IU Ventures

Benton Miller is the Founder & CEO of RetrievAir, an innovative public charter operator focused on improving the pet travel experience. His vision is to create air travel that prioritizes pets, offering safe, comfortable, and convenient flights for both pets and their owners. Hear how his Kelley Direct Online MBA experience shaped the trajectory of his company, how he navigates the complicated worlds of airports & pets, how to differentiate your offering, the behind-the-scenes of his appearance on Shark Tank, and the number of flights he's taken to ensure RetrievAir is a pleasant experience for humans & pets. Learn more about Benton at RetrievAir.com and on LinkedIn, and learn more about IU Ventures at IUVentures.com. This podcast is presented by Kelley Direct Online MBA. Learn more at Kelley.IU.edu

Indiana Women's Volleyball Head Coach Steve Aird is in his 8th year in Bloomington. Aird signed a contract extension through the 2029 season on January 1, 2024 after guiding the Hoosiers to one of the best years in program history. A 2-time NCAA Champion as an assistant coach at Penn State, Aird is an elite recruiter and has brought new energy into the Indiana Women's Volleyball program. Hear how he's built an incredible home-court advantage, how he takes a business approach to coaching, how to differentiate your business or program, how to best allocate resources, and how to be both the coach AND the GM. Learn more about Coach Aird at IUHoosiers.com and on LinkedIn, and learn more about IU Ventures at IUVentures.com. This podcast is presented by Kelley Direct Online MBA. Learn more at Kelley.IU.edu

Darius Willis is the Founder & CEO of ScoutSync, a sports-tech company transforming global athletic scouting & recruitment. A former Indiana University football standout and Under Armour High School All-American from Indianapolis, he attended NFL camp with the New York Jets before playing and coaching internationally for over a decade. Hear his favorite on-field & off-the-field memories from IU, how the ScoutSync platform works, the top lessons he's learned as a founder, the growing presence of Indianapolis as a sports-tech hub, and his experience starting a business in Switzerland. Learn more about Darius at ScoutSync.com and on LinkedIn, and learn more about IU Ventures at IUVentures.com. This podcast is presented by Kelley Direct Online MBA. Learn more at Kelley.IU.edu

Anthony Leal, a former Indiana University basketball player and MBA in Finance from the Kelley School of Business, co-founded Motion. Motion is a tech platform designed to streamline communication, scheduling, and management for coaches, athletes, and athletic departments in college athletics. Hear his biggest pinch me moment playing basketball for the Hoosiers, the Entrepreneurship course that inspired Motion, how to keep the voice of the customer in mind, lessons from basketball that apply to entrepreneurship, and what the future of college sports will look like. Learn more about Anthony at MotionSports.io and on LinkedIn, and learn more about IU Ventures at IUVentures.com. This podcast is presented by Kelley Direct Online MBA. Learn more at Kelley.IU.edu

Rachel Zhao is Principal at PayPal Ventures, where she's tapping into her passion for helping tech companies & founders. Previously, she had been focusing on growth-stage Enterprise and Fintech investment. She's interested in infrastructure, cyber, privacy, SMB & Vertical SaaS, and ecommerce enablement. Hear her love for the jazz concerts at IU, how she pivoted her career to more closely align with her interests, the fascinating world of cybersecurity, how PayPal Ventures surrounds founders with support, and the Kelley class it's most important to pay attention in. Learn more about Rachel at PayPal.VC and on LinkedIn, and learn more about IU Ventures at IUVentures.com. This podcast is presented by Kelley Direct Online MBA. Learn more at Kelley.IU.edu

Neil Powell has almost 35 years of corporate finance experience in the banking and high-tech industries. He is currently the Director of Finance, Cloud and AI Supply Chain at Microsoft and has served as the VP of Finance and Corporate Controller at Lattice Semiconductor, as well as numerous roles at Intel, including Senior Director at Intel Capital's venture capital fund and as the CFO of Intel Japan. Neil spent 5 years teaching finance at Indiana University, where he also earned his MBA. Hear what business & life lessons you can learn from running marathons, what the future of supply chain will look like, the unbelievable scale of data centers, why hard work is always the answer, and his most memorable experience running the Boston Marathon. Learn more about Neil at Microsoft.com and on LinkedIn, and learn more about IU Ventures at IUVentures.com. This podcast is presented by Kelley Direct Online MBA. Learn more at Kelley.IU.edu

Kenzie Weston Mucci is a member of the investment team at Takeda Digital Ventures, focused on virtual-first care and PharmaTech investments. Previously, she worked in strategy on the Digital Health Sciences team within Takeda's Data Sciences Institute. Prior to her time at Takeda, she managed the Beiwe digital health platform at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and worked in the Health and Public Service Operating Group at Accenture. Hear how she got engaged at IU, the top trends in digital health, how AI will change healthcare, what to look for in a founder as an investor, and how The Princeton Review book impacted Kenzie's decision to go to IU. Learn more about Kenzie at Takeda.com and on LinkedIn, and learn more about IU Ventures at IUVentures.com. This podcast is presented by Kelley Direct Online MBA. Learn more at Kelley.IU.edu

Drushya Musham is a senior at Indiana University, triple majoring in Management, Entrepreneurship, and International Business, and serves as a client manager for IU Innovates' Sparklab Incubator program. She is the Founder & CEO of Taptic, an app enhancing accessibility for Deaf individuals by transforming audio alerts into tactile and visual notifications, and NiCE: Name on Rice, a micro-art jewelry business specializing in personalized designs. Hear her thoughts as graduation nears, how to develop your startup & entrepreneurship mindset, how to find a problem & solution to build a business around, how to build your confidence as an entrepreneur, and one of the most entertaining This or That: Best of B-Town segments you'll ever hear. Learn more about Drushya at TapticApp.com and on LinkedIn, and learn more about IU Ventures at IUVentures.com. This podcast is presented by Kelley Direct Online MBA. Learn more at Kelley.IU.edu

Amy Brown is the Founder & CEO of Authenticx, the conversational intelligence platform that analyzes and activates customers' voices at scale to reveal transformational opportunities in healthcare. She built her career as a rising executive in the healthcare industry, during which time she advocated for underserved populations, led and mobilized teams to expand healthcare coverage to thousands of Indiana residents, and learned the nuance of corporate operations. Hear why IU is in her blood, how to launch your own startup, how to develop your leadership style, the proprietary AI (Artificial Intelligence) that drives Authenticx, and the band her brother was the lead singer of. Learn more about Amy at Authenticx.com and on LinkedIn, and learn more about IU Ventures at IUVentures.com. This podcast is presented by Kelley Direct Online MBA. Learn more at Kelley.IU.edu

IU alum Emily Atkinson, PhD is an analytical thinker with deep technical expertise and a well-connected figure in the life sciences community and the startup ecosystem. She joined BioCrossroads as the Senior Director of Innovation in July of 2024, where she runs initiatives to advance innovations in Indiana's life sciences sector. Prior to joining BioCrossroads, she served as a venture analyst for IU Ventures, where she focused on strategic investments towards promising life sciences and B2B SaaS companies. Hear why her dream of being a physical therapist didn't come true, what she discovered working with mice, how to transition into the venture capital (VC) & startup space, how to push through adversity as a startup founder, and how to navigate the regulatory landscape in the life sciences industry. Learn more about Emily at BioCrossroads.com and on LinkedIn, and learn more about IU Ventures at IUVentures.com. This podcast is presented by Kelley Direct Online MBA. Learn more at Kelley.IU.edu