I'm Matt Hunker CEO and co-founder of powder keg and on the show today we have the president and CEO of the South Bend Elkhart Regional partnership Bethany Hartley the personality of Elkhart County in particular because it used to be the entrepreneurship capital of the world they used to have the most millionaires per capita in that county which a lot of people are like what Bethany Hartley has over a decade of experience in non-profit leadership and has been focused on economic development and Entrepreneurship for her entire career as president and CEO of South Bend Elkhart Regional partnership she is catalyzing regional Innovation throughout northern Indiana Bethany is also an entrepreneur herself she operated her own marketing agency for over a decade and has a passion for helping other entrepreneurs and startups succeed that's all coming up on this episode of get in Bethany thanks so much for being here on the show today thanks for having me yeah we're really excited to learn about South Bend Elkhart region hear about all the amazing things going on in startups Tech Innovation but before we do it I thought it might be helpful just to go back and learn a little bit about your background sure where did you grow up yeah so I was born in Grand Rapids Michigan and then a job my father's was working for Ameritech which existed at that time and that Drew us down to South Bend area and so we most of my childhood was spent in Edwardsburg Michigan which is technically a village so most folks don't know where that is but did K-12 their small school system graduated with 120 people and when it came time to look at colleges I really had no clue I'm the first in my family and only to have a four-year degree wow congratulations thank you that's huge my mom was that on her side of the family my mom too really yeah that's great very first one yeah yeah so that's amazing yeah so when it came to picking colleges most of my friends were like U of M or MSU grew up next to Notre Dame so those were Western Michigan those were like the choices and I applied to a couple schools I made poor decision like I opted out of University of Michigan because I didn't like their colors at the time decision making Mason blue that's not for you it wasn't now I'm Pro maze in blue but also gold and blue so you know there you go but yeah I ended up at Loyola University of Chicago studied marketing and minored in French which has been less than helpful you lost me I know Crepes and then I took a year of Italian too because originally I thought I was going to do international business and French as a double major with a minor in Italian so cool yeah doing a year of Italian tells me I'm not going to do that not so much but it'll it comes in handy with travel so I went to Chicago very different experience in Edwardsburg AdWords is primarily a homogeneous Community majority white Caucasian community and now they're seeing more racial diversity but at the time just really wasn't there and so going to Chicago was incredibly overwhelming exhausting I wasn't a very good college student full disclosure I just was like I didn't because in high school didn't really have to study didn't have to make friends it was all proximity based right you're friends with your neighbors yeah and school wasn't that challenging for me so going to Loyola was like oh my gosh okay wow so overall learned a lot came home I graduated in 08 so the peak of the recession oh wow for those that aren't aware Elkhart it was the hardest hit by the recession yeah it was brutal brutal we had a couple presidents come through and tell us how brutal it was yeah that's right so remember that I moved home lived with my parents for a while took a break and by the way you met presidents of the United States yes correct yeah yeah yes yes yeah so so I thought student loans weren't real I was like oh it'll be fine like if I don't take care of that it'll just go away sort of thing and then life hit me in the face and it was like no you actually need a job so I did some freelancing coach tennis for high school worked at a retail Boutique and then just started a side hustle where I did marketing Consulting for small businesses and that really put food on my plate and I kept doing that for 12 years and had about a dozen or so clients at a time I built their websites did their social media did their email marketing all of it was new at that time so I just happened to be Googling faster than the business owners so basically I mean so you go from Michigan to Loyola to a major recession so I'm just going to become an entrepreneur basically what you did yes and for 12 years you start doing this marketing Consulting that's amazing yep yeah making lemonade right right taking lemons and making lemonade yeah what made you choose marketing so I love Creative work and I love coming up with ideas all my personality assessments tell you I can come up with an idea like that yep closing it out was more challenging at the time I've learned sure but yeah so just the creativity and I love learning so most of what I learned to do for clients was on YouTube like how to build in constant contact at that time you know how to use Facebook because nobody knew what Facebook was so all of that was really interesting to me and then building websites again Google and YouTube did yeah like how do I do that using Adobe suite how do I do that figure it out as you go exactly I had a degree in marketing but we didn't actually apply any of that right in school yeah which again I'm grateful for a lot of things that I got out of Loyola but that application really came post school so yeah so then the most common thing for a lot of entrepreneurs I needed health insurance didn't have it when I was freelancing for a little while and then I so I started applying to jobs back in Chicago and landed at an organization called the Women's Business Development Center which is the oldest and largest Women's Business Center and they have a staff about 40 folks it was founded in 86 so under that roof they had an sbdc a p-tac Small Business Development Center procurement technical assistance center thanks for breaking that down Women's Business Center and a veteran business owner Center wow and they helped with Government Contracting like it was everything that business owners needed with a primary focus on minority and female business owners and so it was in the heart of Chicago worked there for five years left as the director of marketing it was such a great opportunity because non-profit life you do everything just like entrepreneurship life that you're everything all the time yeah so it was an awesome experience and then from there my then partner and I just looked at quality of life and everybody's like oh it's so cool to live in Chicago it is when you actually get to live like all we were doing was working he was commuting an hour each way I was I didn't mind my commute because I either biked or took a bus and that was great along Lakeshore Drive but we didn't really go to dinner we didn't see our dogs I had to hire a dog walker that came every day like so we had this talk about what what do we want our lives to be are we ever going to buy a home which Chicago probably not so then I started putting out feelers and I had a friend from high school whose father was on a board of Boys and Girls Clubs in St Joe County and so they had a position open for those that don't know St Joe County yes can you describe where that is yes so it's in Northern Indiana it borders the Michigan border North Central is often what it can be referred to as you walk across you can walk across the state line from St Joe County it's also the home of Notre Dame so that's a good focal point that folks really know especially in the state sure yeah yeah thank you yeah no problem it's about 90 minutes from Chicago well 80 door-to-door for me so and they're also a beautiful is it called St Joe River or is it a lake there's a river and there's an island there's some homes on an island I think it's around South Bend am I so there's Diamond Lake up in Michigan that has that the river doesn't have any islands with houses some reason I thought the river had an animal houses I mean not that somewhere else maybe that's hidden Indiana yes hidden hidden gym yeah the deep deep so you started kind of researching it again online this is something I think is really interesting about you that you you feel empowered to go and learn how to do marketing learn how to do social media learn how to do Tech and I think that's an important just theme to call out because I think a lot of people get stuck at the well I don't know how to do right that thing yeah yeah so I mean one of my jobs post Boys and Girls Club was teaching entrepreneurship education for high school students and what surprised me because they all grew up native Tech adopters right they all use it all the time but they would often ask the most basic questions and so we had to teach how to Google because I'm like you can learn anything now it's how do you chat GPT right but like same concept and so I never I try not to ask any questions that I can find online the answers to I still fail at it occasionally Bethany I literally was in a meeting today and I literally said there's a thing called Google and you www I think it's going to be here to stay it's called the world wide web and like you go there and just devour learn right yeah that's so true and I think a lot of people forget they look at people like you and they're like oh my gosh look how successful Bethany is right big CEO now doing all these things for this Market but it's what you do behind the screen right that's so important yeah yeah I mean that preliminary research has been a part of everything I've done I'm doing it right now for our organization you know who do we want to become what do we want to be what are our peers doing what does that all look like so that's just market research 101.
then I'm going I've already set up my interviews right like I'm going to interview other CEOs from other organizations that are similar to ours and understand what works well what doesn't so yeah so I jumping back into career pathway move to South Bend move back in 15. I had left the area in 11 and in 11 candidly the region there was nothing open after 7 pm on a weekend and so I was like well there's really not much for me to do here as a 20-something person with no children no attachments really so that and the economy was really poor so I had to find opportunity with Healthcare so that's what I did and and Life Changes right so came back to the South by Elkhart region my now husband and I live near the airport in South Bend and started doing Boys and Girls Club realized Civic service Civil Service really important it wasn't what compelled me every day to wake up and say like I'm hungry to do this and I'm hungry to raise money for it to Market it and so then got back into more entrepreneurship-led Economic Development and it was awesome I taught high school students for two years we got to go into all these companies give them tours give them exposure the program's called startup Moxie which they have two branches up in Elkhart County and then St Joe County and then the rise model is being applied across the state what is the rise model so it is immersive learning for high schools students well K-12 I think they're expanding Beyond High School essentially it's kind of like my experience with marketing you could learn the theory of Entrepreneurship you can learn what it what the theory of business ownership is but once you've truly adopted it and like seen it firsthand you these students get to hear from CEOs and massive companies really small companies and then they get to gain exposure to that so cool yes and they build their own businesses they build a business together they can generate real Revenue some of these companies have spun off and like ended up selling like there's one that exited in the college program wow yeah he and they actually didn't acquisition when he was still in college they acquired a smaller business and then ended up selling that business to a bigger business that's so cool can we dive into this a little deeper yeah I'm gonna back up just a second too okay so there's a program so that you go into K-12 schools or even start at High School to teach entrepreneurship who funded it what was the first school you approached who did you approach in the school how do people even know that this exists one ex one maybe one success story like she'll really like dive into that deep yeah so I joined the program in year two it was originally founded by Iris Hamill who and Larry Garrett Tony so they founded this model and what they did was they went to the schools they started in St Joe County and so all the schools in St Joe County send their students to this program it is not on one specific school's campus so then they have a partnership with Ivy Tech so students can receive 18 college credits by going through this year-long program and so it's a is this an it's an elective that the student opts in to go through this program that's right as a part of their selection of courses yep and it's every day 7 30 to 9 A.
M so they've got to get up and be there and there are some core tenants like you have to dress appropriately for going into businesses and running your own business you have to be on time we I think we were a little I think they're more compassionate now because we were kind of like if you aren't on time or which is early you can't get in and you just go to your class your next class at your school because this is a privilege for them to be a part of and it's an application process there's a limit to the number of students that can go there's no cost to students to be a part of this and they yeah they tour 30 to 40 sites different companies across the region and also here from about 30 to 40 speakers from the region as well so it's pretty incredible and then I sit on the board of the startup boxy Elkhart County version of it so there's Saint Joe County that has about 40 Elkhart County has about 20 students in it and again they go all over the county get to see like especially for us a big for us we are in a manufacturing region significant manufacturing region RV Capital worlds up there it sure is and our neighbor is the what is it the healthcare or health Tech orthopedic Orthopedic the orthopedic Capital world yeah that's our those are our friends in Kosciuszko you know they contribute 50 of the U.
S GDP for Orthopedics that's a 50 billion dollar market and and so that that area contributes 50 of that roughly 25 billion dollars to that one industry wow right here in Indiana it's pretty incredible insane yeah yeah well manufacturing for our region is about I think it's 18 billion in grp yeah yeah so it's pretty significant so the thing we're looking at too with students in my work I'm doing today is they think manufacturing is boring dirty archaic and it's like it sure isn't yeah bright shiny funny sexy it's awesome yeah right and there's so much Tech that goes into it there's so much Innovation I mean it's exceptional so it's awesome that students get that exposure through this program so they can see firsthand oh this is not what I thought it was and that's a big part of our retention strategy too right that exposure yeah are you working with other like higher ed institutions up there to get them plugged in I just remember coming through college it was like there were a few companies up there that did like the internship programs or that did the like postgraduate programs and it's like you're going into the manufacturing industry and it's not it may from service level not have the sex appeal of like Tech or something like that are you working with any higher education yeah so our organization has a higher ed advisory Council so in the region when you count our Michigan County so we have let me say this in Indiana our counties are Elkhart St Joe and Marshall and then in Michigan we have Burien and Cass so five counties about 729 000 residents on those five counties we have in total 12 higher education across those five counties nine of which are in the three in Indiana so nine higher ed institutes in our region which equates to about 35 000 students a year in our region we have been very intentional we have a partnership with Notre Dame that's called the lift initiative which is specifically focused on advancing our Industries in particular manufacturing and it is helping equip manufacturers with interns in these essentially industry 4.
0 positions so interns can get exposure to what is manufacturing and also how do you adopt new technologies in manufacturing and so with that that was a 42 million dollar Grant we received from the Lilly endowment to do this with Notre Dame wow and they stood up there's we now have Innovation facilities across the region some are on campus at Notre Dame some are at other campuses like Ivy Tech summer with our libraries and also we've placed I think 70 interns in the last two years in this program so we provide a stipend so we match employers so our average salary for those I believe is 19 an hour for insurance yeah right and a housing stipend that's incredible where do we apply yeah you go on our website cellphone healthcare. org yeah yes yeah so that model we actually have the opportunity to expand Beyond manufacturing industry through the ready program which is through the state of Indiana so we're expanding our model of matchmaking because that's essentially what we are as a Matchmaker of here's the employer here's the intern and working with our Network system to do that and so we're excited to expand that into business services Tech I.
T Social Services education we have a huge again we have a because education we have nine institutes we have a lot of Education employees and so how do we advance that as well so we're really excited about that what are the organizations where you're you're placing interns at like what are a couple of those so we've had interns at like Robert weed which is a manufacturer up in the region what are they manufacture so I just looked this up the other day so they are a plywood company which is fascinating I just we had a round table the other day and they were explaining what they do and like a wreath Riley is up in our region that's construction yeah so kind of hand in hand Lippert we've had we're working on apprenticeship model with them too some of our what are they called BMI audit Services which is one of the Graham Allen Partners portfolio companies I think SEMA health I think we've had some interns there so it really usually there's about 30 employers a year and something we're being really intentional about is company culture where we place interns because there's some generational differences amongst you know a lot of our Elkhart County companies that we work with are generational family-owned companies and so we're trying to instill certain values of like here's the next generation of employee what does that look like and how do you adapt and a lot of them are being are responding with the greatest outcomes like just really being thoughtful about what is what does our company culture look like because when you're manufacturing at least right now you're not work from home yeah right like that just doesn't happen and so then you have to look at okay if our front line isn't at home then how can our administrative be at home like is that fair so that came up a lot during covid in our region quite a bit yeah yeah one of my really good friends works for Welch packaging oh yeah and so when we when he graduated we all graduated from Japan and we were all going to take our first jobs he spent the first nine months of his you know professional career working as a on the production line at Welch yeah and like building or like helping manufacture cardboard boxes because one day if you want to like be a plant you know manager you want to work your way up in it it's like you're not going to get the respect from a Frontline worker I've never done it right and even the families they do that like Brock Welch is on a board with me and he works in the company obviously and he same thing he had to do all the different positions to fully understand what's happening and be a good manager and leader in their company that reminds me of one of Indiana's biggest Tech successes I I know I remember this distinctly at Angie's List at least for the first decade or so it doesn't matter if you're a cxo or if you're the founder you you're starting your first couple weeks in the customer support center taking calls with customers and just getting to know talking to Angie's List members I love that kind of mentality and philosophy when you think about it absolutely it's plugging into an organization yeah we were just having a conversation the other day at the Ivy Tech Elkhart base campus and they have this beautiful iflex lab up there and it's awesome it's you know industry 4.
0 and the conversation came up about the personality of Elkhart County in particular because it used to be the entrepreneurship capital of the world it used to have the most millionaires per capita in that county which a lot of people are like what because we don't have any Fortune 500s anchored in our region that's just not a thing for us we do have publicly traded companies we do have Innovative companies and we make so much so much stuff like we are makers of things and you couple that with the power of Notre Dame it's pretty profound what our region is capable of and what we're where we're headed as a region but it was interesting because with entrepreneurship right you have to have so much grit to do it and that's what these CEOs are all saying the CEO of wreath Riley the Robert weed president it's like yeah we stick it out right like we're not we've been through 08 you know we've been through these things and we don't have a short Vision right we're looking at a long-term strategy for the region which is pretty awesome that's 100 right I mean these words sometimes get overused but that like perseverance One Foot In Front of the other and it's so true right taking that long-term View and the companies that do that end up being massive successful companies I have to also add one thing so real quick you just said the Elkhart County was used to be known as the entrepreneurship Capital world had more millionaires per capita than any other County when was that oh it's roughly you're gonna have to fast check me I think it's been at least a decade maybe two so it's not that far not that far along not that far long ago yeah that's awesome I have to do one more tie-in too so you mentioned the company earlier that that manufactures plywood and I'll yeah that they're a major supplier to another city in Indiana that's known as the wood capital of the world because of furniture making which is Jasper yeah and and so no doubt probably that company is a major supplier to to that market as well I really thought you were going to go with Batesville and the casket yeah also a necessary industry yes that's true absolutely high demand yeah quick break from our normal programming I have Erica schweyer CEO from Elevate Ventures here in the studio today Erica thanks for being here yeah thanks for having me and you're going to tell us a little bit about this rally Innovation conference that's coming up yep so it's the largest cross-sector Innovation conference in the world we're going to feature six Innovation Studios so think hard tech software Sports Tech Ag and food Healthcare and Entrepreneurship is going to kind of be our catch-all I love that so tell me what is who's it for yeah it's for innovators entrepreneurs investors honestly anybody probably listening to this podcast it's going to be a multi-day thing that's multi-day in downtown Indianapolis yep people coming in from all over the country and maybe even all over the world to be here that's our hope yep and the dates are actually August 29th to the 31st perfect and if people want to find out more information about speakers tickets things like that where can they go yeah so they just go to rallyinnovation.
com and sign up for communications they can also get their tickets I'll love it you heard it here rallyinnovation. com we'll see you there yeah no it's oh sorry go ahead well I was just gonna say right so you talk about the the grittiness of Elkhart County the resilience there like as you're you know working as in the South Bend Elkhart region what are the problems that you guys are facing and working to fix and and working to solve yeah well I think they're very similar to the entire state of Indiana we do an exceptional job of educating young people and talent right we again 35 students 35 000 students every year yeah we're also really good at letting them go yep and so we have to get better at keeping them and there again this is not new to anyone Talent is our thrust right now it is the front and center for us like yeah how do we amenitize our region to be appealing because people are picking place over position more than ever so that's a huge challenge for us we're actually also very timely we are looking at health care for entrepreneurs how do we make that happen because the cost again Indiana has some of the highest health care costs and for startups Freelancers small businesses that bill is a hefty one to foot and you can't be competitive as an employer if you aren't able to offer health care that's right so those are those are two big things Child Care is another one and that is a real economic issue we're losing Workforce because we don't have good child care or we don't have enough good child care again these are not unique things to our region so we're really looking at that as well and how might we create better accessible child care you know we have some companies like chemcrest is putting they have Healthcare facilities on their campus cool right so you can go get a checkup get a prescription written yeah what if we did that with child care what if you were able to have your child on campus wherever you are okay so as a young professional who left Marshall County yes in 2015 yes and unfortunately does not have plans to return we'll see about that okay what are you guys doing that's going to attract this young talent and keep them there in that South Ben Elkhart region yeah so I think a big one of our biggest things has been our partnership with the state of Indiana so this isn't how I would sell sell I'm just giving you some of the background and then I'll sell but between Regional cities initiative and the ready program essentially that's been 92 million dollars from the state that we have been able to leverage for about 830 million dollars worth of investment wow and that investment has been in quality a place so if you go to South Bend if you'd ever been before a couple years ago Howard Park was like I think it was a tennis court slash basketball court and some green now it's a ice skating rink a ribbon they do concerts out on the green they have a fee what is it called a public house so you can have dinner there it's awesome and the development the housing around there there's multi-unit tent at homes there's Town Homes it's we're updating all of that we're modernizing there's also so I also left but I did come back but when I left there like there was nothing to do now there's something to do every night and so that to me is this indication of more to come so I have to make decisions some nights right I have to decide do I want to go to Danny maid for a dance party on Saturday night or do I want to go see the zoo lights and walk around outside and see the animals as they're like in their natural habitat so that's pretty awesome there's also obviously Notre Dame like the sporting the act the concerts they're bringing they've had Garth Brooks we had Billy Joel you know we're still I'm still pushing for Beyonce I haven't nobody's listening though the snow concert Garth Brooks right there yes I heard it was an amazing experience it was and then he came back and the Sun was shining which was almost I would have to say better yeah so there's these sorts of things going on there's a strong young professionals Network there's new things popping up with social networks and Social Clubs for young professionals we do hear it's hard to be single in our region so we're trying to solve for that I'm not going to stand up a dating service but it is something that we're looking at and I'm encouraging some of my friends to think about how might you solve for that yeah I have a few buddies that could use someone's help there yeah yeah it's it's it's challenging for sure and then I always get encouraged when I meet people that aren't from the region so that's a good indicator to me that like you chose to come here and we also obviously again with our some of our employers they are recruiting talent to the region and so we hear firsthand what are they looking at and like access to good education and Healthcare those two things always I do want to preface that when Bethany says the region it's with a lowercase T we're not talking about the region the region in Northwest Indiana we're talking about the region of South Bend Elkhart yes thank you yes good clarification oh I know I mean so one thing you mentioned 35 000 students and and one thing that it seems to me that would this is free and we could start doing it literally this next fall we have all these bright-eyed bushy-tailed really talented you know students come to these campuses all over Indiana every single year at incredible world-class universities some of them with number one top five rankings in in various colleges and they get taught the school chair they get taught where the cafeteria is and how to get from one building to another building but we don't Engage The Innovative ecosystem and the employers the startups the skill-ups the corporates we're not engaging them right there on the spot when they're all excited gosh it seems like if we did that we'll just start with that one thing that's quote unquote free wouldn't be wouldn't cost money where we just bring that community in Dove tell them into the onboarding program at each school because the kids don't know yeah so we actually piloted that last year I love it with what tell me about that a regional Talent brand called we plus you South and Elkhart region so we built a it they're called we welcomers which are like our regional ambassadors so what we did is we found out there's about 20 volunteers that we trained and explained like this is what we how we talk about the region and what we get excited about South and Elkhart region um and they went on to college campuses during welcome weeks and engage with students and we gave them we had like a Plinko board that they could play a wheel that they could play and they gave us their email addresses for that right so yes and then we also gave them yes exactly exactly and with the Plinko right right and we give them swag right so they got a cup or or a t-shirt like college students love free stuff everything's great yes so we did that and then the intention of that too and some of them won gift cards to Regional restaurants or boutiques or whatever that may be to help them understand what's off campus the version 2.
0 of that is yes to doing that and how do we also do that experience of engaging Employers in that process so with these email addresses that we're collecting with these experiences we're creating sharing that with our employers to say like this is your direct connection to talent and you have to sell yourself now you have to be present and show up because the big companies are showing up you go to Notre Dame you see like an Accenture you see a Deloitte well now you're starting to see those plus First Source Bank right and Gibson and us the southbound Regional partnership because we want folks to know that there are so many career opportunities in our region it's pretty incredible and when you look at smaller or startups the opportunities for your personal growth are far and above than if you're one of ten thousand or one of twenty thousand does another thing break it up where should you have a you have a job fair for students where all employers are welcome to come right that could be anybody any of the work anybody anywhere in the world do they have another job fair that's like before that that is for local company slash Indiana companies that there's kind of a job fair before the job fair that that because sometimes when you have apple rolling in and by the way if you're listening from Apple love you but right but like they're they're whipping out options I'm kind of getting a little crazy but it's like hey here 100 options for everybody kind of a concept and if you're a scale up or startup you know in there which I want to come back to something on web3 and blockchain in a minute but is there was there a separate job fair so it's interesting you mentioned this I feel like you know things we're partnering with the iadc Indiana Economic Development Corporation on a talent connection fair that is this essentially it's first and foremost it's going to be a forum on how to connect with Talent at higher education institutes and second is this matching process and it will be Regional companies that will be invited to do that that's awesome yeah yeah that's so great so yes yes is the short answer cool so another real quick thing on people and talent so it seems like there's a little bit of a so you've touched on industry 4-0 you know hard tech manufacturing Etc and all of the Orthopedics right Etc those are amazing Industries and then there's all these things now these new Industries burgeoning such as blockchain or web3 and it kind of feels like that maybe there's a little bit of an ecosystem kind of developing around companies that are trying to to solve pain points with blockchain web3 Etc they're coming out another name any any high level thoughts or observations on that yeah I think one connected thought to that is we start up southman Elkhart our branded Initiative for entrepreneurship we are honing in on um what are we already really good at with startups and with these sort of things and so we're looking at how might we defy companies that are solving Regional problems because our problems tend to be everyone's problems eventually right like that's right I was just with the FED reserve and they said outright like Elkhart County is the tip of the spear when it comes to the economy right what happens in Elkhart County is probably what's going to happen can you expand on that for just a couple minutes yeah sure yeah so similar to that whole recession discussion right like the folks in our region tend to represent like this this is why we call South Bend beta city as well because our your first customer in our region will probably be similar to your first customer outside the region yeah and so we've got this beta City we've also got tip of the spear language that were the Bellwether for the economy and so for the national and global economy that Bethany is talking about here for our listeners yes and we've been studied we worked with the Brookings Institute and cicp here in Indianapolis and they looked at our economy I mean we are susceptible to automation pretty heavily again in manufacturing so how do we harness that knowledge and be better and apply that knowledge and say for a net gain exactly exactly which again I go back to we have Notre Dame a tier one Research Institute that is helping us do that like Notre Dame is a significant Regional partner that's huge they're and they are invested in the region because the way the region goes is the way Notre Dame goes they too have to attract world-class talent to their campus to teach Etc and do research so coming back to your question there is a lot of looking at spin-offs when it comes to startups so we're being pretty intentional about that too The Idea Center Kelly rich is overseeing that now and Ryan Krieger is really focused on this is looking at what are these problems that again Regional companies are happening that we could innovate around to create a new company or what are patents that are sitting on the shelves at Notre Dame and how can we commercialize faculty right so all of those things are happening and yeah we just want to get better at telling people speaking of that Tech transfer and commercialization at universities one thing that's really excited exciting to see is it seems like universities are waking up and realizing sometimes they spend more time trying to hold on to what they'll never get versus let's just dial it all back and and sometimes I say just give it all away for free and you can do that for one or two or three years and if you don't like it change your policy and I do that to kind of shock the mindset right but but like like if we're gonna try to commercialize something if you want to attract the best entrepreneurs right to take that thing and run with it then say hey we're going to take 10 equity and it's non-dilutive 10 Equity up to the first 10 million raise or just something pick some just basic thresholds and then it can be diluted after that because presumably the company's going to be very successful and you want to get diluted a little bit because it's going to be a great outcome but like just really simplifying the equity and the reporting requirements around Tech transfer yeah and the universities that are doing that are starting to see already just returns in Spades in terms of activity yeah that's what it's all about you got to have a lot of shot on gold right shots on goal to make stuff happen so I just think it's it's exciting to see what the universities are doing out of thinking differently yeah well and I think for us we're looking at two so with the lift initiative that I mentioned earlier this partnership with Notre Dame there's this it's called industry Labs which is essentially it's supporting Regional companies and so they go into a company and they do an assessment and say like here's where you could improve efficiencies or here's where you may adopt some AI or Automation and we can help you do that they don't just give the the assessment walk away at the same time they're also understanding I can't share who it is yet because it's very new but there's one of these companies they've worked with they've done multiple projects and now that CEO is coming back and saying you know we have a spin-off idea at bringing that to the idea Center so that's like Gremlins right right and that's the thing is like pour water on it and let it rip right entrepreneurs always have new ideas right and so they just need help operationalizing commercializing those ideas and that's where Idea Center has been significantly helpful and that's what we're really focused on too are the operators of these companies yep so so as you look through like you've been the the CEO president and CEO for a almost a year now right so what are some of the big things you guys have accomplished in the South Bend Elkhart region over the last 12 months yeah well I think a few of them are surviving a leadership transition for organization what did you learn through that process oh goodness that I can run on four hours of sleep yeah we've asked about that honestly honestly not me but our region having a book written oh that'd be great yeah I mean tell us more about that yeah so it's funny because it keeps coming up not just because I say it to prompt it but where we started as a region in 2015 to where we are today is profoundly different and the way I know that anecdotally is that there are more people that are proud to be from our region as opposed to saying it with shame because that that is a thing I think about every day and they should be proud right all the stuff you just listed off it's insane right I think if you think about things like idea week that's happening with in partnership with Notre Dame at the Studebaker campus take Studebaker campus that's where our office is that was a decrepit dead building for 60 years that is now a vibrant Hub of tech companies that's huge and it actually has a heist Purdue Polytechnic High School is in there and she's amazing yes and Purdue Polytechnic is in there when did that get opened up so 20 16 17.
of course heaven right after I left I was like I remember it being like worked on and everything but not like up and operational yeah it's it was a regional cities project that's not the only reason it's up and operational but that was part of the the Catalyst for it there's also a profound Visionary Kevin Smith who runs that and Union Station which has a data center inside of it and so we think about those like we were talking about this a little bit it's the people that make the place and we did a regional belonging survey and that validated that affirmed our belief that people have to feel a sense of connection to other people to want to stay there and so whether that's in a relationship whatever that looks like so Kevin's one of those Visionaries Larry garrettote is one of those Visionaries Tracy Graham is one of those Visionaries John Affleck Graves who used to be a leader at Notre Dame he's retired now but he was one that said Notre Dame has to be a part of this and so those folks are the ones that are like driving for my predecessor Regina emberton was one of those that's like we are better together and going back to your question of like what have been successes over the last 12 months winning 50 million dollars through the ready program pretty successful yeah right like one of five in the cut in the state to win that and that is catalyzing we're building out a regional startup Hub called momentum it's redeveloping a property in downtown South Bend we're also standing up a arts and culture incubator primarily for female and minority-owned businesses in a neighborhood that didn't exist before and that's being done through incremental development as well we have an aquatic center that is world class we do National competitions in Elkhart County we also brought back online Hotel Elkhart there was no downtown hotel in Elkhart for I think it was like a hundred years maybe I stayed there for a wedding this past summer phenomenal yep yeah pretty awesome it's really nice right and then you see it's a good weekend trip for anyone in Indiana this is very true yes and the Riverwalk on in Elkhart County or downtown Elkhart they've been the River District has been significantly invested and continues to be we have a rooftop bar that didn't exist before like okay now you're after my heart yeah I never have passed up a rooftop Rooftop Bar absolutely yeah and it overlooks the river so like it's beautiful yeah yeah leading into that River Development is pretty important for us I think when we record episode two right next year we I think we have to do it on the Rooftop Bar in Elkhart oh I like maybe we can take an RV up there yeah you need to get a mobile unit exactly for sure exactly yeah I love that in all seriousness I I do want to talk to one of those folks soon I would like to get some kind of a vehicle yeah that we can use for multiple I can give you a ride Tiff [Laughter] 's here the book that I was given in 2010 or 11 by the late Tony Shea founder of Zappos who invested heavily into downtown Las Vegas revitalizing that whole community and a book was called Triumph of the city and it seems to me your story is almost like Triumph of the region yeah yeah well we actually had Tony Shea came to the region for idea week amazing yeah and spoke about the his model in Las Vegas and what he did he did so much there so much and that's that's what it takes right again our I just heard the CEO of cook medical speak at an event and his his thrust of business has to be at this table private sector has to be at the table whether you're talking about entrepreneurship whether you're talking about Community Development all of that it cannot be government public sector only like no more fieftims no more thieftimes and no more silos yeah exactly them all exactly put that on the bus yes it might confuse a few yeah so I just think and I think too in Elkhart and St Joe County we've had net positive migration right so we've had more people coming in which is the first time in a decade then it's like that is a trial okay there we go and Marshall County will come along it has its assets it's a great place the park systems are incredible the community we also help put a pool facility down in in Marshall County in Plymouth you've got Simba chain is a spin-off of itamco that's Marshall County Plymouth tell us about that company it's incredible that is our Region's bet on a unicorn is super chain I mean they have won millions of dollars in DOD it's a blockchain company Brian Ritchie who used to be at the idea Center is now their CEO and what is interesting to me in the talent attraction pieces they've got remote workers all over the country and I want to figure out that's so great how do I move you yeah into our region yes because we are rolling a remote worker strategy would make my move as well yeah so like being pretty aggressive about that good yeah good and honing in on occupations that we hope eventually they'll go from remote worker to working in the region candidly yeah well we have so many different resources that you've mentioned that we will link up in the show notes for all of our listeners because there's so much to explore in that region I really appreciate you being here but before we end this conversation we wanted to do a quick lightning round are you open to it I guess so absolutely I mean editing may be required absolutely well we talk about Marshall County near and dear to my home the the Bourbon Indiana is a proud member of Marshall County and the so Simba chain is amazing as well as the Blueberry Festival yeah heck yes if you haven't made it to the Blueberry Festival in Plymouth Indiana you are missing out blueberry Donuts yes and ice cream Labor Day weekend yep yeah it's phenomenal like over a hundred thousand people come to Plymouth there's helicopter rides I will say I went and there's I didn't find like a a actual blueberry unless it was in a donut or ice cream I'm for that yeah it was just kind of funny yeah there's no actual like fruit no it's like ice cream you gotta save some hidden gems for the lightning round yes yes you're right you're right you're right okay lightning round here we go outside of the amazing entrepreneurs what is Indiana known for mm-hmm when I I think I'm going to answer this correctly when I think of Indiana I think of very kind people and very hard-working people so what an amazing answer I love that okay what is the right answer because it's your answer yes yes correct what is one Hidden Gem in Indiana it's not very the dunes are pretty awesome I haven't been to this yet and oh my gosh now I'm not gonna remember I've heard talk of a frog race what down in Southern Indiana Oh I can't remember we're gonna have to do a little research yeah okay I'm gonna dive deeper if you had to recommend one place to check out when you're in the South Bend Elkhart region like maybe go get dinner see a show whatever would be what are you recommending there I'm a big fan of yakida which is one of our breweries in Elkhart that is amazing it is downtown Elkhart so there also Venturi and Goshen is Napoleon Neapolitan certified pizza oh really butchered that word tonight you nailed it you nailed it yes and First Fridays in downtown Goshen are pretty exceptional so I love that those are three great wrecks okay final question of the lightning round who is someone that we need to keep on our radar someone who is doing something big oh about 15 people came into my mind to be honest with you so I think the people that are doing something big I could go through Susan Ford Scott Ford what are they working on so Scott Ford works at Notre Dame as their VP of Economic Development and he's working on a lot he works on the lift initiative with us Susan Ford is our board chair for suspy for startups up in Elkhart she also works at Graham Allen Partners Tracy Graham would be another one of those individuals that is doing something significant I think his Mantra or their Mantra is a thousand digital jobs is what they're striving for they're what our largest tech employer is underground Island Partners so they're doing something significant we have a lot of good folks in the cities too in our our leadership is pretty awesome so honestly the better question is who's not doing something big but I won't name names so good yeah Bethany thank you so much for being on the show I know there's so many more stories to tell so I hope you'll come back on the show and give an update you know in the future and maybe from a rooftop bar yes please thank you very much for having me really appreciate it this has been get in a powder kick production in partnership with Elevate Ventures and we want to hear from you if you have suggestions for a guest or a segment reach out to Matt or Nate on LinkedIn or on email to discover top tier tech companies outside of Silicon Valley in hubs like Indiana check out our newsletter at powderkeg.
com newsletter and to apply for membership to the powder cake executive Community Check out powderkeg. com premium we'll catch you next time and next week as we continue to help the world get in since you just listened to this podcast you might be thinking about starting one for your company lucky for you our partners over at cassid have you covered cassid is the first and only podcast and video marketing platform made specifically for B2B Brands I love this about them the platform makes it possible to publish Syndicate amplify and measure the value of your podcast and video content in fact we use it for our podcast here at Powder Keg and if you're a startup you should listen up because cassid for startups is definitely for you they are offering exclusive deep discounts of up to 82 percent off retail price for qualifying startups connect with casted casted. us slash powderkeg
