Monday, December 17, 2007

Startup Indiana - Rural Entrepreneurship Conference

Last week I was in Indiana for 3 days for Diabco work. On Wednesday, December 12th, we attended the first annual Startup Indiana conference at Ball State in Muncie, Indiana. To start, we arrived nearly 2 hours before the welcome event began so that was a bummer - especially considering we drove an hour to get there. We listened to exciting advancements in the Indiana economy and bla, bla, bla. I wrote two haikus during the most boring parts:

Headwind of change
Bank and turn the ship around
Sail forward. Tailwind.

Rural business
Investing with confidence
Come quickly. Join us.

The interesting parts were when the entrepreneur experts shared their stories with the group. Wow! I have never seen so much passion among the members. The guy from Triton Energy was spitting with enthusiasm as he stormed around the room throwing out vials of biodiesel and the CEO of Lone Pine Farms choked back tears when he showed a slideshow of his father and four generations of his family working on their farm. Our presentation was professional and insightful but lacked the passion of these folks. Maybe it's because we still haven't achieved the success.

One thing I was reassured about is that many of these folks have been down and out, and plugging away for years, before they caught a break. Our little venture has endured a couple angel investor rounds and many setbacks but we keep on kicking. I keep telling myself that no story ever makes Entrepreneur magazine that wasn't "almost" a failure.

Our one-on-one pitch with the angel investor panel went well and we should hear something soon. Crossing our fingers as we head into the holiday season... wishing for a break!

3 comments:

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Nicole Werner said...

Thanks for the post and great tips..even I also think that hard work is the most important aspect of getting success.. Pierre Charles

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