Top Indiana Jobs

On Monday Fellows met with Scott Weber for another awesome session of our Informatics course.  Scott’s story is amazing enough in itself.  He headed Indiana’s first public software company as it went through its IPO back in 1994; he started an incubator five months before the dotcom bubble; and he started his first, although unsuccessful, company right out of college.  Today Scott has reduced his work week from 100 plus hours to just 60.  And, instead of leading companies he now advises them.  I would like to focus on several topics Scott passed to us that I found valuable. 

On Evaluating a New Business

Scott was asked to provide details on how he evaluates companies in his current roles.  Below are the top five takeaways.  I was really impressed with researching similar S-1 filings and finding their business model and copying aspects of it. 

1. Looking for a team that has already been there before
2. Evaluate and mimic similar S-1 filings
3. Market capacity to grow to 9 figure revenues
4. Stated company culture on first page of employee handbook
   • Expect drastic change every six months or less
   • Politics will not play a part in hiring or firing
   • Employees are expected to know their jobs better than their bosses
5. Revenue per employee of $200K to $300K

On Creating GOSPA’s

Scott also spoke to us on creating Annual Operating Plans in our work, personal, and professional paths.  The goal is to get all three of these to align and continue down a directed track towards success.  GOSPA stands for Goals, Objectives, Strategy, Priorities and Actions. 

On Hiring New Employees

• Searching for top 10 percenters that will ensure the organization always has more brain power than required at the current time
• Looking for individuals that are upwardly mobile , fast learners and agile
• Discovering people who know where they are going and this position is part of their trek
• The most important questions (no matter  age): “What do you want to be when you grow up!”

On HALO Angel Funding

HALO Capital Group has provided approximately $15 million to Central Indiana entrepreneurs.  Scott is a member of the 20 plus panel group of Angel investors.  Business plans are submitted on the HALO site.  All the business plan submissions are funneled down to the top two.  The top two are selected and chosen to present at the bi-monthly meeting in front of the 20 person panel.  The presentations are 20 minutes long with Q&A for another 10 minutes.  HALO Capital Group does not provide funding as an entity.  The funding is purely Angel and ranges from $100K to $1M.  Besides getting the capital required for continued growth, the entrepreneurs are also getting the intellectual power that has successfully run Central Indiana's top companies for several decades. 

The course is half way over and the quantity of learning/takeaways has been phenomenal.  This has been one of the most beneficial experiences the Fellowship has provided.

 

In late June, I started working at Angie’s List. Orr Fellows at Angie’s List are given the great opportunity to have Angie Hicks, the founder and CMO, as their executive-level mentor. I asked Angie if she would speak for our August Business Leader Meeting (BLM).

About once a month, Orr Fellows will gather to hear Indiana’s entrepreneurial and business leaders speak at BLM, which gives them the opportunity to learn from and network with top professionals in Indiana.

We were honored to have Angie Hicks take time to speak with us for over an hour during our August BLM.  All of the Orr Fellows came to Angie’s List and met outside in the courtyard area. Angie was able to speak with us in a very casual atmosphere.

Angie spoke to us about how Angie’s List was founded and how the Orr Fellowship began. I discovered that Angie Hicks was involved with initially helping start the Orr Fellowship. She also spoke about the purpose of the Orr Fellowship, and how it gives recent graduates job and networking opportunities in Indiana.

She gave us advice for our first major roles out of college with two of key points:  

·         No matter what job or task you are given, it is important to give it your top effort and to perform it the best way possible

·         Find a job you enjoy doing. You may not like every aspect of your job, but it is important appreciate and enjoy your overall work

We also learned how tough it can be to start a business. When starting the business, Angie went door to door selling memberships and gathering information. Afterwards, she would additionally take member phone calls and put together and mail regular publications to members.

Towards the end of the event, Orr Fellows were able to ask questions and interact with Angie. Afterwards, Angie took time to speak with Orr Fellows individually. This opportunity gave Orr Fellows the chance to network with one of Indiana’s well respected executives and gain first-hand knowledge of business experience and success.

Business Leader Meetings are one of the key benefits of the Orr Fellowship. We were able to gain key insights from meeting with Angie Hicks. I look forward meeting more leaders in Indiana with future BLM events.  

 

I recently graduated from DePauw University and started my journey with the Orr Fellowship a few short months ago. I heard about this program from one of the second-year fellows, and I was instantly drawn to the entrepreneurial spirit, the unique work experiences and the constant social and professional growth the Fellowship provides. This post kicks off the Informatics class blog series – one of the many unique experiences we’re able to take part in during our two-year tenure.

It’s not that I thought I would stop learning once I walked off DePauw’s campus, but I could not fathom the people I would encounter, the information I would acquire and lessons I would learn only a few months into this “real world.”  September showed up unexpectedly, and the Orr Fellowship has been jam packed with Career Fairs, Business Leader Meetings (BLM) and a director-led Informatics class (not to mention our day jobs!).

Lessons from Local Leaders

Just this week, the first-year Orr Fellows were invited into the Indiana Statehouse to meet with Gov. Mitch Daniels for our monthly BLM. Surrounded by paintings of governors before him, including Orr founder, Gov. Robert Orr, we spoke about Indiana’s past, present and future. We learned from the Governor that over the past few years, more college graduates have stayed in Indiana rather than left the state. Keeping talented graduates in the state is incredibly important to the state’s growth, and this is a huge part of the Fellowship’s mission. Indianapolis has grown immensely over the past couple of decades, and it has become a hub for start-ups and young professionals. It even made Forbes' list as one of the happiest cities for young professionals.

Continuous Growth

The excitement of this week doesn’t end there – Monday was the launch of our Orr Fellowship Informatics class, led by one of the Orr Fellowship directors, Mark Hill of Collina Ventures. About two dozen Orr Fellows filed into a room in the Speak Easy for class on Monday night (yes, during MNF) ready to learn as much as possible from established business leaders over the next few months.  We kicked it off with Developer Town founder, Michael Cloran, who titled his lecture, “Random Stories. Lessons Learned.” His title inspired the underlying theme of this post: the lives of individuals like Gov. Daniels and Cloran are not necessarily random stories, but incredible efforts made by young professionals that put them on tracks to success. There are reasons that individuals like this are where they are today, and these are the habits and practices we are striving to learn from and acquire.

After we listened to Michael’s unique and impressive post-graduate experiences that led him to become a restless entrepreneur, we asked what seemed to be the most relevant questions for us: Why Indy? And what should we take back from your early experiences and practice in our own lives? His answers were both reassuring and encouraging:

• The Midwest is much more welcoming than other areas, giving newcomers more comfort and opportunities for growth and success
• Build your reputation and credibility by sticking to your word
• Say “YES” to new challenges, projects and responsibilities – people who have changed the world are not the type of people who sit back and content with not taking action

Future Success

I was naïve in initially thinking the transition to the real world was going to be simple and straightforward. You leave college on top of the world, and then realize that Columbus did in fact discover the world is round…and much larger than believed.

After listening to these accomplished and inspiring leaders in Indiana, we can find comfort knowing there are different paths we may find ourselves on, both in our nearest and more distant future. We don’t need to know what our next job will be, which graduate program we’ll apply to or even what we’re eating for lunch this week. As long as we are determined, willing to work through the night, and yes, occasionally commit to eating PB&J six meals in a row, the possibilities are endless. All entrepreneurs jump and fall; and we’re here to learn what it takes to take that first jump.

Name:  Mitch Causey

I concede that I am a nerd. No contest. As a friend recently put it, I "got to meet my Taylor Swift."

Prof. Steven Levitt, co-author of Freakonomics and Superfreakonomics was a recent speaker at Purdue for the Krannert Leadership Speaker Series which I had the privilege of attending and covering (article here). Aside from being a personal hero of mine, he has been heralded as the "Indiana Jones of Economics" by the Wall Street Journal. Time named him to the "Top 100 People Who Shape Our World" in 2006.

The man embodies everything that is entrepreneurial, minus the directly creating a business part. He has made a career out of challenging conventional wisdom and taking a moment to step back, and look at common problems at a slightly different angle. Isn't that essentially what an entrepreneur aims to do? Creating a need, solving a problem, explaining the abnormal, defining a connection, etc.

How does he apply to entrepreneurship careers? Like his father, he set out to answer the questions that others in their respective fields failed to. Therefore, he doesn't consider himself a "real" economist, but something gives me the feeling that he is OK with that. As members of the Orr Fellowship, placed in fast paced jobs, Fellows thrive on innovation. Whether it is expanding our role within our host organization or bouncing off ideas with other 20-somethings, I would like to think that we are trying to ask those unasked questions and seeking answers to ones that have been given up on.

If I learned anything from Prof. Levitt, it's that a key element to creating an industry is questioning the norm. Figuring out whether the way something has been done is in fact the best way to do it. Taking something that is granted and proving its worth.

One of the questions that I commonly receive from Orr Fellowship candidates is, "What types of things do you do at work?"  For most Orr Fellows this is a straight-forward question, but for me, the answer is a bit more long-winded.

When I accepted my offer with the Orr Fellowship, I also accepted an offer with ExactTarget.  ExactTarget has participated as an Orr Fellowship host company for many years now.  It differs from the rest, though, in that it offers a particular program for recent college graduates - the Catapult Rotational Program.  The Catapult Program is designed to provide college graduates the opportunity to rotate through three departments within ExactTarget.  It allows you to develop your professional skill-set while obtaining cross-functional experiences.  Upon completion of the three two-month rotations, "Catapulters" are placed in a permanent position that allows them to deeply impact the success of both their department and ExactTarget as a whole.
Now, back to the question that I was previously talking about.  When answering the posed question about my typical day at work, I generally describe my current and past rotations.  My first rotation at ExactTarget was in the Human Resources department.  I then transitioned to Customer Relationship Management.  My third, and current rotation, is in Sales Operations.  So what types of things am I doing during my time at the office?  I'm currently preparing to lead a portion of our Sales Training On-boarding class that is now taking place.  When a salesperson joins the team at ExactTarget, they go through a rigorous, two-week long training course.  Within the first two days in my current rotation, my manager asked me to learn everything I possibly could about our Salesforce Integration application through AppExchange, while creating the presentaton from scratch, in order to set myself up to teach the group of new hires.  Needless to say, I feel ready to go for next Tuesday's class!
After I've shared my experiences with these college seniors, I like to turn the focus on them.  I ask them if there are other career opportunities that they're pursuing that allow them to join a company and immediately be able to make an impact within the organization.  The answer is almost always a resounding "no." 

So why do Orr Fellows get the leg-up when it comes to career-growth opportunities?  From talking to several different employers and upper-level management, the overall consensus is that the Orr Fellowship has a reputation of supplying high-growth Indianapolis companies with talented, hardworking employees.  I consistently hear these business leaders talk about how comfortable they feel putting these Fellows in a sink-or-swim environment because they always know that these young professionals will find a way to come out on top.

So when considering your first full-time job out of college, think about what I've said.  If you're looking to grow professionally while making a positive impact in your organization, the Governor Bob Orr Indiana Entrepreneurial Fellowship might be for you!