High Growth Start-Ups

If you've found this blog post, it probably means one of two things - that you're interested in potentially joining the Governor Bob Orr Fellowship and have found yourself wondering how much it pays, or that you've stumbled upon this page because you're looking for a great blog to read.  Hopefully I'll be able to satisfy both types of readers today.

The Governor Bob Orr Entrepreneurial Fellowship has never had a reputation of attracting students that are driven by financial instant gratification.  In fact, the type of student that typically becomes interested in this Indiana Fellowship is one that sees the value in grassroots experience within a small, entrepreneurial company.  These students tend to see the value in making a two-year investment that will undoubtedly give them the experiences they need to grow professionally in the years to come after the Fellowship program.  There certainly is something to be said about beginning your career at a high-growth start-up.  Not only are you forced to learn everything about the operations of a small company, but you're provided with opportunities that many professionals don't get for many years after they've graduated from college.  There is no way to put a dollar amount on these valuable opportunities.Okay, okay - so I still haven't answered your question about how much I make as an Orr Fellow.  Well, here I come to take the wind out of your sails... Unfortunately, I'm not going to tell you what that number is today.  But here's what I will tell you.  As a single adult just out of college, I have enough money to do just about anything I want.  I live comfortably, go out and splurge almost every weekend, buy luxuries for myself when I feel the need, and live in a nice house in the heart of Broad Ripple.  Honestly, what else could a recent graduate really need?!

In a nutshell, the Orr Fellowship salary is not something that should have anything to do with your decision-making process.  The Fellowship program has never tried to coerce its prospects into thinking that they'll be paid more than everyone else because, honestly, that's not the case.  What we offer, however, is something much, much more than that.  If you care about your career and your professional development, and desire opportunities that will immediately allow you to make enormous impacts on your company/organization, then the Governor Bob Orr Entrepreneurial Fellowship might be for you!

As you may well know, Apple released it's highly touted iPad in late January of 2010 and has received mixed reviews. While iThings are trendy and slick, performance has been a concern for many (just look at the recent iPhone issues in New York and AT&T network strain). The iPad is no different as the device possesses non-expandable SD inputs, a general lack of multi-task capabilities, no camera and a low battery life (plus MadTV might have some brand name patents that need addressed).

So this was basically another mac product launch whereby brand lovers became more entranced and brand haters...well...could keep hating. However, beyond these Mac-versus-PC-versus-Linux-versus-CMS-versus-Ruby computo-debates, the iPad launch signifies something that every person seeking a technology job in Indianapolis should be conscious of: 

The gap between personal and mobile computing is closing and Apple is blazing that trail despite early attempts at entry by the e-readers (Amazon, B&N, etc.). Where the publishing houses tried to provide a mobile reader, Apple flexed its muscle and offered not only a mobile reader, but mobile computing application along with it.

A number of start-ups, most in NYC and SF, support Apple's move into the portable market as there is a trend towards high growth start-ups building applications for the portable user. My favorite is NYC startup SeeClickFix, a location based service that allows you to report non-emergency issues (potholes, prostitution, graffiti) and receive alerts in your neighborhood about the issue. Other BigApps competition winners in NYC were also location based services (SporkNYC, Taxihack, WayFinder NYC).

As the portable computing gap closes, business jobs in Indianapolis will have to adapt. Entrepreneurial Companies in Indianapolis will hire people who can work within the bounds of a new economy (where your library may eventually be comprised of iPads, Kindles and a few printers). How will you adapt? How will your company evolve? The relentless quest for efficiency is squeezing some of the fat out of life, and portable computing is another step in that quest.

The May 2006 issue of Human Resources magazine featured an article by Sommer Kehrli and Truy Sopp in which the authors attempted to share tips with older generations on how to manage Generation Y, a group roughly 80 million strong born after 1978 that began entering the workforce five years ago. Often the onus for change is on older generations. After all, we 'Millennials' are coming into the workforce whether current generations like it or not. Why should the 'new' be the ones to change our habits or learn new ones from the 'old'? 

An an entrepreneurial fellowship, we constantly strive to place distinguished college graduates into high growth start-ups. But at the same time, we also communicate the need for constant improvement and learning from industry leaders. Nobody is a subject matter expert anymore and while entry-level jobs in start-ups will help you become more knowledgeable about a specific area, it won't guarantee career-long success. To quote Dr. Thomas Mason, Professor of Economics at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, "to be successful at [an older] age, you need to keep learning." 

Need real world examples? 

Did you major in Public Relations or Marketing in college? Are you pretty confident writing press releases? Cool. BUT, looks like Presslift is a step ahead and that skill set will become mainstream in the near future.

Did you major in Web Design or UX in college? Are you pretty confident designing emails for your company's marketing team? Great!. BUT, Toddle is making email newsletter design and marketing a breeze.

Major in Finance? ChubbyBrain is democratizing your skill set.

Going to Law School? Legal Zoom has the basics covered.

Are you a scrapbooking professional? Yup...the semantic web has taken over this too.

EVERYTHING  is changing. High-growth start-ups and technology jobs in Indianapolis will KEEP changing. Being an expert today doesn't ensure anything for tomorrow. As Gen-Y'ers, we want to be mentored, use new technology, and be given the space to try new things. But we can be too confident, and in the process, atrophy our innate strengths of learning and development.

Your job won't be around forever, and if you don't keep learning, neither will you. The first step is accepting that a college degree doesn't make you an expert. The second is opening yourself up to learn skills, habits, and lessons from Generations past.

Oh...and sign-up to have your tree lugged through TREE LUGGERS or follow our tweets @treeluggers.

In our recent business leader meeting with Thomas Mason, and Economics and Engineering Management professor at Rose Hulman, he made the point that any employee should always be trying to "Think like an Entrepreneur."  Now that doesn't mean that every employee should aspire to be an entrepreneur, or that employees should be thinking about starting new businesses while they're working for their current company.  What it means is that, as an employee, you should constantly be thinking of better ways to do things in your current company, and thinking of new business opportunities for your employer.  These new ideas don't have to be world-changing, million dollar ideas, but rather small innovations that get things moving the right way. 

I'd venture to guess that most employees at entry-level jobs in Indiana do not have this mindset.  But when you're working with high growth start-ups "thinking like an entrepreneur" is practically required.  A lot of the companies that are part of the Orr Fellowship are small, entrepreneurial companies in Indianapolis.  They don't all have a full marketing or finance department.  These companies need Orr Fellows to come up with unique ideas to help build their business.

How can you be "thinking like an entrepreneur?" 

Are there certain things that are done at your company every week just because "that's the way they're always been done?" If they no longer make sense maybe it's time to make a change.

Do you have a perspective from a previous internship or organization that no one in your current company has?

Maybe there peripheral activities that are outside the responsibility of your everyday job that you can address.  Starting a recycling program or fitness routine could make a bigger impact than you think.

There are countless ideas just waiting to be taken.  Are you thinking like an entrepreneur?

In celebration of the holiday season, @allythill scheduled lunch for the Fellows at a restaurant in downtown Indianapolis. @hunckler and I showed up late, but we probably both wish we hadn't shown up at all. It was a bad dining experience.

12 minutes to get a drink
30 minutes before the food order was taken
50 minutes before the food was served
75 minutes before bills were delivered

On the bright side, I had some time to chat with @YawA about @PocketTales launching their new web app and how he's making the jump from his distinguished post-grad job to an entrepreneurship career. Takes a lot of moxy.

My mind already operates at warp speed. Things jump in my head before I finish a thought. Mitchell Davis and I would be too much to handle. On this particular day of bad service at a restaurant which also had bad food, my mind was racing to find a connection between high growth start-ups (like @PocketTales) and this waiter who seemed to be wasting everyone's time.

Aha moment!

Restaurants give the slow shift to the slow wait staff. Monday is typically the slowest day of the week and lunch is the slowest serving of the day. Since we went on the slowest day during the slowest meal, the odds were against the @orrfellowship having a good service experience. More to the point, while good work is rewarded with accolade, bad work is rewarded with defrocking.

High-growth Indianapolis companies do not like having to defrock their employees due to poor performance. Some of the best places to work in Indiana see applicants present a positive version of themselves during the interview process, but entrepreneurship careers quickly peel away any misperceptions that may have existed after that good interview took place.

The bad news for some on the job market is that many of these startups cannot afford to pay for the 'Monday lunch shift' person. @orrfellowship host companies need good work from talented people NOW; they need the 'Friday dinner shift' person, because every day is like the Friday dinner rush for companies hiring new grads.

Be the 'Friday dinner rush' person today.

I get asked this same question, or some variation of it, a LOT.  So many people are interested in the Orr Fellowship and the post-grads' careers that come through the program that this question is almost a staple of any new conversation struck.  Similar questions include:

What do you want to do after you finish?
What kind of venture are you interested in?  Technology jobs in Indianapolis?  Business jobs in Indianapolis?
What's the next step in your entrepreneurial career? 
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

And the list goes on... and my answer is always the same: I need to wait and see.  This sort of answer frustrates most listeners, as it probably should.  Even worse, it frustrates me because I WANT to run a high growth start-up, full of all the excitement and wonder these sort of organizations are known for.  And Im young.  Now is the time to make mistakes, right?  Without having to worry about not being able to recover from a bust, with plenty of time to recover my life and my career right?

Yes.  But no.  A May, 2008 study by the Kauffman Foundation found that twice as many tech saavy entrepreneurs start businesses in their 50's as they do in their 20's, with an average age of start-up founders being 39.  Not 20, not 25, not even 30.  39.  To me, this says that experience is a great teacher, but more important is the kind of experience; being a former CEO of three failed start-ups at 30 might be great experience to lean on, but it probably isnt as effective as working within and learning how start-ups and small businesses should be run to build successful organizations.  There is a proverb that goes something like "yesterday's tracks are tomorrows guides", and this is a perfect example of that; so, the first part of my answer to "why havent you started a business yet?" is: Why make the same mistakes you can learn from watching others?

There is a second part of my answer, that is more complicated but Ill do my best: circumstance.  Start-ups, especially technology start-ups, need the right circumstances to survive and grow.  The team, the idea, the implementation, the market, everything needs to be well understood and in place before Ill want to touch money.  Many a good idea have failed because they were missing a piece of the entrepreneurial puzzle, and all the hard work, long nights, and missed sleep was wasted.  The thing is, we usually never hear about these companies, the ones that fail.  Thats part of what makes entrepreneurship so attractive: we really only hear about the successes, and so it seems (to the untrainted eye) that starting and owning a business is easy as apple pie.

For me, I will choose my opportunities wisely.  And only when I am ready will I become that ever-so-coveted title of  "entrepreneur." That could be tomorrow, or it could be never.  The numbers (and my own brain) are telling me it will probably be a while.  But then again, who knows?

I'm currently an Orr Fellow at Sigma Micro which is an ecommerce software company.  Our core busines is to sell software to small to medium sized businesses (usually they already have a physical store or catalog) so that they can start selling their products online.  We also operate a few of our own websites with our system, and one of those is a clearance website called Last and Final.  One of my responsibilities here, along with two former Orr Fellows who have stayed with the company, is to handle all the online marketing for our website.

You may have noticed that the Monday after Thanksgiving, which is now known as Cyber Monday, is a pretty big day for retailers alll around the country. Personally, I think it's much better than Black Friday because you don't have to deal with stuff like this.



I know I had a slew of emails from companies like Apple, Best Buy, etc. about their big deals.  We didn't want to be left in the dust so we planned a big promotion of our own.  I'll be short on the details, but the basic premise was that we were selling a very limited supply of Nintendo Wii's for a ridiculously good price...much lower than you could find anywhere else.

We promoted our plan quite a bit in our email newsletter and even got picked up by a few of the major "deals" sites.  We made sure our website hosting was ramped up so that we could handle a big traffic spike...and then got ready for the big moment when we released the Wii's to our website at 12pm on Monday.

It wasn't a pretty sight (or site) when we realized that our server was down, and we couldn't access the website at all.  Our customers of course were experiencing the same problems, and the site kept going up and down as they were hitting refresh and trying to put the Wii in their shopping cart to check out.  Eventually people were able to get through the checkout process...the only problem was that the server issues completely threw our backend system out of whack and it took orders for a lot more Wii's than we actually had.  We were pretty happy about the buzz we generated about our site, but now we had quite a few angry customers that weren't going to receive what they thought they ordered.



Anyways, the reason I'm telling this story is that it got me thinking that this episode is a lot like the Orr Fellowship.  Now, before you start thinking "Oh my gosh, the Orr Fellowship sounds terrible" let me explain what came of the Cyber Monday experience.

First, we gathered a lot of valuable data about our ecommerce system.  We figured out a better way to do the inventory check process.  We also realized that our server was able to handle that many people on the site, but not that many people on the same page trying to check out the same item.  We also got confirmation that our marketing tactics were pretty effective...enough to nearly crash the website.  Sure we had some angry customers, but this gave us a chance to reach out to them personally and extend gift cards for their troubles.

As an Orr Fellow you're constantly going to get the kind of invaluable learning experience that we got from our promotion.  When you work for entrepreneurial companies in Indianapolis, or any high growth start-ups for that matter you're going to go through a lot of trial and error.  None of us here at Sigma had ever run a Cyber Monday promotion before so it's not like there was a 100 page manual on how to do it right.  When you're part of an entrepreneurial fellowship, you're going to be put on projects that might feel uncomfortable because you don't know what you're doing.  You might even be put on projects that you're not interested in or that you don't think you'll be good at.  In these kinds of situations, everyone is going to make mistakes (just like we did by making some of our customers angry).  But mistakes are often going to teach you a lot more than success.  The fast growing companies that host Orr Fellows know that we're going to make mistakes. 

What you learn in this trial and error atmosphere is going to make you that much better off for the rest of your career.  We will definitely be prepared for Cyber Monday next year, and I know I'll be more prepared to take on even bigger projects through more lessons like this.

The holiday season is my favorite time of the year.  But since I love Thanksgiving too, every year I wait patiently until Black Friday to start listening to Christmas music, watching my favorite holiday movies, and putting up decorations.  I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving, but come Friday, the holiday festivities kick into high gear!!  My all-time favorite Christmas movie (and one of my all-time favorite movies in general) is It’s a Wonderful Life.  I’ve seen it more times than I can count, and I think I could probably recite most of the lines.  See that lovely Christmas tree in the picture above?  Looking at it makes me wonder, what did they do with that tree after Christmas was over?  As much as I love the holiday season, the clean-up afterwards can be quite a pain.  If only the Bailey’s had the Orr Fellow Tree Luggers to come to their rescue!  


Working at Angie’s List I’ve learned that you can find reliable people to help you with just about anything to get you through the holidays, from decorating to party planning.  And after all the chaos dies down, the Tree Luggers are there to help Indianapolis residents with the clean up.  For the Orr Fellowship's annual fundraiser, current Fellows (our Tree Luggers) will come and pick up your Christmas tree and take it to a nearby Indy Parks location to be recycled.  We will pick up trees from several neighborhoods in and around Indianapolis for four consecutive Saturdays starting on January 2nd.  The program is a fundraiser for the Fellowship, local churches, and local charitable organizations.  The suggested donation is $20, and all donations are 100 % tax deductable.  Click here to find out more information and schedule your tree pick-up!

Tree Luggers is a great example of how Orr Fellows work together outside of our various full-time jobs in Indiana. As the Finance champions, Ty and I are heading up this year’s program, but every Orr Fellow has a different job and is involved in the organization, planning, and execution of the fundraiser.  Tree Luggers gives us a chance to utilize our ambition and talent and apply what we have learned so far in the Fellowship and working in our respective high growth start-ups.  Being able to take part in opportunities such as this one truly shows the “entrepreneurial” part of the Governor Bob Orr Indiana Entrepreneurial Fellowship and allows us to give back and get involved with the Indianapolis community.  

With Turkey-day quickly approaching and the holiday season nearly upon us, I thought a good focus for this blog would be to discuss what a Fellows' options look like when they've completed their two-year committment of being in the Governor Bob Orr Entrepreneurial Fellowship.  Ok wait, you're right, holidays and post-Fellowship opportunities have literally nothing to do with one another. Oh well, it's a Monday - give me a break, already!
As I'm sure you can imagine, being in the Orr Fellowship isn't always easy; nor is it glamorous at times.  To do well and set yourself up for success you have to spend a lot of time with your nose to the grindstone and your pride in your back pocket.  But what happens when you've completed your two years with the Fellowship? At this point in your career you have an important decision to make.  Your first option is to stay on with your current host company.  This is probably the most common route that graduating Orr Fellows take, but it is by no means what is expected.  Many Fellows decide to go this direction because they've spent the past two years developing a foundation for themselves in their organization.  Building relationships and making a name for yourself takes time and a great deal of effort.  Also, most of these host companies are fast growing Indianapolis companies.  Just by being in the organization for a couple of years, these Fellows have been able to experience accelerated career growth that would most likely not have taken place had they begun their career in a large corporation.

Another option that exists for graduating Orr Fellows is to change companies.  Some Fellows decide to move on to completely separate companies, while others stay within the Fellowship family and join a different host company.  The Orr Fellowship has a reputation of providing some of the best networking opportunities in Indianapolis, so it's not surprising that connections are made between Fellows and host company executives that result in a career opportunity.

A third option that many Orr Fellows over the years have pursued is graduate school.  Typically, Orr Fellows go to either law school or business school, but there have been many others that have gone on to receive a range of different graduate degrees.  This path has become more and more common among Fellows as they're often considered to be life-long learners.  They appreciate learning new things and are curious about what they lack knowledge in.

The last option for graduating Orr Fellows is to pursue personal business ventures.  There have been several Fellows that have built entrepreneurial companies in Indianapolis on their own, while several others have teamed-up with their fellow Orr Fellows to create high growth start-ups together.

Although these several options are available for Orr Fellows after they complete their two-year stint with the Governor Bob Orr Entrepreneurial Fellowship, one thing that all Fellows involuntarily do is join the list of successful Orr Fellow alumni that came before them.  Many stay active in Fellowship events/activities, but this is something that we're working to improve upon.  It is important to keep the Orr Fellowship as tight as possible and the alumni network as strong as ever.  It certainly is a blessing to have so many young, successful business leaders in our network that are more than happy to help out if you just reach out to them.

This is just another reason why the Orr Fellowship is one of the best places to work in Indiana!

As we near Finalist Day when the class of 2010 Orr Fellows will make their decisions on whether to accept an offer to join the Fellowship, I think it's worth looking at who the Orr Fellowship is for.  Working with high growth start-ups takes a certain kind of person, and it's certainly not for everyone.  Here are a few characteristics that you might want to keep in mind.

The Orr Fellowship might be a good fit if you…

- Are graduating from an Indiana college or you’re originally from Indiana, and you have a strong GPA (preferably 3.5 and above)

- Enjoy working with smaller companies where everything is usually fast paced and everyone has to be willing to help out on various projects and different functional areas like marketing, finance, etc.

- Are someone that is eager to take initiative and make things happen rather than waiting to be told what job you need to do everyday

- Are interested in working in a variety of different roles.  Many Orr Fellows rotate through different departments or work for a company that’s small enough to require every employee to be multi-dimensional.

- Would like to have a network of like-minded peers that you can work on potential business ideas with and get together socially

- Want to work for a fast growing Indianapolis company, and have the ability to get to know executives from other high growth start-ups

- Want to define your own career path by taking on big responsibilities in a small company rather than being a number in an entry level program at a large corporation

The Orr Fellowship might NOT be the right program if you…

- Are hoping to travel and have opportunities to work abroad right away.  Although many Orr Fellows will have the opportunity to take smaller trips through the course of their job, the program is not designed to be travel intensive

- Need a boss to tell you exactly what to do every day.  The most successful Orr Fellows are the ones who take initiative and execute beyond what they’re expected to do

- Expect to be in charge of the most important projects from Day 1.  As an Orr Fellow you will likely have some less than glamorous projects at some point.  However, they’re only opportunities to over deliver and build your reputation so that you can lead major projects in the future

- Base your job search on finding the highest possible starting salary.  If you make it through the Orr Fellowship recruiting process you can find a better paying entry level job in Indiana or elsewhere.  The Orr Fellowship is not for people who are looking for the money now, but for students that are more interested in learning, establishing a network, and getting a great experience so they can advance their careers more quickly in the long term.

This is not a comprehensive list of characteristics that define the Orr Fellowship.  Hopefully it does give you at least a slightly better idea about whether or not the program is right for you.   Among business jobs in Indianapolis, the Orr Fellowship may be one of the best opportunities for college graduates.