Over the past year, we’ve had the opportunity to participate in the development and launch of the Speak Easy, a place for entrepreneurs, startups, and the folks who support them to work, play, and collaborate. Crafting a brand, web presence, and influencing the structure itself, we couldn’t have been happier to launch the Speak Easy on January 18th.

Taking a cue from coastal co-work spaces like Grind in New York, a group of 8 investors and entrepreneurs (including our own Kristian Andersen) set out to create a gathering place for those active in the startup community. The resulting space is a combination of a 17th century salon, coffee shop, and science lab.

Collaborating with local designers and architects – Nikki Sutton, Nick Allman and Craig McCormick – they transformed a 5,750-square-foot warehouse into a common area office infrastructure, conference rooms, and, in the words of Verge, “a massive opportunity to connect and collaborate with others in the startup community.” Wi-Fi, refreshments, a library and gaming center are just a few of the accoutrements that will be fueling Indy’s creative class as they work at the Speak Easy. Take a peek behind the scenes in IndyHub’s interview with Kristian about startups and the Speak Easy.

The Speak Easy bar, photo by Clay Reinken

The Speak Easy isn’t an accelerator nor an incubator. Rather, it’s a collaborative workspace, where entrepreneurs in any phase of an early-stage startup can work. A membership is required to utilize the space, but thanks to funds from local veteran entrepreneurs, Develop Indy and the CICF, only a nominal annual fee will be required of members.

To learn more and apply for membership, visit SpeakEasyIndy.com.

IFC : Fall Trend Report | Image courtesy of Marc McCoy

KA+A recently partnered up with Indianapolis Fashion Collective, in an effort to transform the way that Indy is building its fashion community. The Collective had been operating for a year, hosting special events and creating a member-based network that would support and mentor designers, photographers, stylists, models, and fashion professionals in the city. The big vision was to create a live/work fashion district in the heart of Indy. It was a great start, and the right minds were coming together, but the burden of the dream was growing heavier and not enough people were joining the group to help carry it.

Understanding that in order for fashion to be a noticeable and viable part of Indy’s fabric, KA+A worked with IFC on shaping a new structure, and a new brand to go with it.

We don’t need to convince the city that fashion and a creative class are good for the economy. We need to convince them that enough people in Indiana care about fashion.

Our immediate thought, was to look at Verge, the wildly successful startup tech meetup, that has become a compelling movement for entrepreneurs, investors, developers, designers and more to join. We had the opportunity to work with Matt Hunckler during a re-branding engagement, in which the meetup dropped its Silicon Valley, Hackers & Founders moniker, and forged an original identity – Verge.

What Verge has established is a regular, replicable event that provides space for its members to share ideas and connect to the right people. By facilitating a similar event in the fashion world, our hope is that people would find a business partner, an investment, a new patron, a mentor, a friend, a partner, a retailer, a photographer, a stylist – that people would connect and build things. IFC’s job isn’t to tell them how, but rather, to put all the people in the right room to make things happen in the city.

Individual growth is magnified when it sees itself mirrored in a vibrant community, allowing ideas to organically take root both generally and individually.

With this model in mind, KA+A stripped back member dues, tearing down any hurdles to joining the movement. Instead of chasing down several big projects, we tightened the purpose of the group to curating monthly events that would unite and grow both the consumers and creators of fashion. A feat that could be organized easily by a few people, and often inexpensively with the help of sponsors. Finally, to reflect the new spirit of the group, a new name was given – Pattern. A name that is intrinsically fashion, and also speaks to the recurring events and creating a new mold for fashion in Indy.

When something happens just once, it may be dismissed as an accident . . . but when the same event repeats itself, it is a sign that a deeper historical process is unfolding.- Zizek

Tonight the new Pattern debuts to a sold-out crowd at the IMOCA. A promising start for an inspiring organization that is truly #makingindybetter.

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Want to meet up with Pattern? Visit meetup.com/pattern.
For fashion editorials, musings and trends, head over to patternindy.com.
Join the fashion conversation at @patternindy.
Like Pattern over on Facebook.

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A special thanks to our honorary team member, Benjamin Blevins, for his help spearheading the new Pattern identity. All quotes are his, unless otherwise noted!

But there actually may be a third, more exciting value prop to amplifying your list: innovation, or even invention, of products.

The post details the common scenario of proposal writing:

For example, let’s say you have to draft up a contract for a client project, a rather humdrum task. Applying N-dimensional thinking, you decide to transform this task by increasing its overall efficiency (one new dimension), improving the contract template design (a second dimension), and learning a new application that will add value to your general skill set and resumé (a third dimension).

It’s a familiar story, and it’s one that for some of our colleagues, inspired the launch of Tinderbox, a web-based application that helps you create, manage, and track proposals more efficiently.

Task lists just got a little more exciting. What do you get to do today?

Today’s company founders only seem to be getting younger, seemingly with fewer traditional qualifications (bachelor’s degrees and MBAs). A phenomena that’s being supported by the likes of Peter Theil (who believes we’re in a bubble – a higher education one, that is) and his 20 Under 20 Fellowship, which is awarding $100,000 grants to top talent “kids” who stop out of school. He’s offering them an alternative to a rules driven, education machine – and putting them into life, where they’ll learn entrepreneurship and build tomorrow’s technology companies.

Tomorrow’s companies are disruptive, and don’t wait for the world to tell them what it needs. Rather, they are “defining the world’s appetite,” as Roger Rosenblatt shares in his book Unless it Moves the Human Heart: The Craft and Art of Writing:

“For your [work] to be great—I mean great, not clever, or even brilliant, or most misleading of all, beautiful—it must be useful to the world. And for that to happen you must form an opinion of the world…. How can you know what is useful to the world? The world will not tell you. The world will merely let you know what it wants, which changes from moment to moment, and is nearly always cockeyed. You cannot allow yourself to be directed by its tastes. When a [person] wonders, “Will it sell?” he is lost, not because he is looking to make an extra buck or two, but rather because, by dint of asking the question in the first place, he has oriented himself toward the expectations of others. The world is not a focus group. The world is an appetite waiting to be defined. The greatest love you can show it is to create what it needs, which means you must know that yourself.”

So how will we know if Theil’s fellows are creating technology that is useful? What will make one startup stand out from the others? Who will become the next member in a Gang of Four? At the recent D9 Conference, Marc Andreessen describes what he looks for as an investor:

It’s really rare for people to have a successful start-up in this industry without a breakthrough product. I’ll take it a step further. It has to be a radical product. It has to be something where, when people look at it, at first they say, “I don’t get it, I don’t understand it. I think it’s too weird, I think it’s too unusual.” One of our key things as investors is we always look for the thing that people are laughing at and that’s growing like a weed.

It’s the story of Apple’s iPod and Ford’s Model T car. It’s the killer app and the disruptive technology. And it’s the radical – ideas that look back on our roots to inform forward thinking.

Speaking of Innovation… our friends at Verge and the Venture Club of Indiana are hosting 2011′s Innovation Showcase at DeveloperTown‘s new Broad Ripple space, on July 12, 2011.

This venture capital conference, is an arena for fundable companies, developing disruptive technologies, to share their business idea to venture capitalists, angel investors, business executives, and fellow entrepreneurs. In the words of Verge’s Matt Hunckler,

If you have a viable software or tech product–whether you’re finishing up building your beta, or already have Fortune 500 clients — the Innovation Showcase is your opportunity to connect your company to over five hundred people from around the country in what could be Indy’s biggest startup event ever.

More than 50 high potential companies will be showcased, from industries such as: information technology, alternative energy, life sciences, medical devices, and industrial products. The event hosts anticipate more the 500 attendees – and if past Verges are any indicator, this will most certainly come true.

The deadline to apply for a showcase is May 31st – so run, don’t walk to the application online! If you’re simply interested in attending, registration is now open, and you can sign up here.

Here’s the schedule of events from the event website:

VIP Reception (Invite Only)
Exhibiting companies will pitch their business idea in one minute or less to an audience of investors.

Showcase
4:30-6:30p
Network with innovation driven, entrepreneurial companies of all stages that have raised over $100 million to date. Food, drinks, guest pitches, and cigars will be provided.

After Party
6:30-9:00p
The party will continue even after the last exhibitor leaves the building. Stay tuned to Innovation Showcase for more detail.

Location:
DeveloperTown
5255 Winthrop Ave
Located in South Broad Ripple, DeveloperTown is an Indianapolis-based venture development firm with plenty of space, a great atmosphere, and a lot of energy.

The Startup Daily
Featuring a tip a day, The Startup Daily blog gives it to you simple with great ideas (e.g. Stop designing products) from great books (e.g. Subject to Change).

MBA Mondays
Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures (known for their investments in Twitter, Foursquare and Etsy) delivers a crash course in business through his blog turned DailyLit series – MBA Mondays. Covering topics from accounting, to investing, to managing your business and more, you can subscribe to the 51 installments for free.

HeadStartup
It’s the era of the app, and like any great startup, you’ll be looking for (free or low cost) software tools to help your lean business be a productive one. HeadStartup is a review repository of the latest and greatest web-based tools (like our friends, Formstack) available to assist you with project management, invoicing, CRM and more of your business needs.

Startup Spectator
Ok, so a little self-promotion with this one, but if you’re interested in local startups, the Startup Spectator blog is quickly becoming an information hub. You’ll find Brandon Corbin (of 8ify also a great resource) telling you why It’s Time to Put Up, or Shut Up, Chip Maxwell describing how to raise money by Stuffraising, and Bryan Povlinski highlighting the movers and the shakers, amongst many other other topics from people plugged in to Indy’s startup landscape.

Check out more advice for startups on the KA+A blog, including Exprerience Design for Startups, Designing a Startup , and Bootstrap Your Startup.

If you think Email is dead, let Doug Karr persuade you otherwise:

“There’s no better medium to carry a message like this than email. It’s exclusive, it’s private, and it’s classy. A blog is a great medium, but broadcasting to everyone puts the content in a different perspective, and wouldn’t be consumed or reacted to the same way.”

After launching in April, we were able to prove that there was an interest in our content. We gained several hundred subscribers and blew past industry average read rates. However, our design, although functional, wasn’t delivering the same exceptional experience that our content was. We turned to KA+A to remake our look and position our brand for success.

KA+A developed a brand mark that was sophisticated and city-chic, with a handwritten flair that creates a sense of intimacy and personality as well. A palette of colors were chosen to create a dynamic mark, which ultimately manifested in email templates of various hues that could be coordinated with the occasion and content being featured in IndySpectator.

Boldly shot panoramic photos of the city (taken by Joetography) set the stage for the website, which currently serves as a marketing & subscription platform. The site was designed to support the submission of tips from the readers, which have begun to fill the margins of the daily issues. The website is built on a flexible content management platform, optimized for mobile viewing.

We launched the new look and new venture on November 11, 2010 at the Ball & Biscuit to a packed house of subscribers, followers, and social media stars. New subscription rates more than tripled that month, and IndySpectator is taking its place in the Indianapolis media community.

Following the success of the reinvigorated IndySpectator, Jenni and I announced the launch of a new sister publication – Startup Spectator – a blog and newsletter that promotes the influx of startup activity in Indianapolis and the rest of Central Indiana, and features the culture and community that sustains it.

An idea that has been long forming in the minds of Indy’s hackers, founders, and investors, Startup Spectator was spurred on by Chris Baggott who was drawn to the IndySpectator format as a better approach to convey the culture, humanity, and brilliance of Indy startups that are boosting quality of life of our city. The platform for Startup Spectator includes a more intensive blog approach in addition to the signature email, and an aggressive social media effort to sate the tech appetites in our city. KA+A developed a brandmark that meshed nicely with the Spectator family of brands, and designed a complementary website and blog.

As the new year approaches, IndySpectator is looking forward to providing even more ways to discover Indy through new authors and approaches, rolling out Startup Spectator, and building an advertising platform across the two brands.

Last Thursday night, KA+A co-hosted a launch party celebrating TinderBox, a company already enjoying some early success. Guests included the who’s who of Indy’s startup and tech community, investors, clients, families and friends. If you weren’t able to make it out to Broad Ripple to help celebrate, don’t worry. I’ve recapped the entire experience for you right here!

WHO
TinderBox is a technology startup company that developed an extremely useful web-based application, that makes it easy to write, manage, track, and send business proposals electronically. For the past year, TinderBox has quickly been building this concept and already boasts an impressive array of investors, clients, and results.

WHEN
Fresh from Chicago, where TinderBox launched at midVentures Launch, it was time to celebrate their accomplishments. After a few weeks of planning, we brought an event to life filled with conversation, excitement, exclusive t-shirts, and fire dancing. On September 30th, TinderBox opened the doors to an unfinished industrial penthouse suite, blocks away from the Broad Ripple Strip, for one of the most exciting launch parties of the year!

Check out the TinderBox midVentures Launch Video

WHAT
Upon entering the room you’d find yourself quickly connecting with the TinderBox founders: Dustin Sapp, Mike Fitzgerald, Kristian Andersen, and Drew Loftus. In one corner DJ Kyle Hodge set the tone with a perfect mix of deep house jazz-funk and electronica. The room was filled with an abundance of great conversation, fueled by a menu, I can’t compliment enough:

• Sam Adams generously supplied a never ending assortment of their best and seasonal brews accompanied with a wine selection of Purple Cowboy Tenacious Red and Eve Chardonnay
• Fresh-baked soft pretzels and assorted mustards from the local Indy Pretzel, complemented by sausages and salamis

And did someone mention fire dancing? It wouldn’t have been a TinderBox party without the perfect entertainment: a women swinging, twirling, breathing, and dancing with fire. Definitely a conversation starter (and stopper) as we became captivated by her performance.

The crowd was gracious and supportive, welcoming TinderBox into the Indy startup community. TinderBox can’t thank this community of investors and customers enough, for taking time to help celebrate the launch of a new company and for contributing to its future success.

WANT TO SEE IT FOR YOURSELF?
Throughout the night, we were able to capture the evening’s experience, entertainment, and guests on video. We spent the next 24 hours pulling together the highlights of the midVentures Launch and launch party, then shared it with the world through the TinderBox platform. Experience it for yourself!

Tinderbox Launch Party Video

TinderBox Launch Party Live Feed Video

• develop your communication skills – verbal, written, visual
• work and life are arguably inseparable – find something you love
• develop your flexibility both practically and mentally, by participating in cross-disciplinary classes and clubs
• learn balance and don’t take on clubs & activities you can’t fully give yourself to
• it’s not the list of organizations that matter on your resume, but what you did for them and how you did it

Though well intentioned, the advice probably didn’t have much stickiness. The most important way for these “kids” to learn this stuff, is through their own experience and application.

Butler has recognized this, and is working to bridge the gap between hearing and comprehension through their Real Life, Real Business program.

As a freshman at Butler, I had the opportunity to participate at a pilot level in these new, real business courses. The modified approach was to do less lecturing and more hands-on coaching by placing students in “real business situations,” and evaluate them based on their process, not just their content. Case in point: as a sophomore I got my first taste for forming, strategizing, pitching, and running a startup through the aptly named, Real Business Experience class. Angel investors evaluated our plans for viability, and awarded real funding (thanks to a Lilly Endowment), which enabled my classmates and I to set up shop, and learn the ropes of creating, promoting, and managing our own businesses. Admittedly, these lessons did not totally sink in and bear the gravity that they might in the real world. But, as I now revisit that process through my recent startup, IndySpectator (founded by fellow Butler grad, Jenni Edwards), I have to say that my understanding has been accelerated, in part, due to my participation in Butler’s Real Business Experience.

Since my time at Butler, the Real Life, Real Business program has only continued to pick up steam and intensity, thanks to the Business Accelerator. Students are now working under the mentorship of professional consultants and faculty, and directly with local mid-market companies to develop solutions to real business challenges. This opportunity to get involved in client/consultant interactions prepares them for the workplace – and is invaluable and second to none.

Our city (and state) faces an exciting time for startups. As Kristian noted in a recent post:

Indianapolis has quietly been growing into a bonafide startup hub.

I’d love to see more graduates get their first job with a startup. Their enthusiasm, flexibility, and eagerness to learn combined with their freedom to dive in, get involved, and network – are all valuable to realizing Indianapolis as a “some place” for startups, for business, and for life.