The Circuit

This episode is all things fintech with Mike Mead, Chief Information Officer for CNO Financial Group. Mead is responsible for the strategy and execution of CNO's information technology, cybersecurity, IT infrastructure, and digital transformation. Prior to joining CNO, he spent 22 years at AIG, where he served as senior vice president and transformation executive with AIG Technologies, responsible for delivering global transformation initiatives spanning technology and people.

In this episode, Gail Farnsley, former Executive Partner with Gartner Executive Programs, discussed the impact of digital innovation on industries and on talent development. Farnsley is a long-time tech executive, having worked in a variety of corporate IT roles in the US and UK, from programmer at Public Service Indiana to Vice President of IT and CIO at Cummins. She has also been active on a number of boards throughout her career. Gail is currently a member of the Purdue Polytechnic Institute Dean's Council and actively involved with the Techpoint Foundation for Youth and is committed to providing experiences to help underserved kids gets excited about technology.

In this episode, Tracy Kemp, senior vice president and chief information and digital officer for Allegion, discussed industry-led digital transformation and AI activities. In her current role, she is responsible for global information technology, information security, global data and analytics, as well as digital technology programs. A thought leader on Allegion's digital transformation, Tracy leverages data and digital outcomes to solve business challenges and deliver innovative solutions.

In this episode, Alison Bell, an Indiana native with 20 years of higher education leadership experience, dialogued with Dennis Trinkle at TechPoint, the importance of developing Indiana tech talent pathways. She currently serves as the Chancellor for WGU Indiana and the Regional Vice President for the online university's central region. Bell advocates for “more access to education and the importance of workforce development to support our people and our communities."

In this episode, Infosys tech leader Richard Cardell discussed his journey in building up the US technology and innovation hub in Indiana and in the US. Cardwell brings twenty years of experience across consulting and strategy roles at global technology organizations, focused on helping businesses transform for the increasingly digital future. At Infosys, he works to drive the development and delivery of new technologies such as Digital, Analytics, AI and the Internet of Things, with a particular focus on talent development and skilling. Accelerating the U.S. talent model for Infosys and driving the creation of new Innovation and Technology Hubs by collaborating with clients, local state governments and academic ecosystems is the name of the game. Cardwell holds an MBA from Indiana Wesleyan University and a bachelor's degree in Psychology from Valparaiso University.

In this episode, seasoned venture market executive Jeff Lampe with Customers Bank, discussed with Chelsea Linder at TechPoint, the state of venture debt post the Silicon Valley bank collapse and what it means for the startup and venture capital landscape for the U.S. and for Indiana. Lampe previous served as managing director Midwest Venture Banking at Signature Bank NY and Square1/PACW. Prior to technology banking, Lampe was a partner at Woodland Venture Management (a $100MM+ VC fund), in addition to being a Board Member at SageQuest (acquired by Fleetmatics) along with four other companies and brings significant expertise in high growth SaaS environments including telematics. He was a co-founder of Gazelle TechVentures (a $60MM+ VC fund). Lampe received his BS from Purdue and MBA from Notre Dame.

In this episode, Aspen Institute's Cordell Carter discussed talent engagement strategies in his keynote speech at TechPoint's Talent Community of Practice event. Cordell brings more than 20 years to his pursuit of a society and organizational cultures where everyone belongs and has equitable opportunities to thrive. He is currently executive director of the Aspen Institute Socrates Program, a global education forum and the founding director of the Aspen Institute's Project on Belonging. Finally, Cordell founded the Festival of the Diaspora, a Colombia-based convener of diasporic communities across the Americas. Before his current roles, Cordell held leadership roles with the TechTown Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle Public Schools, Business Roundtable, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, and the IBM Corporation.

Our four-part miniseries focused on Artificial Intelligence, its place within Indiana's tech sector, and Indiana University's role in driving innovation in the AI space. In this episode, Merillat Flowers sits down with Ravi Bhatt Founder and CEO of Folia and BranchfireRavi talks about why he moved to Indiana to launch his company, the advantages of being an entrepreneur in a college town, and what it means to be a founder in the time of AI.

Our four-part miniseries focused on Artificial Intelligence, its place within Indiana's tech sector, and Indiana University's role in driving innovation in the AI space. In this episode, Merillat Flowers sits down with Rob Lowden, Vice-President and CIO of Indiana University's Information Technology Services group.Rob talks about IU's Research Pod and Big Red 200, what IU is doing in the artificial intelligence space, and how IU is leading in digital acceleration in the higher education space.

Our four-part miniseries focused on Artificial Intelligence, its place within Indiana's tech sector, and Indiana University's role in driving innovation in the AI space. In this episode, Dennis Trinkle sits down with Pat East, Executive Director the The Mill and Principal of Flywheel Fund, and Jason Whitney, Chief Venture Officer of IU Ventures.Jason and Pat talk about Bloomington's entrepreneurial ecosystem, how Indiana University has been a partner to the venture world, and where they see investment going in the AI sector.

Our four-part miniseries focused on Artificial Intelligence, its place within Indiana's tech sector, and Indiana University's role in driving innovation in the AI space.In this episode, Dennis Trinkle sits down with Joanna Millunchick, Dean of IU's Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, and David Crandall, Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Artificial Intelligence Center.Joanna and David discuss AI's recent dominance, what's the future holds for AI, and how Luddy School will drive AI innovation.

Tony Newcome, CTO of ActiveCampaign, talks about how marketing automation has evolved after Apple's privacy updates, what the future holds for generative AI and creative work, and how Indianapolis is a MarTech hub.

Chase Flashman, founder and CEO of ShipSigma, talks about his career from UPS intern to founding his own company, walks through ShipSigma's platform, and what it means to operate a business in Indiana.

Lindsay Tjepkema, CEO and founder of Casted, talks about the role podcasting can play in establishing your B2B brand, what content marketing looks like in the age of AI, and why startups should consider starting a podcast today.

Steve Johns, OneCause CEO and author of "Fearless: Leadership Lessons at the Crossroads," talks about the company's history, leading the company during the pandemic, and what it means to be a fearless leader.

What does the future hold for hardtech innovation in Indiana? Roger Shuman is joined by TechPoint President and CEO Ting Gootee; Conexus Indiana Director of Innovation and Digital Transformation, Ryan Henderson, and Nida Ansari, formerly of HG Ventures, now founder of Karmic Partners, to discuss the state of hardtech innovation in Indiana.

CEO Eric Christopher sits down with Inside Indiana Business's Gerry Dick to discuss winning the Scale-up of the Year.Founded in 2017, Zylo was the first company to recognize that organizations needed a better way to help manage their rapidly growing Software as a Service (SaaS) portfolios. Its groundbreaking service was a near instant success and led to the Indianapolis company's 2020 TechPoint Mira Scale-up of the Year award. Three years later, the company returned to the Mira gala stage to take home the award again. Even in 2022's uncertain economic times, Zylo secured $36.5 million in a Series C capital raise. Over the next five years, the company expects to nearly triple its employee base from 130 to nearly 400 employees in Indiana and throughout the country. The company is also on pace to more than triple its revenue. Zylo has a historical client retention rate of more than 90 percent and achieved multiple record-breaking sales quarters in 2022. It is well capitalized for future growth and led by a strong and stable executive team that has the experience to propel its continued upward trajectory.

CEO Grant Chapman sits down with Inside Indiana Business's Gerry Dick to discuss Glassboard winning Service Partner of the Year.Glassboard, a hardware product development company, helps solopreneurs, startups, small businesses and Fortune 500 companies punch above their weight class and out-innovate their competition. The team likes to “go into the deep end” of product challenges and also provide business services to ensure their clients' products successfully get to market and delight the end user once they're there.

Captain Ryan Lynch sits down with Inside Indiana Business's Gerry Dick to discuss winning the TechPoint Foundation for Youth (TPF4Y) Bridge Builder Award. Indianapolis native Captain Ryan Lynch, a Republic Airways commercial airline pilot, founder of the National Aviation Youth Resources (NAYR) Foundation and director of the Indianapolis/Indiana ACE Academy, will receive the TechPoint Foundation for Youth (TPF4Y) Bridge Builder Award during TechPoint's 24th annual Mira Awards gala honoring the best of tech in Indiana.

Solinftec Human Resources Manager Jessica Kelley sits down with Inside Indiana Business's Gerry Dick to discuss winning the Deal of the Year award.Solinftec's $60 million growth investment round secured in May 2022, will be recognized as the Deal of the Year during TechPoint's 24th annual Mira Awards gala this Saturday. The investment, which was led by Lightsmith Group in New York, is enabling Solinftec to expand availability of its digital-ag operating system in North and South America

RxLightning's CEO Julia Regan sits down with Inside Indiana Business's Gerry Dick to discuss winning the Disruptor of the Year award.New Albany, Ind.-based RxLightning, an innovator in providing digital solutions for specialty medication access, won the award for Disruptor of the year during TechPoint's 24th annual Mira Awards gala honoring the best of tech in Indiana.

Ixana CEO and founder David Yang sits down with Inside Indiana Business's Gerry Dick to discuss winning Startup of the Year.West Lafayette, Ind.-based Ixana, inventor of a new wireless technology with the potential to transform human computer interaction, won the award for Startup of the year during TechPoint's 24th annual Mira Awards gala honoring the best of tech in Indiana.

gener8tor Partner Chelsea Linder sits down with Inside Indiana Business's Gerry Dick to discuss winning the Entrepreneurial Service Excellence award.Indianapolis-based startup accelerator gener8tor won the Entrepreneurial Service Excellence Award during TechPoint's 24th annual Mira Awards gala honoring the best of tech in Indiana.

Qualifi CEO Darrian Mikell sits down with with Inside Indiana Business's Gerry Dick to discuss winning the Exceptional Employer award.Indianapolis-based on-demand candidate screening platform Qualifi won the Exceptional Employer Award during TechPoint's 24th annual Mira Awards gala honoring the best of tech in Indiana.

Student Entrepreneur of the Year, Kerry Ao sits down with with Inside Indiana Business's Gerry Dick.Evansville, Ind.-based Intertwined CEO and Co-founder Kerry Ao won the award for Student Entrepreneur of the Year during TechPoint's 24th annual Mira Awards gala honoring the best of tech in Indiana.

Jobworks Chief Human Resource Officer Vic Oberhausen sits down with Inside Indiana Business's Gerry Dick to discuss winning the Education Impact Award.Tech positions in Indiana and around the world are in white-hot demand and supply is woefully short, which is why TechPoint launched its Mission41K initiative in 2022, a collaborative effort to inclusively add 41,000 people to the Hoosier tech workforce by 2025. Hitting that mark will undoubtedly be helped by JobWorks Education & Training Systems (JETS), which for 40 years has helped Hoosiers find employment. Its virtual boot camps have supercharged those efforts and are providing accessible, life-changing opportunity to underrepresented Hoosiers throughout Indiana. Despite entering the organization's program with no prior tech training, 85 percent of its employed graduates hold tech positions, earning $19 an hour on average, an increase of about 25 percent over their pre-program wage on average, most of them coming from underrepresented groups.

Tactile Engineering CEO David Schleppenbach sits down with Inside Indiana Business's Gerry Dick to discuss winning both Product Innovation of the Year and Rising Entrepreneur.Against a backdrop of nearly 30 years of consistent warnings that their concept was “impossible” to achieve, the Tactile Engineering team proved the naysayers wrong with the launch of the Cadence tablet, a mass-produced, affordable, reliable and portable electronic braille and graphics display for the blind and visually impaired (B/VI) community. Until Cadence, blind people – including tens of thousands of Hoosiers – lacked adequate access to braille and tactile graphics, resulting in literacy rates under five percent and an unemployment rate of more than 50 percent. Cadence brings education for the B/VI community into the modern age, giving them many of the modern computer-based conveniences that sighted people take for granted.Dave Schleppenbach is a lifelong champion of improving accessibility of STEM content and careers for people with disabilities. At his first company, GH, LLC, he pioneered innovations in braille production and tactile graphics design, building GH into one of the largest producers of braille in the world. He later started Tactile Engineering and Tactile Solutions to pursue his long-held dream of making an affordable mass-produced tactile graphics display and tablet computer for the blind. Schleppenbach led the Tactile team through years of bootstrapped research and development, manufacturing, sales, and fundraising, interchangeably wearing the hats of CEO, sales director, engineer, and researcher. In 2022, he secured solid funding, brought its Lafayette manufacturing facility online, and began deployment of its Cadence tablets in schools throughout the state and world.

RxLightning's CEO Julia Regan sits down with Inside Indiana Business's Gerry Dick to discuss winning the Product Launch of the Year award.RxLightning won the 2022 TechPoint Mira Startup of the Year and Tech Product of the Year awards for its groundbreaking work in digitizing a paper-dominated process for patients to receive more than 1,200 specialty medications, reducing wait times from months or weeks to days or hours. In November, the company launched its revolutionary MedAccess Ecosystem, the first end-to-end digital platform to streamline the specialty medication process and establish interconnectivity between prescribers, specialty pharmacies, patients and everyone in the process. The platform is already being used by some of the world's leading healthcare organizations. With the platform, 94.1 percent of patients are getting access to medications in less than one hour, and 99.1 percent in less than one day.

Allegion's Senior Director, Software Product Delivery, IT Americas Bruce Tansy sits down with Inside Indiana Business's Gerry Dick to discuss winning the Mission41k Talent Award.A cross-sector panel of judges reviewed the nominations and data for six extraordinary companies that answered TechPoint's call to action for companies across all sectors to innovate and adopt leading strategies to inclusively grow Indiana's tech and tech-enabled workforce by 41,000 net new workers by 2030. Allegion, a global provider of security products for homes and businesses, stood out from its peers for the breadth, depth, and commitment to Mission41K's goals and strategies.

Preventia CTO John Martin sits down with Inside Indiana Business's Gerry Dick to discuss winning the Tech Team of the Year award.Colleges and universities have long struggled to meet student needs for mental health services. Recent studies suggest the pandemic has only exacerbated the challenge, finding that more than 50 percent of American students suffer from one or more mental health issues. A two-person team from Preventia stepped in to address this challenge last year. Preventia is a scalable virtual-first care solution that enables any organization's members to immediately connect with credentialed caregivers who focus on lifestyle, mental, and behavioral health.

Business partners System Scale, Mike Sale, and Growth Heroes, Jim Bartek, sit down with Inside Indiana Business's Gerry Dick to discuss winning the Digital Transformation Award together.Technology is everywhere these days. It plays an oversized role in organizational success whether it's in the life sciences, advanced manufacturing and logistics, energy or agbiosciences sectors, in academia, the nonprofit world, retail or food service organizations. But it wasn't always that way, and more than a few companies have stumbled by either not adopting tech as it evolved or by not adopting the right tech fast enough. In a crowded field, System Scale, a major player in the weights and measures industry and its Salesforce consultant, Growth Heroes, Growth Heroes stood out for a soup-to-nuts transformation and the effect on System Scale's employee-owners.

Maria Sellers, the inaugural Nextech Computer Science Teacher of the Year, sits down with Inside Indiana Business's Gerry Dick.The Nextech Computer Science Teacher of the Year award recognizes educators whose achievements advance the education of students beyond the mere use of technology: they go above and beyond to inspire students to view computer science in a new light, engage students in disciplined computer science curriculum aligned with Indiana standards and create opportunities for ALL students to participate.

Rupal Thanawala, CEO of Trident Systems, sits down with Inside Indiana Business's Gerry Dick to talk about winning the 2023 Trailblazer Award during the 24th annual TechPoint Mira Awards gala.The Trailblazer Award recognizes visionaries whose contributions have had lasting and significant impact on the state and its technology ecosystem.

Ting Gootee, President and CEO of TechPoint, sits down with Inside Indiana Business's Gerry Dick to talk about the 24th Annual Mira Awards.

In this episode, we sit down with Sally Reasoner, People + Culture Strategic Projects Lead with The Heritage Group. The Heritage Group is family-owned business based in Indianapolis managing a portfolio of more than 30 companies specializing in heavy construction and materials, environmental services and specialty chemicals. Sally talks about her time with TechPoint and the creation of the Xtern program, her journey to Ascend Indiana and then The Heritage Group, and what she sees on the horizon for the future of talent in Indiana.

We sit down with Brad Voeller, founder and CEO of New Apprenticeship. New Apprenticeship is a Department of Labor registered apprenticeship for tech-skilled positions. He talks about the story behind founding New Apprenticeship, why apprenticeships are key in building an inclusive workforce, and their partnership with TechPoint with Mission41K.

10 years ago, roughly half of Indiana's college graduates remained in the state upon graduation. This number was even lower for STEM degrees, as many of these students found opportunities and offers in major tech hubs. It was in the face of this problem that TechPoint launched the Xtern program, a 10 week internship program that employs hundreds of college students in roles at local tech companies. In this Circuit mini-series,  X Years of Talent, TechPoint interviews the major players in Indiana's tech landscape from talent organizations to the people who were there at the beginning of Xtern. We look back at the past decade of Indiana's talent initiative and look towards the future of Indiana's tech workforce. In this episode, we sit down with Steven Emch, President of the Orr Fellowship. Orr Fellowship is a nonprofit organization that matches exceptional graduating college seniors with full­-time employment at  Indianapolis area companies. He talks about Orr's rich history in Indiana's tech sector, his vision as the organization's new president, and TechPoint and Orr's future of collaboration.

10 years ago, roughly half of Indiana's college graduates remained in the state upon graduation. This number was even lower for STEM degrees, as many of these students found opportunities and offers in major tech hubs. It was in the face of this problem that TechPoint launched the Xtern program, a 10 week internship program that employs hundreds of college students in roles at local tech companies. In this Circuit mini-series,  X Years of Talent, TechPoint interviews the major players in Indiana's tech landscape from talent organizations to the people who were there at the beginning of Xtern. We look back at the past decade of Indiana's talent initiative and look towards the future of Indiana's tech workforce. In this episode, we sit down with Al Carroll, CEO of IndyHub. IndyHub is on a mission to grow and engage a community of young adults in Indianapolis. He talks about the mission alignment between IndyHub and TechPoint, how Indiana can be a destination for talent, reflects back on the early days of Xtern.

10 years ago, roughly half of Indiana's college graduates remained in the state upon graduation. This number was even lower for STEM degrees, as many of these students found opportunities and offers in major tech hubs. It was in the face of this problem that TechPoint launched the Xtern program, a 10 week internship program that employs hundreds of college students in roles at local tech companies. In this Circuit mini-series,  X Years of Talent, TechPoint interviews the major players in Indiana's tech landscape from talent organizations to the people who were there at the beginning of Xtern. We look back at the past decade of Indiana's talent initiative and look towards the future of Indiana's tech workforce. In this episode, we sit down with Julie Heath, Vice President of Entrepreneurial Ecosystems at the Indiana Economic Development Corporation. Along with Elisabeth Nieshalla, Taylor University student and Entrepreneurial Fellow at IEDC. They talk about the role talent plays in the success of Indiana's entrepreneurial ecosystem and IEDC's new partnership to bring Xtern to young startups.

In this episode, we talk to Jeff Ton, founder and manager of the Indy CIO Network. The CIO Network is a community of over 200 Indiana based IT leaders that meet to discuss current tech trends and issues. Jeff talks about his four decade career in IT, why the Indy CIO Network was founded, and the future of the organization as a partner of TechPoint.

We talk to Megan Nail , Vice President of the Total Rewards Practice at NFP. NFP is a leading benefits consultant, wealth manager, and retirement plan advisor. In this episode, we talk about how tech-driven employers can leverage compensation and benefit plan design to attract and retain talent. We explore considerations for navigating total rewards administration in a hybrid or remote first work environment. And we discuss the importance of communicating compensation philosophy to employees and navigating questions related to the current economic climate.

In this episode, we talk to Jim Goldman, CEO and co-founder of Trava.  Trava is on a mission to simplify cybersecurity for small and midsized businesses. Jim talks about his journey from academia to FBI to tech founder, how cybersecurity has evolved during his career, and our collective role in preventing cyber threats.

In today's episode, we talk to Mitch Frazier, CEO at AgriNovus.  Part of the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, AgriNovus is a non-profit fueling growth in Indiana's agbioscience community. Mitch talks about his career and his leadership, the intersection of tech and agbioscience, and what the future holds for the industry. 

Today we talk to Kelli Jones, co-founder of both Sixty8 Capital and the Be Nimble Foundation. Sixty8 Capital is a Indiana-based venture firm dedicated to investing in diverse communities. Be Nimble is non-profit with the goal of advancing diversity initiatives to create fully inclusive tech ecosystems. In this episode we talk about Kelli's journey to working in venture capital, the shared missions of Sixty8 Capital and Be Nimble, and what Indiana can do to be a more inclusive tech community. 

Today we talk to Katie Birge, associate and head of platform at M25. M25 is an early-stage venture firm based in Chicago that invests solely in tech startups based in the Midwest with many Indiana companies in their portfolio. In this episode we talk about Katie's journey to working in venture capital, what criteria M25 looks for when investing in a startup, and what circumstances led to Indianapolis being ranked the number three midwest startup city. 

Today we talk to Kristen Nunery, founder and CEO at myCOI. myCOI provides companies the ability to automate insurance certificate requests and compliance. Kristen talks about the inspiration for founding the company, how they have built an award winning employee culture, and what's on the horizon for myCOI.

We talk to Tushar Sonvani, Purdue University student and Xtern form Sallie Mae. In this episode, Tushar shares his experience living in Indianapolis, what it was like working for Sallie Mae, and his recommendations for future Xterns.

Today we talk to Matt Tyner, Vice-President of People Operations and GM at Wunderkind. Wunderkind helps ecommerce marketers create one-to-one customer experiences at scale through all the channels they own. In this episode, we talk about Matt's journey into tech, how the company has evolved since its start and what's on the horizon for Wunderkind.  

We talk to Julia Regan, CEO and founder of RxLightning. RxLightning is disrupting the healthcare industry by accelerating the enrollment process for specialty prescriptions. In this episode, we will talk about Julia's motivation behind founding RxLightning, the opportunity they found in specialty enrollment, and her journey to becoming a tech leader.

In this episode, we talk to Darrian and Devyn Mikell, co-founders of Qualifi. Qualifi has accelerated the hiring process by eliminating phone-tag with asynchronous interviews. They talk about Qualifi's origins, how recruitment has evolved since the company was founded, along with the story of how Darrian and Devyn's entrepreneurial careers grew separately before converging with the founding of Qualifi.

Malomo is disrupting the eCommerce industry by empowering retailers with the ability to market to customers during the shipment process. In this episode, we talk about the marketing opportunity Malomo saw in shipment tracking, Yaw's entrepreneurial journey, and the results of Malomo's recent 6-month-long pilot of a 4-day workweek.Transcript available: https://techpoint.org/yaw-aning-malomo/