Chelsea Linder: Percent,
Nate Spangle: 65% went into AI.
Chelsea Linder: 85% of all of that went into those three deals. What so many of these finalists, not just pushing the envelope when it comes to technology, but they're also doing well by doing right to our community.
Nate Spangle: One person builds a billion dollar company with no support, and I don't know if it's happened yet.
We are not far from it.
Chelsea Linder: Absolutely.
Nate Spangle: What are the questions that you hear? What are the resources you hear founders asking for? From South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between. This is Get IN, the show focused on the Hoosier State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation.
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Just visit infarmbureau.com to get connected to a local agent, tell them Nate and the team of Get Indiana sent you Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance. Let's insure together. Now let's get into this episode of Get IN. Today we're talking about one of the biggest nights in Indiana tech, the Mira Awards. Joining me is Chelsea Linder, Vice President of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at TechPoint, the organization that puts the Mira Awards together.
Each year, Chelsea works closely with startups, founders, investors, and community leaders across the state to help grow Indiana's innovation economy. She spent years supporting early stage companies and building stronger connections across the startup ecosystem. So she has a front row seat to the companies shaping what's next in Indiana tech.
The Mira Awards themselves are the state's largest and most prestigious technology awards. They've been recognizing innovators, startups, companies, and community leaders since 1999. This marks the 27th annual Mira Awards happening April 24th at the Palladium in Carmel. So in this episode, Chelsea and I are gonna talk a little bit more about the history of the Mira Awards, share some of the fun facts and memorable moments from the past winners, and then we're gonna break down some of the categories and finalists that are shaping Indiana's tech ecosystem right now.
If you listen to the end, you're gonna hear some of the most creative, innovative. Awesome community leaders. It's gonna be a really fun, special episode. A little bit different than what we typically do, but our Mira Awards preview show is a go. Chelsea, welcome to the show.
Chelsea Linder: Thanks. Thanks for having me.
Nate Spangle: I am so pumped.
Uh, if anyone that doesn't know, uh, I mean, it's been two or three years that I've been, you know, in the Get Indiana space, but in a past life I was heavily involved in the startup technology ecosystem here in Indiana, uh, working at Powderkeg, being super involved working, I mean, a lot of times hand in hand with the crew at TechPoint.
So it's fun to kind of dive down memory lane a little bit today and talk about some of the biggest, uh, innovators and and tech companies that the state of Indiana has seen and. I mean the biggest night for Tech awards in Indiana with the Mira Awards. So what I wanna start with, 1999, who put the original Mira Awards together?
And why did Indianapolis think that? Uh, having an award show, having an awards presentation was important to the tech ecosystem?
Chelsea Linder: The Mira Awards have always been a part of TechPoint, and the reason for that is because a big piece of driving tech. And innovation in Indiana is telling the stories about what's already being done and what's super cool in our state.
So the Mira Awards, you know, since 1999, that has been the goal and we've been so fortunate to have that ecosystem of innovation and technology grow across the state and, and be able to turn it into an even bigger celebration of how cool our tech ecosystem is here.
Nate Spangle: Okay. So for people who don't know TechPoint, like in a nutshell, what's the work that you guys are doing?
Chelsea Linder: So, TechPoint's mission is to drive the digital economy in Indiana, and we do that through three different pillars, uh, innovation. Talent and then community.
Nate Spangle: Yeah.
Chelsea Linder: And the community piece is Mira telling those stories and really highlighting the innovation that's happening here. On the talent side, we work to help drive talent, create pathways for tech talent to move into, um, jobs in the state.
Yeah. And then on the innovation side, we help startups grow, as you talked about. That's what I've spent my career doing and, and enjoying leading at TechPoint.
Nate Spangle: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, one of the coolest talent things, I still remember this from when I was in college, was is it still around the extern program?
Chelsea Linder: Absolutely.
Nate Spangle: I mean, talk about like the ultimate, like coolest internship to get into, especially when you're at a college Junior, somewhere around that time point. Mm-hmm. You get to come and work at a cool startup in Indianapolis, and I'm from like a small town in northern Indiana, went to DePauw, so like Greencastle and the vibe, I remember.
I, I did not get it. I was not an extern, but I remember seeing this and being like, oh, how cool would it be to like work at one of those tech companies where they have like beer taps and where they're like, you know, working from laptops from their like, you know, lounging recliner and then you like see, uh, the real world and it's so funny, but an awesome experience for, uh, the college aged talent across.
Uh, well one, it's across the country to come to Indiana and get to experience this innovation economy, get to experience some of the coolest tech companies. Like that's one where you guys are doing talent as well, right?
Chelsea Linder: Yes. And now I think with the pace of change with AI, we're hearing so much about how, especially early stage jobs are being impacted by AI adoption and companies.
So it becomes even more important for those young talent to have experiences in the workplace that they can put on their resume to help build those critical thinking skills and other just like work skills that you don't learn in a classroom. In college,
Nate Spangle: it's pretty crazy. 'cause if we would have this conversation six months ago, we probably wouldn't dive in too much and think it's like, okay, AI is AI and it's around, but it's not.
From a coding, from a technology perspective, from a building perspective, it's changing, it seems by the week, by the day, by the hour. It's wild. And I'm really excited. Uh, one of the categories is like artificial intelligence, the artificial intelligence innovation award, and there are some really interesting candidates up for, for that award and some interesting nominees.
Mm-hmm. That I'm excited to dive into a little bit. What I do wanna talk about is, in 1999, who were the tech companies that were nominated for the first ever Mira Awards? Who were some of the biggest winners from, and, and when we think back, that would be 27 years ago, who were kind of the founding, the foundational pieces to the Indianapolis tech ecosystem?
Chelsea Linder: That's a great question. I think ExactTarget obviously played a huge role in those earlier years, not 1999. They were later than that. Um, but definitely a huge part of that story. And then, um, you know, we heard, we saw a lot of other great technology developments coming out of our big institutions like Lilly at the time.
They've always kind of led the way as far as technology adoption goes, which I've had the opportunity to learn a lot more about, uh, this year as Lilly continues to dive in and lead with AI adoption.
Nate Spangle: That's crazy. Like, again, this is sounds like, uh, mad Libs, where it's like one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world is leading innovation.
Artificial intelligence, like that's crazy. It's like pharmaceutical. You talk about that stuff. You think of like research scientists, you don't necessarily think about software engineers and artificial intelligence, but these are huge swings in innovation that are happening right here in Indiana, which is what fires me up.
Chelsea Linder: Yeah, and that's the whole point of the Mira awards. We get to talk about these really cool things that we're doing here.
Nate Spangle: Take me back to the scene 1999. What were, what did the awards look like then? Was it always similar categories? Was it like software or architect engineer of the year? Like what, what did that first iteration look like?
Chelsea Linder: You know, I don't know what the specific categories were in 1999, but I can guarantee you that startup of the year was not a category. You know, these, um, new and small emerging businesses that we celebrate at the Mira Awards, that's definitely something that has come more recently. Things that we definitely celebrated in 1999 was the Trailblazer Award.
Yes. That is the longest standing award, and we've been able to celebrate leaders across tech and Indiana. So many of them, it's impossible to name them all, but everyone from Angie, from Angie's List,
Nate Spangle: maybe you've heard of her potentially.
Chelsea Linder: Yeah. To, um, you know, Scott Dorsey to our winner last year, Tim Coleman, the CTO of Lilly.
Um, just all different walks of life, different types of leadership, and that's a really cool word to kind of track over time.
Nate Spangle: Yeah. And you talk about like trailblazer. I mean, what, what does that all encompas because it's not just like the startup founder that makes the most money in a year, or like who takes their startup from zero to whatever.
Like there's this whole better Hoosier story mm-hmm. I feel around the Trailblazer Award. Can you like, outline what that means and, and who that honors.
Chelsea Linder: Absolutely. So in the Trailblazer Award, we're not, we're not looking for somebody who's just doing great at the status quo. We're looking for somebody who's taking big risks, pushing Indiana forward, leading innovation in our state and doing so in a really unique and powerful way.
We've had nominees from civic leaders to institu, uh, higher ed institution leaders, tech company leaders, but the thing that they all have in common is that they're not okay with just the way things are today. They're really trying to make instrumental change and, and have successfully driven in instru instrumental change in our ecosystem, and it's, again, it's just like such a cool story to be a part of.
Nate Spangle: Yeah. One of the coolest also touching now, like, oh my gosh, like if you go and look up the Bill Oesterle. TechPoint, trailblazer tribute video. I mean, bill is, has been just a staple in the indi uh, Indianapolis, Indiana, Midwestern tech ecosystem. He unfortunately passed away and it just is like the legacy that he has left and the, the shoes that all, whether you're in civic leadership, whether you're in technology, no matter what it is, like those are the aspirations that we should all have to be a better community member in the city of Indianapolis and the state of Indiana.
That one. Go look it up. Google it. It is. We'll link it down in the show notes 'cause it's, it's a really good one.
Chelsea Linder: Absolutely. And that was a big deal for me too because I was on the Angie's List team and Bill had a majorly pivotal role in my career, in my life. So being able to celebrate him and the way that he just poured into the next generation of talent in Indiana.
It's incredible. Yeah. And it's wonderful to be able to have that legacy to continue to tie back to.
Nate Spangle: Okay. So as we look into it, what are some of the previous award winners that really stick out with you, that have gone on to do big things, whether it's global innovation or you know. A hundred million plus billion dollar exits, like huge, just transformational companies.
Who are some previous winners that have done big things?
Chelsea Linder: So the one that first comes to mind is Republic Airways. Uh, they have won and they've been finalists, nominees in many categories over the years. And again, that's an institution that is really doing innovative and amazing things. They just built their new HQ right near here, up north, and they're always pushing the envelope on what technology looks like in aviation.
And it's also not something that you just think of when you think of tech. Um, so again, it's just about telling those stories of how tech isn't just about a software company, but it's about. Companies in any industry applying technology to help move the needle for their business. And Republic is really a gold star of what that could look like.
Nate Spangle: What's interesting, and people that don't know need to look into Republic just in general because you've probably been on a Republic flight, but you've never purchased like, oh, I'm flying Republic. Right. They do a lot of the like regional, I don't say regional, but they go all the way to the East Coast.
Mm-hmm. They go like a lot of different places, but they are like, uh, it's almost like whitelisted for like United and some of these other major airlines. It's very cool. I'm sure that someone from Republic will listen to that and be like, no, you moron. Like that's not exactly how it works
Chelsea Linder: actually. I think they exactly call them regional airline.
Hey, there you go. So I think you're right about that. And I know a lot of the Delta flights are also Republic Airways
Nate Spangle: flights. Yeah.
Chelsea Linder: So,
Nate Spangle: yeah, and it's like you, we have a few flight schools that, you know, build up a lot of pilots that come and they end up working for Republic and they end up, you know, flying from this would be like the Indy to Chicago Indy to Louisville Indy to.
I don't know, Nashville or wherever it might be. But then also like to Newark and some of these like direct fights that Indy gets, uh, 'cause we're not a Delta hub, we're not a United Hub. Mm-hmm. So they, you know, I don't know how the whole thing works. Airports are really interesting when you actually look into, like, the logistics Pine, wait, hasn't the airport, have they been involved in Mira?
They're, they feel like an organization that's doing some innovative things.
Chelsea Linder: So the Airport Authority actually just joined as a TechPoint member like a week ago.
Nate Spangle: Okay. I did not script it. I promise. That was actually candid, but I, I see the, the airport taking these leaps, like obviously you talk about getting the new Aer Lingus.
Mm-hmm. Like the new flight to, to
Chelsea Linder: Ireland.
Nate Spangle: To Ireland, which is so cool. And they seem to be constantly pushing the envelope of innovation. When I, when I think of, uh, TechPoint members and when I think of. You know, Mir award winners, uh, I was part of the, Orr Fellowship program. And it always seems like those organizations go hand in hand.
Mm-hmm. Where it's like organizations that are committed to, you know, talent development that are committed to bringing really smart recent college grads to Central Indiana and now to Evansville as well. It always seems like, oh yeah, those are the companies that are also winning the Mira Awards, which is uh, which is super cool.
'cause they're also a nominee, I believe in one of the categories this year. The Oh, the Orr Fellowship.
Chelsea Linder: Oh, yes, yes. Yeah. Always. Uh. Pushing talent and keeping talent in Indiana. That's a huge part of our mission at TechPoint and something that we love to celebrate about the Orr Fellowship, and you're exactly right, so many of these finalists are not just pushing the envelope when it comes to technology, but they're also doing well by doing right to our community.
Nate Spangle: Yeah.
Chelsea Linder: I think Republic is a great example of that. Another one of those is SEP, Software Engineering Professionals, where of course, you know their business is building software. They're doing really innovative things with technology and they're also an incredible employer. They have some of the most involved mentors and community members in tech in Indiana, and they're just kind of one of those organizations that is always doing the right thing that those are the things that we wanna celebrate at the awards.
Nate Spangle: Yeah. Okay. Talk to me a little bit, 'cause we're gonna get into going into some of the nominees and talking about some of the wild innovations that are happening across the state. Talk to me about. The specific night That is Mira. So you've hosted in venues like the Old National Centre, the JW Marriott?
You know, I think for the past couple years, maybe one or two, it's been at the Palladium up in Carmel.
Chelsea Linder: Last year was the first year at the Palladium. Um, before that we were at Old National, and that was a big pivot for us because for a long time, I think maybe even since the beginning, the Mira Awards were a dinner thing.
Um, but we had to make the decision to move it to more of a show, a gala where, um, it's theater style seating and that the reason is because our community has grown so much that we needed to be able to fit more people in the room. Yeah. Um, but it also gives, it, it really feels like the Oscars of tech in Indiana.
You know, we have the big fancy stage. The palladium is beautiful. Everyone is dressed to the nines.
Nate Spangle: Oh yeah. This is, this is not like your tech casual event. You're, there's jackets and dresses in the whole nine yards. It's like a whole vibe.
Chelsea Linder: Yeah. There's even red carpet, which I think we're gonna see you on this year.
Nate Spangle: We will be on the red carpet. We're doing an activation down there, and it's gonna be super fun. We're, I mean, brace yourself, if you're a nominee, if you are a part of the community, we're gonna be bringing the energy right as you come through the door. So is it like cocktail hour? People like hanging out, like what is the whole Yeah.
What's the whole run of show look like?
Chelsea Linder: Yep. So when you first get there, it is networking cocktail hour that's gonna be outside, um, under a big tent this year. So in that green space outside the Palladium we're looking forward to that. Hopefully it'll be beautiful weather. And then, um, once the show starts, everyone will move into the theater and we have some really fantastic awards.
We have some new awards that we're gonna be celebrating this year.
Nate Spangle: I'm interested.
Chelsea Linder: Yeah, let's talk more about that. So new awards. Yeah. Yes. So every year we go through this process of thinking about what, what are the stories? What do we need to celebrate this year? And so of course, AI is one of those things.
We launched the new, um, innovation with AI award this year, and that is in partnership with another one of our initiatives at Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, um, analytics, IN So we're gonna celebrate AI innovation there. Another thing that we did is kind of how I was mentioning tech is horizontal, it goes across all industries.
So we worked to partner with the other CICP initiatives to,
Nate Spangle: for anyone who doesn't know CICP,
Chelsea Linder: Central Indiana Corporate Partnership. Yes. And um, it has five initiatives that are a part of it. TechPoint is one of them. Ascend Indiana, which is talent and workforce focused. And then we have BioCrossroads, which is life sciences and health focused.
Uh, AgriNovus, which is ag bioscience, agriculture focused, and then Connexus, which is manufacturing, um, industry 4.0. Gotcha. So these are the key industries that drive our economy in Indiana. And as a whole, we work together to increase individual Hoosier prosperity through all of our work.
Nate Spangle: There it is. Who, anything about Hoosier prosperity I'm interested in.
Chelsea Linder: Me
Nate Spangle: too. Okay. So you, and then you guys team up with some of these other partners to present. You talked about the artificial inte intelligence innovation, talked about what is AgriNovus and, uh, ag bioscience?
Chelsea Linder: Yep. So we'll have the Ag Bioscience Innovation award, a life sciences innovation award, and then the Manufacturing Innovation Award, as well as the tech innovation of the year.
So these are all innovation of the year awards. And then out of those, the winners of those were eligible for a bigger award. For the first time ever, we have this new award, which is just innovation of the year. So the winners from each of those industries, um, were eligible for that and we'll be announcing the one big winner for that as well, which is really, you know, the innovation that rose to the top across all of our strongest in industries in Indiana.
Nate Spangle: Wow. So you'll, you'll land on one innovation. Like what do we know that I'm an east for that one.
Chelsea Linder: Um, yeah, we do, and we, we know who the winner is, but obviously, I'm not gonna tell you unless you come.
Nate Spangle: There you go. Uh, I think that's really interested, really interesting. As you think about how does the Hoosier State make global impact?
Like, what are the innovations that are coming out of here? Like, I mean, think about, again, you go back to it like ExactTarget, like this was Salesforce marketing Cloud, like email. I mean, hearing Chris, uh, Bagot tell the story of like owning a dry cleaner and hand collecting email addresses so he could send them like, it's crazy.
And now today it's like you, like, like MailChimp and all the HubSpot and all the email marketing campaigns. Like that's old news. Like, everyone's like, yeah, duh. Like I get an email from every brand 10 times a day.
Chelsea Linder: Mm-hmm.
Nate Spangle: But in 2000, when they started. That was not new. Like that was a crazy innovation and he was like, oh, he just tells the story so well of learning how big innovations are coming out of Indiana.
And you think about Lilly for centuries, like literal? Yeah, truly centuries literal. I have no idea when they first found, I probably need to like do a whole episode on Lilly, but like they have been pushing what it means to innovate in pharmaceuticals and living healthy lifestyles. And you know, today if you have heard Dave Ricks speak recently, it is incredible.
He went on the All-In Podcast, which is like, like again we are the Get IN podcast. We are a big deal, I would say in Indiana. This is like a big deal globally. And Dave Ricks is on this podcast talking with them about how Eli Lilly is doing these crazy amazing things. And it's like there is big innovation happening in Indiana and this is a spot where you're gonna hear.
Some really cool companies. So I wanna dive in a little bit here as we look through some of the 2026 nominees specifically. One drew my eye, I wanna talk about the artificial intelligence innovation award. I'm gonna start there.
Chelsea Linder: Okay.
Nate Spangle: And obviously bounce around. But, um, this, so this honors organization's advancing business performance or industry standards through responsible and impactful use of AI.
Very buzzwordy. We're talking about AI is all, everything talks about. How are you integrating AI? Somehow the city of Indianapolis and Marion County is using AI somehow within our government and they're up for, uh, one of these awards or they're a nominee for this award. Yep. Like, that's pretty wild when I think about it.
Of, of when you think of government, you think of. Slow moving, like the website feels like you're still in 1999. Talk to me about some of these other, uh, nominees and the City of Indianapolis slash Marion County that are doing really innovative things that you've heard about.
Chelsea Linder: Exactly what you just talked about with the city of Indianapolis is why they're a nominee, right?
They are open to trying new things, adopting this new changing technology to change the way that government work is done at a foundational level. And it takes a lot of risk to do that, especially when you're serving the public and it's all with taxpayer dollars, right? So doing AI adoption in a responsible and ethical way, and allowing the work that is, you know, repetitive or takes a lot of time within their organizations to automate that or get it done faster.
Little things like renewing your driver's license, like how can we make that a much faster and easier process? These are the conversations that the city of Indianapolis can have and leverage AI. Yeah. Um, and it's, you know, it's something that is gonna positively impact every single Hoosier Well, who lives in India, Indianapolis.
Um, and that's exactly why they were a finalist for that award. Oh.
Nate Spangle: I mean, I would hands down give them the trophy, the award if they were using AI to let me know how long the lines the BMV were like, somehow optimizing that with telling me where I need to go to immediately get into the BMV boom award went like that is impacting, take my taxpayer dollars, put it directly towards that I'm in.
That's, are there other companies that are doing interesting things with AI that kind of get you intrigued or pique your curiosity?
Chelsea Linder: Absolutely. There are. I think we have so many different examples of that, and one area where I think. It doesn't naturally track that AI would be an incredibly powerful tool is in that life sciences sector.
Nate Spangle: Yeah.
Chelsea Linder: So we see some of those finalists. Um, like BiodMed I know is one of them other finalists who are able to layer AI with whatever chemistry foundations or, you know, other data that they may have to really improve quality of life for human beings. And that is, you know, it's not just making a profile p picture for your LinkedIn with AI, right?
Like this is really AI for good.
Nate Spangle: We can tell who's doing that, just so you know. Yeah, I know that jawline is not natural. Come on now. Um, no, you're right. Like using this to really impact lives.
Chelsea Linder: Yeah. And so again, those are the powerful stories that we need to tell about Indiana because, um. We have amazing innovations happening here that are doing that and achieving it, and that those are the finalists in this category.
Nate Spangle: Yeah. I'm like looking through some of those that I'm just like, okay. One, I know like SalesAi, I know like RoboSource. Mm-hmm. Those just sound like names of really cool AI companies. Yep. But then on the other side, you see Eli Lilly, you see Indiana University, you see, oh, our guy, uh, Emil Ekiyor and Inopower.
Mm-hmm. Like this is wild. Like that is a very diverse gambit of, uh, organizations that are like CNO Financial.
Chelsea Linder: Mm-hmm.
Nate Spangle: Like this is a bank that's using, uh, what, uh, AI analytics to improve financial services, decision making and customer insights. Yep. Like that's really cool. It very much spreads the gamut.
It's not just Yeah. Your profile picture editor. It's not just. You know, ChatGPT giving you a list of whatever it might be, it's applying this into, you know, interesting businesses.
Chelsea Linder: Yeah. And even with RoboSource, it definitely does sound like a standard tech startup, but what they're doing is empowering businesses of all sizes to adopt AI themselves and leverage the RoboSource tool, um, which is called Process Coach, to help them think through what are the standard operating procedures that they follow inside a business, and how can those be automated and then, then actually automate them.
Yeah. And especially in manufacturing, that's where they've really found a sweet spot. This is an industry that is extremely strong in Indiana that needs to lead the way on innovation. And that AI has such a huge opportunity to change the industry as a whole. So seeing RoboSource be able to drive that change, um, and help those businesses.
Adopt and increase their productivity. Yeah. It's just, again, it's really powerful and it's impacting the lives of Hoosiers all across the state.
Nate Spangle: Okay. So obviously you're, you know, really plugged into the tech ecosystem, innovation, entrepreneurship. What are the questions that you hear founders asking you?
What are the resources you hear founders asking for? Obviously AI is, again, this is like so buzzwordy the whole thing, but like it's so true. It's changing things very rapidly and I'm sure there are gonna be founders, there are gonna be nominees that listen to this episode. Uh, if you could say like, you know, we get a lot of ask about this, and then we're connecting them to this resource
Chelsea Linder: right now, I think a lot of founders are struggling with how to grow their company because it looks different today than it did 10 years ago or even two years ago.
Oftentimes, especially if it was a pure tech company, a software company. The answer was just build it as fast as you can. Go out and sell it as fast as you can and raise as much money from venture capital as you can. And all of those things, all three of those things look different today than they did a year ago.
Um, one person can build a software product with vibe, coding and launch a product by themselves even if they have no technical experience whatsoever. Just an idea.
Nate Spangle: Yeah. I remember maybe two or three years ago listening to a podcast where someone said, we are less than a decade away from a solo unicorn where one person builds a, builds a billion dollar company, builds a billion dollar product with no outside help, with no support.
And I don't know if it's happened yet, but I'm sure that like we are not far from it because like we have, you know, people in that we know that are building the crazy, coolest tools. But don't know how to code. Mm-hmm. Like didn't go get a software engineering degree. And it is is changing. You're able to Yeah.
Vibe code out the, a custom software that used to take hundreds of hours and lots and lots of money. Yeah. That's crazy.
Chelsea Linder: So the founda foundational question there is, okay, I have a great idea and I know I can go and do this and just build it with Lovable or whatever it is. So then what, right. How do, what are the metrics or the expectations of a sound business now?
They change because. Employee count used to be a huge driver of, you know, if a company is hiring more people, they're more successful. And that looks completely different now. Um, same thing on the go-to-market strategy side. Um, you know, founders today are saying, well, my, my company wasn't an AI company and I had to figure out how to make it an AI company in order to stay relevant in conversations with my customers.
So how do I do that? A and then once I've done that, how does that change my go-to-market strategy? That, that's a lot of the conversations that we're having today with founders, um, who are growing their companies.
Nate Spangle: And how do you separate, like just putting AI into it because you have to versus like, I truthfully do believe that all of these, like modern companies.
It should, like, it is the responsible thing to do with your business to figure out how to make something 1% more efficient. For sure. 10% more efficient. Using it in some way, like, you're probably not doing yourself and your team and your company, uh, justice by totally banning it. Mm-hmm. But also like so many people are just jamming AI into everything possible to say that they're an AI company when they sell water bottles or whatever it might be.
Chelsea Linder: Right. And your customers are gonna see right through that. You know, we were talking about CNO Financial and they're an example of how to do this right. Of how to, um, you know, how to adopt technology and serve your customers better, increase. Customer satisfaction scores, whatever it is, um, by authentically leveraging AI versus what, um, what you're talking about, which is just the, like, you know, my board told me I had to have AI, so now I have a chat bot.
Nate Spangle: Yes.
Chelsea Linder: Um, and, and I think founders are struggling with that differentiation for sure. Um,
Nate Spangle: yeah. What are the other resources that you see founders in Indiana leaning into, specifically ones that are, you know, building innovative, fast moving, nimble businesses?
Chelsea Linder: So we have two fantastic networks at TechPoint.
The first one is the Indiana Founders Network. Uh, we have chapters in Bloomington, Indianapolis, and Fort Wayne. We're working on expanding those to new chapters, and we have about 300 founders who are members of that. It is a, um, every other month meeting, and the whole goal of it is to just get founders to have other founder friends, because going through this journey is very isolating, especially when you think about the fact that you could build a company, a billion dollar company with one person.
It's incredibly isolating.
Nate Spangle: I talk to myself, or I, I guess it's not myself, it's, it's, I don't know what it is, but I'm like, Hey, do you think, ChatGPT, do you think this is a good idea? Like, this is what I'm thinking. Like, will you gimme some? And then I like kind of take a minute and I'm like. I gotta call like some real person and talk to a human being because I'm like, 'cause I'm also just like, I'm so Yeah.
Isolated in this thing building, you know, uh, as a founder. And that is something that I heard a lot of people talk about. I've heard, you know, max and Connor from Lessonly mm-hmm. And all these other like. People that I look up to in the Indiana, in the Indianapolis tech ecosystem talk about the loneliness of being a founder.
And I like you don't really understand it until you understand it. And then you're like, oh, wow, this makes sense.
Chelsea Linder: Yeah. So the Founders Network, and by the way, Lessonly is a Mira Award winner too.
Nate Spangle: Yes. And anyone doesn't know that was like they. Lessonly was the company. Mm-hmm. When I came to town 2019, I was like, oh man, they have it down.
They end up, I think the number is like close to, they end up exiting to Seismic for like around 300 million or whatever. And just like. Max wrote a couple books. Everyone who was working at Lessonly are just some of the coolest, most creative, inspiring people. They hosted Yellowship, which was like the ultimate user conference, like excellent.
I love, yeah. Max Yoder, Conner Burt great, great, great people.
Chelsea Linder: And they're in the Founders Network.
Nate Spangle: Oh.
Chelsea Linder: Maybe for other projects that they're working on now.
Nate Spangle: Yeah. I know I keep like hearing all sorts of fun stuff that they're up to and you know, one day Max is talking about, you know, music and all the cool stuff they're doing there, and then the next day it's dog food and who knows?
Right? Yep. All sorts of fun stuff.
Chelsea Linder: Yep.
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You definitely need to check it out. Grab your brunch crew and head to Fire & Ice Cafe at 6211 Allisonville Road and your taste buds are gonna Thank you. You said there were two resources that you were plugging people into. Yes. One being the Founders Network. Yeah. And another one, the,
Chelsea Linder: the second one is the AI Innovation Network.
So we launched this last January. It is very quickly our biggest network that we have at TechPoint with almost 600 members. These are people who are interested in AI and AI practitioners, so people who are doing this every day in their roles. And it's really about sharing best practices and learning for from each other.
So we publish case studies, um, with different organizations that are leveraging AI in their businesses. And then at those meetings. About once a quarter we'll have a meeting where we talk about one of those case studies, and we really do a deep dive into that application of AI and how it changed and gave.
Benefits to that business. Um, so for example, in Q1, this year we will be publishing a case study with Cummins, talking about how they're leveraging AI to drive productivity within their organization. We also are going to be doing quite a few more this year with businesses, big and small, higher ed institutions, et cetera.
So this is gonna give any business owner, any founder. Smaller, big, medium, doesn't matter. Real live examples of ways that they could think about adopting AI within their own organizations. What worked, what didn't work? You know, what things have companies tried and what were their approaches? Just all of these really kind of nitty gritty details to help companies figure out how to do this themselves.
Um, and then we have monthly meetings and you know, we also have conversations there, networking opportunities, different types of content. So I think if you are a founder or a business owner or an IT leader within your organization and you're getting pressure to think about AI, this is a great. Thing for you to join so that you can, again, just be surrounded by peers and learn from them so that you can not make some of those mistakes yourself.
Nate Spangle: I, I totally agree. And, and it's just so prevalent in everyone's career. Yeah. I feel like it's like everyone's talking about what, what kind of prompt are you using? Like what, how are you making it do this's? Like, wait, you made, you made it do this. How do I do that? And it's like. It's crazy how fast it's moving.
Yeah. I do wanna get back into, yeah, some of the nominees, some of the awards coming up for Mira, which is April 24th.
Chelsea Linder: Yes.
Nate Spangle: At the Palladium.
Chelsea Linder: Yep.
Nate Spangle: Are tickets still on sale? Yes,
Chelsea Linder: tickets are on sale on the TechPoint website. You can get a ticket for $200 and um, do it because they're gonna sell out. They do every year.
Nate Spangle: I was gonna say, is it, and it's like a, is there a happy hour before Yep. Out on the lawn? Yep. Or the green space there. Mm-hmm. And then you come in for a night full of awards and fun. And we're gonna be there. It's gonna be a great time. I do wanna dive into, and I have to ask you the question, is there a category that is your favorite?
Chelsea Linder: I have a soft spot in my heart for a startup of the year. Yeah. Um, just because I've spent my whole career nurturing those startups. Some of those Startup of the Year winners are, you know, just really amazing examples of what Indiana has to offer. So that's a category that just I get so excited about every year.
Nate Spangle: Yeah. Okay. Looking through this, some very interesting candidates for Startup of the Year this year. Nominees for startup of the. Cappographi out of Westfield. This is a platform that's connecting businesses with professional photographers nationwide. Then we have EcoBar. They're here in Indianapolis.
They're a sustainability company turning recycled materials into new consumer products. Very cool. Mm-hmm. This one's, I feel like Sahil has to somehow be involved with this one. Founders College at Butler University.
Chelsea Linder: Yeah.
Nate Spangle: They're an accelerator program helping entrepreneurs build venture-backed startups.
Again, we had s on the podcast not too long ago. He is in the Butler ecosystem. Just turning heads.
Chelsea Linder: Absolutely.
Nate Spangle: We have Motion Sports outta Bloomington. There are sports analytics company focused on performance data and athlete insight. We have Oaken out of Indianapolis. Mm-hmm. Technology platform focused on digital financial tools for modern consumers.
Okay. Here's where I'm gonna need a little bit of help on the QuIN AI.
Chelsea Linder: Yep.
Nate Spangle: An AI platform extracting insights from healthcare and clinical data, and then Vibe Check outta Carmel data and analytics platform measuring consumer sentiment. Whoa.
Yeah,
Nate Spangle: I vibe check consumer sentiment and brand. Wow. I'm interested.
Chelsea Linder: Yeah.
Nate Spangle: And brand engagement.
Chelsea Linder: So Vibe Check is a really cool company for sure. Um, it is definitely, again, just like leveraging AI and data to do something really powerful for influencers and, and brand marketers. Um, that's certainly a really cool one. Another one that I love is definitely emotion sports. Um mm-hmm.
You know, one of the industries we haven't talked about that Indiana is amazing at is sports. And, uh, we are so lucky to have Indiana Sports Corp, SportsTech HQ here, uh, helping organizations like Mo Motion Sports Grow and Thrive. And I think what Motion Sports is doing is, again, it's that data piece where they're using AI and they're using data to do something really powerful for athletes that, um, has never been achievable in the past.
And those are exactly the types of in, um, innovations that we're looking to celebrate.
Nate Spangle: Yeah, that one is super cool. It's like. Okay. Power Four functionality with small school pricing. They talk about like Motion Sports. They're doing scheduling, messaging, compliance, film distribution, nutrition, mental health roster management, NIL transactions, revenue share payments, payment reporting, fundraising, and other customer, like this is like an operating system for athletic departments.
Chelsea Linder: Right.
Nate Spangle: That's pretty cool. I'm like still interested in In Vibe Check too. I'm like looking. Also Cappographi, do you know this one?
Chelsea Linder: Yes.
Nate Spangle: Per platform that's connecting businesses with professional photographers nationwide.
Chelsea Linder: Yeah.
Nate Spangle: That's pretty interesting because. In a world where so much imagery is stock slash AI
Chelsea Linder: mm-hmm.
Nate Spangle: Getting connected to real professional, and like every company, whether you're an AI company or a water bottle company or whatever it is, like content creation is becoming part of the game. Yeah. Like if you want people to see your, whatever it might be, you've gotta be creating some sort of content.
Mm-hmm. And when you bring in a professional videographer, a professional photographer, that can be very, very impactful. And like doing your photo shoot is, you know. Is key. That seems like a really cool, uh, startup
Chelsea Linder: For sure. And like we were talking about, when you use AI for those things, people can tell.
So it's extra important to have that authentic touch. And it's also really hard, like even just as a individual, if I wanted to go have my family pictures taken while I was on vacation, it would be hard for me to find a good photographer. And so when you think about that from a big business on a global scale, um, you know, trying to find those partners for different products, different regions, different customer segments, all of those things, it can be really tricky and challenging.
Nate Spangle: Yeah. And it's like, okay, we are doing a trade show in. Los Angeles. It's like, do we fly a marketing person out there? Like what do you do? And it's like, oh, getting connected there. It's similar to like, like the, the best analogy I have to this is destination engagements.
Chelsea Linder: Yeah.
Nate Spangle: It's like you're like, I've heard my friends, like they're grinding in on Instagram, like trying to find a, who's the best local photographer in Phoenix, Arizona that's gonna climb up Camelback and document this process, you know, and it's like, that's important.
And yeah, something that's, uh, you can't, it's hard to put those logistics all the way together.
Chelsea Linder: And on the photographer side, it's hard to build your book of business. Um, and kind of like get that branding if you don't have a ton of resources that are a big team to support you. So I think it's a great example of how that marketplace can serve both sides and really help both sides be successful.
Nate Spangle: One category that I do wanna dive into just a little bit, we don't have to go through, 'cause there's a ton of nominees for it. My favorite one is Rising Entrepreneur of the Year.
Chelsea Linder: Oh my
Nate Spangle: gosh. I think that awarding and the best founders and the best people obviously are like, it's not about, it's a team effort, you know, but there are people that take these swings to build these really cool companies and like risk a lot and put it all, and are working constant hours.
Uh, a few previous podcast guests, uh, have, are nominated this year, so I, I mean, I would be remiss if I didn't shout them out. So, Dalton Thieneman from Cracked Racquets. Crazy cool story about how they're using content and it started in tennis. Mm-hmm. And how they are like live streaming and, and really uplifting the product and increasing and enhancing the product, uh, that tennis streams look like.
Getting, you know, play by play. I don't know if we call it play by play in tennis, but like getting broadcast and really just creating some amazing racket sport content. Like That's a cool one. Uh, Alicia McKoy, she's been a, a previous guest on the podcast. I'm like looking through some of the other ones.
Are there, I, I've heard about this one, but I don't know. Kyle, Kyle Armstrong from RefReps.
Chelsea Linder: Mm-hmm.
Nate Spangle: Originally, I don't know what it is today, but like, the original thing was like gamifying being an official, 'cause there's a, there's a national official shortage. Mm-hmm. Like referees are in an all-time low.
They're not getting any younger. And so, like, I remember one of their activations you like. We're put into this scenario and you're like watching a basketball game and it's up to you to make the right call. And if your hand motions aren't exactly correct or whatever, like you school, like there was this whole thing on it.
Um, I don't know if you're familiar with them. I just thought that was a really interesting business that I liked.
Chelsea Linder: You know, I think the coolest thing about Entrepreneur of the Year though is that we know, you know, when you start a startup, you're gonna pivot, you're gonna change. What you start out doing is probably not what you're gonna finish doing.
I know that's absolutely true with RefReps. I think it's absolutely true with Alicia's Company Peak Mind. And that award celebrates the resilience and grit that it takes to build a successful company and be a founder and an entrepreneur regardless of whether or not their company ends up being successful.
Right? So it's really about celebrating. The personas and who they are as people and what makes them amazing. Um, you know, their qualities as a visionary, their qualities as a leader and, and not just whether they had a good business idea or not. Um, and I think that's just a really important thing, especially today when those human connections in human traits need to be celebrated even more.
Nate Spangle: What is like the grand finale?
Chelsea Linder: I'm not a hundred percent sure if it's gonna be the final award, um, presented, but typically it is tech company of the year.
Nate Spangle: I was looking at, in my notes, we had tech company of the year listed last. Yeah. I mean obviously that would be everyone's, you know, like the gold standard, like you are the tech company, right.
Which to, it's crazy. I've been out of the, the, like in the weeds of the tech community in Indiana for a few years now. It's crazy how quick it, like new, new companies are like growing and you know, I, I don't only know Cyra Health is like the only one that I like, totally know. Mm-hmm. But what I love about this is I'm looking at their locations and so you have Braden Business Systems out of Fishers.
Otava out of Indianapolis, but then you have The Peer Group in Jasper. Mm-hmm. I love Jasper. Huge fan of Jasper. Then you have RADcube out of Carmel. Mm-hmm. You have Cyra Health out of Carmel. You have Tempesta Media out of Michigan City. Not sure where they are, but anything in media I'm interested in.
And then you have, uh, V2X out of Indianapolis. Again, I like these besides. Cyra Health, I don't know any of the, these super well. Do you have any background and do you know, uh, a little bit about some of the companies that are up for a tech company of the year?
Chelsea Linder: Yeah, so some of those, I think a really cool story is that they've won Miro awards in the past.
Um, so RADcube being one of those. I believe the founder Rod won Entrepreneur of the Year last year.
Nate Spangle: Nice.
Chelsea Linder: Um, and then V2X as well, ha what won an award last year, so. I think it's just really cool. You know, the, in the Tech company of the year award can be the culmination of many years of work and many years of building a tech company in Indiana.
Um, and I think that that's important for us to celebrate. They're also most likely gonna be the ones that go on to become the future Lillys and the future Salesforce is ExactTarget, et et cetera. Um, so I think that category, you know, there's a reason we oftentimes put it last. We're still working on the run of show for this year, but it's just one that people really look forward to and look forward to celebrating.
Um, because of that, because these are the ones that we think, you know, have that future impact on our state.
Nate Spangle: If anyone was curious, I had to look up Tempesta. Media, and they are like the media demand generation arm for contractors. So they're helping like, like solopreneurs or small, and I don't know how big, but they're helping contractors with their, you know, getting, getting booked for jobs and quotes and that whole nine yards, which is like something I feel like I hear more people talking about boring businesses, like starting, you know, acquiring garage door companies.
Mm-hmm. Or, or you know, construction and contracting. And so being a software or services arm that supports those type of businesses, like now more than ever, I think, you know, a decade ago. If you were trying to like build websites for construction workers or construction companies, it's like, why? No, we don't need that.
We, we do our business by phone. Mm-hmm. Today, if I want a deck built, I want a website where I can go on and like custom build the deck and visualize it in my space. And I like back in the day, one of the biggest innovations in this space was like the Sher, the Sherwin-Williams paint color Matcher, Uhhuh.
You upload a photo and it tells you this is M or whatever it is. And it's like, that was the craziest innovation, not today. It's like. You're taking your Zillow photos, you're adding it into ChatGPT, and you're spitting out like the image on the other side of like what your space could look like. And I think that serving those type of businesses is gonna become more and more popular.
Chelsea Linder: And those industries in Indiana are really adopting technology and being very innovative. I mean, now we have construction companies where you can do like a 3D camera scan of your space, and then they'll be able to give you a quote without ever even coming to your house, right? Yes. Um, there's just so much innovation and so layering on that you, like, you of course you need to have a website to, uh, to use those types of apps.
Um, so I think that's really cool. Um, and definitely worth celebrating as a tech company of the year. I think, you know, again, the overarching theme here is that. The companies that are doing the most impressive innovations in tech are not tech companies. They're companies in any industry that are thinking forward and taking risks, adopting those new things.
And they're also not only in Indianapolis, as you mentioned, um, we have the most diverse set of nominees, um, from a geographic perspective that we've ever had for the Mira Awards. And I think that just really speaks to the spirit of innovation spreading across our state. And that, you know, we have genius every, in every nook and cranny of the state.
Um, and the Mira Awards give us a great platform to celebrate that.
Nate Spangle: Yeah. And you talk about, you know, tier one research universities and all the crazy stuff like we get. Really smart, really cool people involved in Indiana every year from, you know, Notre Dame, Bloomington, and Purdue.
Nate Spangle: Yeah. All, all over the place.
Like those are the big, I'd say those are like the big three. Yeah. But like, even again, I'm like a DePauw grad. There's Wabash, there's Franklin, there's all sorts of cool schools. Valparaiso.
Chelsea Linder: Mm-hmm.
Nate Spangle: Like I just heard about, um, have you heard of the company NearSpace Launch?
Chelsea Linder: Oh, absolutely. They've been a Mira nominee in the past.
Nate Spangle: Easily. Like, go listen to that episode. Easily, like the craziest innovation that I've heard in Indiana with my own two ears. Mm-hmm. They're literally launching satellites into outer space that are manufactured in Upland, Indiana from some, like, like a lot of tie to Taylor.
Chelsea Linder: Mm-hmm.
Nate Spangle: I believe.
Chelsea Linder: I think so.
Yeah.
Nate Spangle: I always get my, my Taylor in Indiana Wesleyan mixed up. Mm-hmm. I think it's Taylor and it's like. They have really poured into starting space camps in Upland.
Chelsea Linder: Mm-hmm.
Nate Spangle: I'm like, what the, this is so crazy cool. Yeah. Like innovation's happening all over. It's happening at a quick rate. You don't have to be in Indianapolis.
You don't, you know, you could be in the basement of your parents' house as a 16-year-old kid, or you could be 80 years old at your retirement community with a laptop. Like there's cool, cool stuff happening. When you think about why galvanizing the Indiana tech community is important and the work that y'all are doing, why is it critical to bring that community together?
Chelsea Linder: I think there's probably two big reasons. Um, the first one is that we know representation matters, and that if we wanna have innovators in the future, if we wanna have people in our community who continue to push the envelope, we have to show them what that looks like and what success could be. In every different definition of success, which is why we try to have such a diverse group of award categories at the Mira Award.
So that's the first thing I remember early in my career, you know, when I first started out at Angie's List, I had such stars in my eyes about the Mira Award winners, you know, and just seeing all of the really cool things that I could aspire to do in my career as I went forward. So I, I think that's a really big part of it.
And then I think from the more, um, broader perspective. We have a lot of great things going on in Indiana that are overlooked outside of Indiana. And so having a platform as big as the Mira Awards that can bring national attention to, or even global attention to the things that we have going on here is really important.
And it is a great source of momentum and brand awareness for the companies that win. Um, you know, we probably wouldn't have heard of NearSpace Launch or other companies like that, um, if it weren't for this great platform that we have to tell those stories.
Nate Spangle: Yeah, absolutely. And again, we talk about it being a, at times lonely, challenging, like startups, tech, the whole thing can be really, really hard.
And so having some time to come together and one celebrate the people who don't give up. Who are blazing these trails, who are doing these amazing things as well as celebrating, you know, there's the Community impact award. There's, you know, you think about like, deals of the year. So like, you know, especially, I mean, the past few years, the landscape to raise money has been challenging.
Mm-hmm. The, the landscape to get acquired and to get, you know, have these transactions happen is not easy. And so like, getting a deal across the finish line, that's important and, and having a moment to just like, Hey, this is so cool. Like, I'm looking through this from like specifically a deal of the year, like one.
Metronet gets acquired by T-Mobile. I like those. Just didn't, I was like, this is an Indiana type thing. Metronet's an Indiana thing.
Chelsea Linder: Yeah. Based in Lebanon, I think.
Nate Spangle: No way.
Chelsea Linder: Yeah.
Nate Spangle: That's pretty sick. I had no idea about that one. Or like Sortera. So
Chelsea Linder: Sortera, yeah, Soter. And I mean, raising, they raised $45 billion,
Nate Spangle: $45 million
Chelsea Linder: today.
That is so incredibly notable because, um, I actually recently published a report about this, the 2025, um, Indiana Venture Capital report, which is where I look at all of the data of rounds that have been raised, not only here in Indiana, but also nationwide, and kind of analyze where we're performing well as a state where we have room to grow.
And a really crazy fact about 2025 is that. 65% of all the venture capital dollars that were invested in the entire year of 2025 went into AI deals. And out of the, all of that dollars that went into AI deals, 85% of that went into three deals. So these are the ones we think of automatically, Anthropic, OpenAI, et cetera.
Right. Wait,
Nate Spangle: wait, wait. Hold on. 60%.
Chelsea Linder: 65%.
Nate Spangle: 65% of total, total money invested. Mm-hmm. Went into AI.
Chelsea Linder: Yep.
Nate Spangle: So you take that 65% of the pie.
Chelsea Linder: Yep.
Nate Spangle: 80,
Chelsea Linder: 85% of all of that went into those three deals. What? So capital is not,
Nate Spangle: so you
Chelsea Linder: could do flowing in the same way as it used to.
Nate Spangle: What it, yeah. Wait, hold on. I wanna look at like what, 85% of 65% it, whatever that number, like over 50%.
Uh, probably Uhhuh of all VC dollars went into three deals.
Chelsea Linder: Yep. So when you talk about an accomplishment, like raising $45 million, like that means a lot and it shows so much proof about that company, right? Like they're really building something innovative. They have customers, they have product market fit.
They're, you know, they're growing and they're able to still. Yeah, gain capital from investors who are today incredibly more risk averse than they've ever been in the past. It's just, it's really notable and cool. And I think so many of these deals, like even Springbuk being acquired, this is another company that has been a Mira Awards, um, nominee in the past is an institution and our ecosystem, so many people have been employed by Springbuk, have been a part of Springbuk.
And, um, to achieve an exit in a time where exits are extremely less likely than they have been in the past, it's just, it's an extra notable accomplishment.
Nate Spangle: I think that it's really interesting. Uh, one I wanna go, so, so,
Chelsea Linder: mm-hmm.
Nate Spangle: They are using AI to do industrial recycling using robotics to sort scrap metal.
Chelsea Linder: Yeah.
Nate Spangle: It's so cool.
Chelsea Linder: Very
Nate Spangle: cool. Like, and think about like a, a legacy industry that's probably, you know. Uh, due for some innovation. Yeah. Very, very cool. Yeah. I'm curious to see. It is a, an interesting time where imagine like two years ago if you raised $45 million, and then I think there's like a number of the historically, what was it like 70 plus 80% of money raised goes to, uh, talent attraction development, like mm-hmm.
You're buying an engineer or you're like hiring an engineering team. You're building out this, and in a world where, hey, maybe I don't need to raise as much money because I don't need as big of a head count. And that is like a badge of honor. And I still, I mean, for us it's like we're up to four full-time employees and it feels yeah, we we're real, you have four people, like, let's go.
But it's like. It's not that cool. Like, I don't know if you need 400 people, like, but it's like a decade ago. It's, yeah, we've grown, we are 400 people now. It's so cool. And now it's like, well I think that that metric of how you're judging how successful these businesses are are gonna shift away from strictly being headcount.
Chelsea Linder: Yeah.
Nate Spangle: Um, I'm also interested to see, yeah, like in the world where you can vibe code about anything, it's like, okay, you typically, you know, acquired businesses for the IP and acquire companies for their software. And now it's like, well, we could spend six months building this type of thing. Like what becomes enterprise value that people are acquiring?
What becomes investible? Like it makes the. VC job very interesting and probably changes it a lot. Where, where it's like, okay, is this defensible? Like mm-hmm. Is there a moat? Can this be built or bought? Mm-hmm. I don't know. That's like,
Chelsea Linder: yeah. I think that the core foundation of data becomes really important.
I think the thing that makes a company acquire now is does it have proprietary data? Um, because that's the thing that you can't vibe code, right? Like you cannot acquire the data unless you acquire the data. Yeah. Um, and that is such a foundational part of AI being able to train and build models. You have to have data to do that.
So I think that that becomes a very key point of an acquisition is, is what data do they have? Um, is it structured, is it usable? All of those things I think are really important.
Nate Spangle: So there it is. You're looking to build enterprise value in 2026. It's all about the data, stuff like that. I mean, I remember Amy Brown, uh, from Authenticx talking about data in like 2017.
Chelsea Linder: Mm-hmm.
Nate Spangle: And about training data, like literally talking about it, it sounded fictional. Like, it was like, what are we, what are we talking about here about ethically training your data and things like that. Mm-hmm. And now it's like, here we are, six, no, her company, what is that, nine years later? Or whatever it is.
And it's like, they were just on the cutting edge of all this. Mm-hmm. And now it's like, oh,
Chelsea Linder: another Mira passed on me. I, I think they probably won too. I, I don't remember for
Nate Spangle: sure. Oh, I mean, they, they were just so early, Authenticx, Amy Brown, the whole crew, they were so early in the AI space that like, just absolute rock stars
Chelsea Linder: data is something that's really interesting to think about because in tech with.
That idea of moving really fast, growing really fast, building something really fast, what can often be sacrifices data, right? Having clean organized data becomes something that isn't a focus. Whereas in our core industries in Indiana, life sciences, manufacturing, et cetera, et cetera, data has been a really important part of that for a long time.
And so these organizations have much better standard standardized process data, cleanliness. They just have a better handle on it and it allows them to leverage AI better. Um, and so that's a really amazing competitive advantage that we have here in Indiana just by the fact that these legacy industries here ha are best positioned to adopt AI.
I think that's, um, something I'm gonna keep my eyes out. As we continue to move into the future,
Nate Spangle: I love it. This has been spectacular. So, Mira, April 24th, get your tickets@techpoint.org. That would work. 8:00 PM is when events start, so I'm assuming,
Chelsea Linder: yep. Happy hour, then the show.
Nate Spangle: Heck yeah. I love it. Uh, finally, every guest that comes on, we have to round it with the same three questions that we ask everyone.
Chelsea Linder: Okay?
Nate Spangle: Okay. All about Indiana Easy money. So, first. Chelsea, what's something the world needs to know about Indiana?
Chelsea Linder: Indiana is doing incredible innovation in life sciences and manufacturing today.
Nate Spangle: Yes, absolutely. Like I keep your Conexus is manufacturing, right?
Chelsea Linder: Connexus. Yeah.
Nate Spangle: And you, there was a, there was a word you said like industry 4.0.
Mm-hmm. I don't even know what that means, but it fires me up. Industry 4.0. I was out visiting the Owen Valley Winery. So this is out in Spencer, Indiana. No. County. And they talked about working with, they're, they're a winery. They talked about working with Conexus to buy this like fancy, like they got a grant to pay for a part of a fancy Italian wine bottler.
Thing that like went from them having to get volunteers to come out and help them bottle wine to now they have like a full production line. And it was through a Conexus Advanced Manufacturing grant.
Chelsea Linder: Yep. Manufacturing Readiness Grants. Yes. And that's exactly what we are celebrating with the, um, Connexus Award this year at the Mera Awards.
And, and that's what Industry 4.0 is too. It's using the internet of things and connected devices to automate manufacturing.
Nate Spangle: It's so sick. I love it. Like I saw this in real life and heard the real story of this. You know, this is a small, this is Spencer, Indiana. It's a small town winery that like wants to produce more product, but they were having to again, get like seven to 12 volunteers to come out and help them like bottle and label the whole thing.
They're like, oh yeah, now we just press go on this button. And we're just like, ripping. Yeah. That's so cool.
Chelsea Linder: And that allows their team to focus on things that only humans can do. Marketing and tasting great wine.
Nate Spangle: Yeah. Come on. Right. We're speaking. That is like a go-to spot for anyone out there. The best brunch I've ever had in my life.
Owen Valley Winery Sunday brunch. Okay. It's like a rotating menu. Fantastic. Okay. This is your opportunity to highlight a part of the state that more people need to be talking about. What is a hidden gem in Indiana?
Chelsea Linder: I'm gonna go with Dave's Deli & Meats in Zionsville.
Nate Spangle: Big Dave's.
Chelsea Linder: Big Dave's, yes.
Nate Spangle: Oh, I called it Mike's the other day.
Like a total silly guy. Big Dave's phenomenal. Yes. The breakfast sandwich
Chelsea Linder: incredible.
Nate Spangle: I, I like never, you don't need to eat for the rest of the day if you have big Dave's breakfast sandwich. It's crazy.
Chelsea Linder: It's true. And the best part about it is. They try so hard to remember every single person's name. Like if you go there and you go back again, they will probably remember your name.
And I think that's just something that we are losing in today's society, and I love that about it. It's incredible. It's a total dive. One of my favorite places.
Nate Spangle: Hey, I, this is a million dollar innovation that we're gonna give out there to anyone still listening at this point. If you listen to the end, you're getting a million dollar innovation AI that remembers your customer's name and reminds your employees.
That would
Chelsea Linder: be useful.
Nate Spangle: I dunno if that's a thing yet, but you're like, imagine like with, again, this is gonna come out, facial
Chelsea Linder: recognition
Nate Spangle: something, it's like something coming in and it like pops up a little like thing that's only you can see that you're Chelsea welcome in the breakfast sandwich with the syrup.
That's what you want. And you're like, oh my gosh, how do they know me? There it is. We just gave you your, the first ever solopreneur unicorn. There it is. Okay. Finally, I know this is gonna be a hard one for you because you're always talking to people and you're very plugged into the, uh, the innovation network across Indiana.
But who's a Hoosier that we need to keep on our radar? Someone who's doing big things.
Chelsea Linder: I'm gonna go with Luke Zhang. So he was an um, extern. A long time ago at TechPoint, he has won the Resilience Mira Award. He has an incredible story today. He is doing some amazing work helping drugs become more accessible at Lilly.
And I just think he's super smart and he's somebody who's gonna change the world.
Nate Spangle: Was he at Resultant?
Chelsea Linder: Yes.
Nate Spangle: Like, have a 10 minute conversation and you're just gonna get a different perspective of the world.
Chelsea Linder: Yep.
Nate Spangle: Uh, absolutely incredible. Uh, yeah. Yeah.
Chelsea Linder: And every time I meet with him, he has no less than five new business ideas, so I know it's just like when he hits on the right one, it's gonna be incredible.
Nate Spangle: Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah. That's, that's a really good one. And he, he has like stories about working with data and engineering and just like, it's one of those people where I'm like, I don't really know exactly what you're doing, but I know that there's a lot of stuff going on and that you're just really, really smart.
Yeah. So Love it. That's a great one. Thank you so much for coming on. This is our, uh, that was it. That was our Mira Awards preview show. Uh, obviously the big, the big night, April 24th, 8:00 PM Things are rolling. Honestly, it's so cool to have an organization that's for 27 years been putting on an award show to celebrate the innovators, the entrepreneurs, and I don't know, just some of the coolest forward-thinking people in the state of Indiana that are helping continue to put our state on the map.
I think that, I mean, lots of people know about. Exact Target and Angie's list and some of the, the legacy businesses. And every day, every year more of these iconic Indiana brands are being built that are, you know, shaping history in a lot of ways. So I think it's awesome. The work that you guys are doing is super important.
The work you're doing to support founders, very, very important. Um, keeping it up if people want to get plugged in. There are entrepreneurs out there listening that you don't want to get plugged into TechPoint, all the things you're doing. How can they do that?
Chelsea Linder: techpoint.org and then if they click on innovation, all of our kind of startup focus programming is there.
I think the best thing to do first is sign up for venture support. So that's a chance to just meet with our team one-on-one. We love to learn about startups. Um, we'll give you some advice. We'll help make some connections into the TechPoint Network, and we'll talk to you about what other resources we have available that you should get connected to, like the Founders Network.
Nate Spangle: Love it. Alright, keep up the good work and we'll see y'all at the Mira Awards.
Chelsea Linder: Thank you.
Nate Spangle: This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater. Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level, click the link in the description to see all my gear recommendations at Sweetwater.
If you want a behind the scenes look at everything we're doing across the state. Make sure you follow me on Instagram and TikTok at Nate Spangle. Thank you so much for listening and being a part of what makes the Hoosier State. Great. We'll see you next time here on Get IN.
