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(IBJ Photo/Aaron P. Bernstein)Tops in Tech: After selling his startup MyJibe, Langellier was named to the top spot at TechPoint, which focuses on community building and event marketing for technology companies. “My vision,” he said, “is that it becomes the most powerful engine for tech company growth in Indiana by injecting talent, capital and promotion.”
Can he build it? (Yes, he can): Langellier, who graduated from DePauw University with a focus on economics, English and communications, said he wasn’t a tech geek in high school or college. “By nature,” he corrected, “I’m a builder. I love to build and fix things—products, organizations, businesses. Tech was a natural avenue for building things quickly.”
Ready Orr not: Langellier calls his receipt of the Orr Entrepreneurial Fellowship (a program helping select undergraduates break into leading Indiana companies) “one of my most significant life changers.” Not only did it lead to his first post-college job—with banking consultant Baker Hill—but it also connected him to influential mentors, plugged him into the emerging Indiana tech world, and introduced him to his wife, a Purdue University Orr fellow. “If not for the Orr Fellowship, I don’t know where I’d be.”
Family: wife, Carrie; children Renner, 5, Quincy, 3, and infant Yates
Pay back: Now he serves on the Orr Fellowship board. He’s also on the board of the TechPoint Foundation for Youth (a separate entity from TechPoint).
Start me up: Langellier and his partner launched MyJibe in the midst of the financial crisis, assisted by Bloomington startup accelerator SproutBox. “I had a 2-year-old and a 2-month-old and we made the bet that we could do this without a paycheck for a while.” No money came in for 18 months, until he sold the company to Utah-based MoneyDesktop. “Like most major decisions in my life,” he said, starting a business was “a compulsion. I couldn’t not do it—just as I couldn’t not take the Orr Fellowship, marry my wife, or take the reins at TechPoint.”
Escaping: While enjoying an occasional trip to Dallas Lake, where he enjoys water sports, Langellier said, “Working with a bunch of startup companies and having three little startups running around the house, there’s not a whole lot of downtime.”•
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