Indianapolis has a host of entrepreneurs who are household names in local business circles if not the larger city. Dave
Becker, Don Brown, Albert Chen, Scott Dorsey, Bill Godfrey and Scott Jones in technology. Richard DiMarchi and Jim Pearson
in health care. Jim Bremner and Al Kite in real estate, Bob Laikin and Bill Mays in distribution. Martha Hoover in restaurants.
You get the idea.
But behind the scenes, myriad entrepreneurs are running interesting companies, making money and
creating good jobs.
Ask anyone to tick off a list of unsung entrepreneurs in the Indianapolis area, and you’ll
get lots of different names. Mark Long, a consultant and former head of the Indiana University Research and Technology Corp.,
the university’s tech transfer organization, is quick to rattle off his own list. They are, in no particular order:
Jim Strickland, the former owner of DynoMed and current president of Fast Diagnostics, which is developing a device
to detect kidney injuries. Strickland is good at sales, raising money and quietly doing “his own thing,” Long
says. “He toils away in obscurity, but he gets the job done.”
John Gibbs made a bundle at Interactive
Intelligence, and now he’s launching another software company, Qtrac Software, which focuses on electronic
medical records. “John just kind of does his thing and doesn’t get out in the public a lot,”
Long says.
Mark Kosiarek runs a semi-conductor company in Fishers called Vai Technology. “Nobody knows the
guy,” Long says. But Kosiarek has cracked a beachhead in a big industry and is doing pretty well at it, thank you.
Those are Long’s picks. What are yours? Who are the most underrated local entrepreneurs?









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TRS is brilliant software. So easy to use. I don't know why itâ??s not on this list.
Basically, talent and relative obscurity are the reason these underrated (or unknown) entrepreneurs are so successful.
Is this because resources are drained by processing those who have contacted them?
It can alert competitors to your success, but it can also help you raise capital, find strategic partners and clients, and hire top quality talent.
Thanks IBJ
wouldn't naming them shine light on them?
It's like the days of yore when usenet and email (specifically lists) were the primary methods of communication. It was good sport to post something like, "lurkers suck!" and a post would pop up, "no I/we don't!" (oops)
To hijack the original story:
Seriously, all of this topic is enjoyable to discuss (the anonymity doesn't hurt).
I've watched online technology and related businesses come & go, some were whitepaper predictions for people. Occasionally, they were right, but I couldn't do anything about them.
It's been frustrating at times to plan for time to push forward, only to find out someone started months _after_, grab a little funding, and leapfrog with 10-12 people. I realize that's the way it works...
This time, I'm reasonably comfortable believing I have the right thing at the right time. The tech might be a bit tough.
The dogs will listen (sometimes it takes a few Gummi bears) but not provide feedback.
I've pondered making a snowman, knowing he can't leave.
O/W
ouabache.wabash+ibj@gmail.com