prepared to embrace a collaborative effort like this. Maybe the idea was poorly marketed or misunderstood. Or maybe the entire project was being handled by somebody who didn’t know how to make it work. There could be a million reasons why it might not have become a reality at whatever point it was last discussed (operating on the assumption that it even WAS discussed in the past), but that doesn’t definitively mean that the idea COULDN’T work here NOW. Factors may have changed, and we won’t be able to answer that question until some genuine analysis of the market is done, rather than random opinions being considered as representative of the hard facts.

I do agree that there’s an obstacle as far as the overall climate in Indiana in regard to breaking away from the status quo, but this forum’s existence is proof enough that there are embers of that sort of energy in this state, we simply need to fan them to create the fire.

I’m not sure what more I can contribute to this, short of being intrigued and excited about it, but I’d love to be included in the discussion of this idea. Count me in!

Oh… and Scott… I, for one, am very grateful that you responded to this thread and enlightened all of us. You provided the most factual information we’ve seen in any of this discussion, which gives us all a better understanding. And you’re right… I totally would sign up for those classes. ;)

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Permalink Reply by Jon D. Speer on June 2, 2009 at 10:35pm

Steph,
Thanks for your words of encouragement and objectivity.
Cheers,
j

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Permalink Reply by John Uhri on June 3, 2009 at 9:18am

I don't know if William Waldren is on SI (I didn't find him with a quick search), but he followed me on Twitter... He is looking to start a coworking location in Indy (about 6000 sq ft). I referred him to this post. You may want to connect with him for your team.

He tweets at: Indy_Coworking

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