Startup car wash chain aims for high-end splash
There’s no shortage of car washes around Indianapolis. But the owners of Prime Car Wash think the competition has missed a spot—both here and around the country.
Entrepreneurship
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Upstart advertising agency attracting national notice
The Basement boasts a client list that includes K-Mart, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Procter & Gamble, NCAA and Simon Property Group Inc. The firm’s year-over-year revenue in 2014 has grown at better than 25 percent, hitting $2 million.
After victory in London, cake baker opens local shop
Gwendolyn Rogers achieved her goal last month of owning a bakery by opening the Cake Bake Shop in Broad Ripple. The former Little House gift shop space now sports cases full of tasty treats that include her popular cakes, as well as pies, eclairs and other goodies.
Veteran Indy convention planner launches new division
One of the city’s best-known corporate meeting and convention planners, Meeting Services Unlimited Inc., is launching a division focused on smaller, high-end private parties.
Self-compacting garbage bin has myriad uses–thanks to Internet
Entrepreneur Grant Jenkins’ PowerBin can hold three times the amount of the average public trash bin, and can transmit data to municipal and other managers about when it’s full. It can also serve as a Wi-Fi hot spot, relay information about reported crimes, and display advertisements.
Electronic rubber duckie boasts smartphone smarts
Two Carmel-based entrepreneurs created Edwin the Duck, which they bill as the world’s first interactive rubber duck. The prototype has already piqued the interest of Amazon, Bed Bath & Beyond and other retailers, the inventors said.
Investors find value in entrepreneurs who fail
While Midwest venture capitalists are still relatively conservative compared to those on the coasts, failure is increasingly carrying more of an edge and less of a stigma.
Up-and-coming app elbows way into noisy music field
West Lafayette-based Caktus Music Inc. has developed a smartphone application that allows access to music content from multiple sources, including streaming services and personal music libraries, all integrated into one place.
Online retailer helps mom-and-pop running-shoe stores compete
To address a troubling trend he noticed while operating running retailer Blue Mile, Bob Kennedy launched Indianapolis-based eRun Solutions LLC to help the mom-and-pops of the running world go toe-to-toe with their larger retail rivals.
Locally based Wine & Canvas grows to 48 locations nationwide
The husband-and-wife-owned Wine & Canvas has grown from two to 347 employees in just four years with profitability increasing at a double-digit clip, 48 locations coast to coast and plans for international expansion.
Flat 12 venture with IndyCar star yields surprise sales success
Hinchtown Hammer Down beer, named for IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe, is one of Flat 12’s top sellers and has become one of five in the brewery’s core lineup.
MORALEZ: Hoosier angel investment needs further shots in arm
When I started my first company, Bio-Storage Technologies, back in 2002, raising angel capital was time-consuming and inefficient, and the results were mixed at best.
Cutillo ramrods entrepreneurship at Stonegate
Jim Cutillo, co-founder of the fast-growing mortgage company, pushes with military intensity.
Springer picked to head small business operation
Indiana's Office of Small Business Entrepreneurship has picked a new director for its efforts to provide contracts to small businesses.
New co-working space bucking the tech trend
The Grindery is opening soon on Martin Luther King Jr. Street, and it has a slightly different character from the other shared-space sites that have popped up in recent years.
Breweries test limits of craft beer boom
In the last two years, the number of microbreweries operating in Indiana has roughly doubled, to 96. But can the industry sustain such blistering growth, especially in Indianapolis, where much of the activity is occurring, without foaming over?
Lawyers branch out as business execs, entrepreneurs
Sometimes attorneys aren’t completely satisfied with their high-pressure day jobs. Many start unrelated businesses like bakeries, vineyards, breweries and clothiers as an escape, or even a new career.
Startup prodigy Jaramillo started at age 7
Santiago Jaramillo is CEO of Bluebridge Digital LLC, which creates and manages apps primarily for not-for-profits, and it’s one of the first app companies to operate on a subscription model. But Jaramillo was his own boss well before mobile apps and smartphones even existed.
Entrepreneur to offer home brewing minus the hassle
The cost, time and mess that come with brewing beer at home scares a lot of beer connoisseurs, but a Greenwood health care executive thinks he has the answer.
Local Lotus dealership is one of only 42 in United States
Gator Motorsport opened in October as Indiana’s sole Lotus dealer. It’s owned by 41-year-old Young Kim, a first-generation Korean immigrant and Ball State University grad who fell in love with the British hand-built brand as a youngster growing up in Chicago.