from the crossroads of America in the hooer state of Indiana this is get in the podcast focused on the unfolding stories and extraordinary Innovations happening in the Heartland today I'm Nate spangle and I'll be your host for today's conversation today we have a live recording from rally the largest global cross- sector Innovation conference that was held right here in Indianapolis on the show today is Grant Chapman CEO of [Music] glassboard Grant Chapman is a CEO of glassboard a best-in-class product development firm that helps companies design develop prototype and bring meaningful products to Market please enjoy this live episode of get in from rally could you
introduce yourself for us please yeah hey I'm Grant Chapman I'm CEO of glassboard product development here in Indianapolis Indiana so we build things with Adams in it hardtech I from Medtech electronic bikes scooters ebikes whatever you need whatever we need all right how is Rally been going so far give me like a couple highlights flyovers what are some three quick hitters how Rally's been going Rally's great I think the favorite part for me in rally is the curated crowd that's here is exactly what we all wanted to get together for right you whenever you go to a conference or convention I hope this is the
right blend of people the right mix of people but the the curation that's been done here is really awesome to get the right people in the room who is the coolest person you've met thus far besides from you oh you know your way let's go besides me yes okay I think is probably I would say it's the one of the med techs I saw in the pitch competition so they're doing the asthma detection through a little disposable right so you have a like a diabetes like the test drips but for asthma and that was really cool to see you could detect an Asma attack coming
in the future through some indicators and I think that is the coolest thing I've seen here at rally that's amazing who have you met that's come from the furthest away like the farthest travel to get here far I haven't met anyone here this week internationally last week at the sports Tech thing we got a bunch from Dublin in town that was pretty cool but lots those guys from Locker yeah yeah they're good dudes they were cool so we had we see lots of people from Boston and and lots of course from the West Coast but Boston I think is a huge Hub that we see
coming in here this week yeah when you think of uh cross sector Innovation and you're coming from the hard tech side how are you working with different software say what does cros Tech really look like for you and why is Indianapolis a great place for it that's really neat cuz Indianapolis is more than just that J position of software and Hardware so for us at glassboard we are always data for software has to come from somewhere you have to access it either through a screen in your hand or a watch in your wrist or a device that senses the temperature in your that's what we
are we are always the data Gateway up to the cloud but really in that ju position you need the manufacturing and Logistics to ship those products across and then you need the healthcare and other places for the Medtech and Indiana really is a Crossroads for most of those things yeah well talk to us a little bit about glassboard and what yall are doing there yeah so at glassboard we're a hardware product development firm so we'll help take clients ideas or prototypes or existing products up to the next stage the next level through ideation prototyping uh design testing and then all the way through and build
a supply chain for them so it it's much more than just sketching something out or 3D printing you have to figure out why it Delights users why it makes them happy and then how to go make that so you can get it in the hands of a user yeah talk to me about your mad scientist laboratory over on the near west side of Indianapolis we just started glass board so we could collect toys so talk we've got a about a 10,000 foot building half offices half labs and really it's prototyping fast and Hardware is how you compete with software development right if you can shorten
the iteration cycle to we can't quite compile code in an hour but if I can 3D print in 3 hour we're getting pretty close to closing that gap between hardware and software development absolutely who are the companies or the entrepreneurs that you're working with is it like I have an idea and I want to get something built or is it like I'm more down Market a little ways like ready to take something out and sell it we have about three vertical so a third of our business is full solar preneur startup and we'll meet them as early as a problem statement and help connect them
here in Indie and in our Global Partnerships with VCS accelerators the right people to coach them to the point where they're ready to start building hardware and about a third of our business is existing small businesses and the third is Fortune 5 00 were helping solve problems they might might not be great at and what kind of what kind of employees are working at a company like glassboard just full-on mad scientists just great ones honestly I think the the kind of person we look for when we're interviewing for glassboard is this weird vent diagram of nerd engineer and outgoing creative person we need someone that's
going to be able to talk to our clients and more importantly the end users have that empathy for what this product's going to do in the in in the field but then have that technical traps to design a solution of that problem iterate and take that to manufacturing so we're really looking for that weird blend yeah and you guys have done a great job of kind of solidifying the hard Tech Community in Indianapolis right who are a couple other of the players in that hard tech space that you guys are collabing with no it's really cool because in in hardtech there aren't enough of us
to fight over sales or compete in the market there's always too many people that need what we're doing so everyone from InDesign to Catalyst product development here in town as well as 16 Tech in the machine maker space are all this ecosystem trying to serve the need that's both here in Indianapolis and globally trying to make Hardware happen I love it okay we are halfway through rally as we're recording this podcast right day and a half left what are you most excited for oh at rally like the outcome here I am really excited to see who wins the pitch competitions on Thursday all those announcements
I'm waiting for that but really I've got a list of people I've written down I've seen Pitch we seen on stage I need to go find here while we're at the conference still so that for me is the most exciting part is checking that list off and getting to zero before it ends are you ready to transform your brand with award-winning video content that captures your vision and connects with your audience check out Alchemy the expert at building your brand using video from story-driven social media Snippets that leave a lasting impression to compelling F length documentaries they have got the expertise to take your brand
to the next level Alchemy is actually our video partner here on get in they do amazing work all the videos you see across social across YouTube all that is done by Alchemy and they're an amazing partner to work with reach out to me Nate at powderkeg or check out Alchemy film.com to get connected with Alden and his team they will take care of all your video needs 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 segment reach out to Matt or Nate on LinkedIn or on
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