Business

Overlooked in the indignation over job exportation—which thrashed between sincere and synthetic—was the Hoosier State’s steadily growing reliance on job importation.

“First, we sometimes have this self-effacing Hoosier humble confidence that can swing too much into being ashamed of Indiana and talking down Indiana. That does us no good.”

Gone are the days of staking out a spot, Land Rush–style, in a cramped coffee shop and taking conference calls in the bathroom. Here, a guide to navigating Indy’s hottest new coworking spaces.

Taxpayers weren’t anticipating having to finance the park, but as hotels, restaurants, and shops that would have paid for it have been slow to move to Westfield, that’s looking more and more likely.

The more the national light shines on Indy startups, the more important it is that these companies achieve their most meaningful growth with local ingredients.

“I don’t think (women) are being specifically excluded. But I don’t think these organizations that are involved in public policy are thinking, Let’s invite women. The other thing is that women don’t have the same level of confidence to go into a place where they want to feel prepared, educated, and ready.”

Then there’s the house, the most visible manifestation of Steve Hilbert’s megabucks lifestyle. Built over several years by Hilbert and his ex-wife, it embodies the sort of wealth that even some nations would envy.

With Donald Trump and wife Melania Trump dragged into the fray, the feud was no longer just a regional skirmish pitting a flamboyant Hoosier millionaire against a meat-and-potatoes billionaire from America’s Dairyland. It was a critical mass of heavyweight egos, with jealously guarded private lives hung out on the courthouse clothesline.

“All of my best ideas are scribbled on airplane barf bags.”

“I live in a normal neighborhood in Greenfield with a couple of cul-de-sacs, and I literally went door to door to get people to invest $5,000 in ExactTarget. On the Google Map of my neighborhood, you’ll see, like, seven swimming pools. Every one of the swimming pools corresponds to an ExactTarget investor.”

“Startups are high-risk, high-reward. It could be a lot. You know the saying, ‘Don’t count your chickens before they hatch’? There are a lot of good-looking eggs, but none have hatched yet.”

When paired with a free app, the interactive duck features stories, music, and learning-based games. It’s a rare example of a consumer electronic conceived in Indy.

“There was an early rule that if they follow you, you should follow them back, and kumbaya. But the more you narrow your focus, the more valuable your feed can become.”

“Not many places have had that kind of success. We’re not faking it. This is real.”

Of the thousands of technology businesses tinkering in Indy right now, these are generating the most buzz.