‘Magical’ Event to Bring Innovators, Investors Together
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowOne of the organizers of next week’s inX3 says a big chunk of the four-day celebration of Indiana innovation will key on the "oxygen" driving tech sector growth: venture capital. ClearObject Inc. Chief Executive Officer John McDonald says scheduling two marquee events — the Venture Club of Indiana’s Innovation Showcase and TechPoint’s Winners’ Circle — back-to-back creates a "one-ask" opportunity for investors. "Generally speaking, you’ve got to get on an airplane," McDonald says about innovators seeking venture capital in a state with a well-documented lack of it.
He says the number of potential investors expected to attend, plus the talent that will be on display will make the event "magical." McDonald says 40 different venture capital companies are slated to participate, joining what he calls "the best group I’ve ever seen" of innovative ideas at a statewide showcase. He credits past Innovation Showcases with two different rounds of funding that helped his company, then called CloudOne, grow. "Really, the oxygen of our business is capital," he tells Inside INdiana Business, "it’s the thing that we’re able to pour on good ideas and help them grow faster than they would normally so we can capitalize — literally — on a technology or innovation before it’s obsolete. That’s why capital is important and why it’s important to our state is because we’re not really good at this and it’s time to do better at this, and now we’ve got an event that will help put the headlights on this, so hopefully, we can lift all the boats."
inX3 will run from June 13-16 and in addition to the Innovation Showcase and Winner’s Circle will also feature FailFest at Launch Fishers and the Indy Civic Hack.