Does entrepreneurial speed dating work?

July 18, 2012
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This week, let’s use What’s New Wednesday to discuss the fourth-annual Innovation Showcase, an increasingly popular event that aims to connect area entrepreneurs with interested investors. Think speed dating with higher stakes.

About 60 founders made one-minute pitches to potential funders at the July 12 event, presented by the Venture Club of Indiana and tech startup group Verge.

Attendance has grown since the collaboration began last year. All told, 65 high-potential businesses and more than 500 venture capitalists were expected among the 1,000-plus attendees. (In the end, a few firms were no-shows or didn’t make pitches.)

This year's business concepts ran the gamut from ChoreMonster, a Cincinnati-based tech firm that allows parents to tie incentives to their kids’ to-do lists, to MyFarms LLC, a Jay County farmer’s idea for using data-driven practices to maximize yields.

Some, like social-connection platform friendtro.com, are seeking seed money to get their ideas off the ground. Others are further along, looking for ways to grow.

Indianapolis-based lip balm maker ChopSaver, for example, has had success among professional musicians, but now founder Dan Gosling wants to bring the product to a broader market. He’s trying to raise $1 million to make that happen.

ChopSaver—which won plenty of attention at the showcase thanks to its man-sized mascot and trumpet-playing founder—was among several local presenters IBJ already has covered. Just in the last year, we’ve written about Courseload Inc., CoatChex, Legacy Travel Club, App Press, TinderBox, PatentStatus, Snappening and Purple Pail. (Legacy’s uniformed “flight attendants,” who handed out decorated sugar cookies, also were a hit.)

The event provided enough story ideas to keep me busy for awhile, but let’s hear from other attendees with more skin in the game. What did you expect from the Innovation Showcase? Did it deliver?
 

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  • Thumbs Up!
    Dan GoslingJuly 18, 2012 10:46 AM
    The ChopSaver Team had a great time and loved the energy! We didn't expect anyone to write a check on the spot but the feedback was invaluable and we have some solid leads to follow.
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  • Yep, seems to do the trick!
    Crystal GraveJuly 18, 2012 1:16 PM
    Our company, www.Snappening.com, has participated in the event twice now, and both times we've made new contacts, grown our stature in the VC community and learned from new business connections and advocates. We're thankful we've been allowed to participate at this level in the community and welcome such opportunities. When you're new, having some guidance and feedback on your growth concepts is a big aid. Oh, and people interested in giving you money always helps too!
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  • Would do again
    LumenCacheJuly 18, 2012 1:20 PM
    Great connections made and I would do it again. Our product is a platform for other developers so InnovationShowcase was a double win for us by having developers looking for projects and products to create.
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  • Fun Netweaving
    Sally CunninghamJuly 30, 2012 11:56 AM
    I recently participated in a speed marketing event by the Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS). My firm, Relocation Strategies generates a lot of our business by referrals. The more contacts you have, the more referrals you can give. The more referrals you give, the more referrals you get.
    Reply to CommentFlag Comment

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  1. liek the rest of America

  2. These quaint,obsessed musings by the stalkers are certainly entertaining, but I'm trying to figure out what, if anything, all the yelping below has to do with Zak Brown.

  3. It's evident that Moffett was pushing the right buttons and corporate America is now trying to squash him. He just wanted to withdraw the free pilot services provided to the company by the pilots to try and put some pressure on a company that has not been interested in negotiating a contract in over 5 years. The company does not provide a contract because not having one has saved them a bundle of money. Shame on any Republic pilots not standing behind their union leader just because things are getting tough, can you not see such strategic moves by the company as putting the last union president in a corporate position and into THEIR pocket. Do you really believe the last union president is so appalled at the attempts by Moffett, do you not remember his oppositions to the company? We stood behind him. It has been proven over and over again for thousands of years without fail, a man cannot serve two masters. Anyone that believes people vote contrary to their paycheck and livelihood deserve to be taken advantage of, the recent statements by the former union president are laughable as he denounces the current union president from his new corporate position. Have you ever seen a drafted sports player score points for his previous team, it cannot be done, he is not on the pilots side anymore, he gets his money a different way now than you and I do, and he should not be allowed to remain on the seniority list. A drafted player brings strength, credibility, tactical knowledge, and a strategic advantage to his NEW team, he would not be drafted or paid were it otherwise. We are all forced to choose only one side to play for and support, not doing so has many references in life such as insider trading and shaving points, all illegal for good reason. This basic fact is why corporate moguls, scientist, and engineers all sign non-discloser agreements and non-compete clauses, as protection in case they are lured into switching sides as our former union president has done. No NFL coach ever drafted a player so that both teams could benefit and better understand each other, they are recruited to win the game against that former team, period. Likewise the company does not recruit the former union president by accident or mutual understanding, its strategy. Don't confuse playing the game with good sportsman-like conduct in support of common business and prosperity goals, with the requirement to only play for one side. Good men we all love and favor fall subject to this manipulation, often without their knowledge, and it is not a betrayal of their friendship to oppose them when they switch sides. If we did not love and trust them, they would not have been chosen and lured to the other side in the first place. The deception by the drafted player is not made at a conscious level, it's just human nature and it's all about money and power which corrupts our ability to be objective and loyal to two masters. This is why our court system created the defense attorney, and why our military created counter intelligence. Its strategy and its propaganda, and it works, and that's why the "powers to be" manipulate the chess pieces by sometimes changing their colors. Some players know they are being manipulated when their color is changed, but it brings them more money and power so they do not care. The rest have good intentions but do not even realize they are being manipulated. This tactic is also known by another name, Divide and Conquer. In battle sending an imperfect message with an imperfect team is obviously not ideal, but it's still being sent by YOUR team, your union leader, a leader that has common goals and common rewards with you, they are the best, because we have elected them to do a job for us. If you are not backing Moffett but believing the spin by those that have recently switched sides, you are taking food out of your own mouth. Showing unity and backing an imperfect situation still results in taking just as much ground, it's about unity and bargaining power. It's not necessary to wait around for that perfect attack because it will never come, the company will spin and attempt to destroy anyone that gets in their way. Ultimately it's not about any specific attack anyway, ASAP or whatever it makes no difference, it is and always has been only about power. If this company cared about safety it would not build pairings with 8 hour overnights, come on, are you that naive? Besides, do you really think Hoffa cares, no, he got a call from corporate America and was squeezed into denouncing Moffett. If he didn't they would spin the safety card against him and the Teamsters National with implication for truckers, future contracts, insurance rates etc...saying something like the Teamsters use safety as a bargaining chip, blah blah blah... Do you really think any pilot is going to do something unsafe for the contract, absolutely not, the only ones threatening safety here is the company with reduced rest, fatigue, and poverty. Do you not find it odd that Hoffa and the Teamsters are opposing a Teamster president publicly? Would the Teamsters National not normally support and work with one of their own? Why did they not sit down and help him strategize, correct any mistakes, and charge ahead? Would the Teamsters National not normally support and leverage a contract for all those pilots that have been paying Teamster dues, isn't that why we have all been paying Teamster dues in the first place? I sure haven't been paying dues so that the Teamsters National could come along and write this kind of an article undercutting our union leader and our unity. Whose side is the Teamsters National really on, it's obviously not the Republic pilots side.

  4. No matter what Moffatt does the company is going to spin it like he is the terrorist and brainwash people like you into believing it, wake up, back your players that are trying to change things for you and your livelihood. Where has Hoffa been for the last 6 years, except collecting our dues. Seriously, do you really think an FO going for upgrade, signed off by a checkairman ready for the upgrade, who then fails, is not even capable of returning as a First Officer.

  5. whoa!

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