Powderkeg - Unvalley

Leaders that are able to build and create a culture of openness and collaboration are able to encourage their team to better self-develop, communicate, and share what they are learning so they can capitalize on the actions they are or could be doing better, and promoting and pushing one another to do the same. But where do we begin in order to create and maintain this idea that we call product culture?

In today’s episode, I speak with Marcus Cobb, a technologist, product designer, public speaker, and successful entrepreneur. Marcus is a highly sought-after investor, mentor, and strategist for numerous organizations. He’s also the CEO and co-founder of Jammber, a Nashville-based music technology company that focuses on streamlining the incredibly complicated process of creating a song, sharing it with the world and ultimately getting paid and getting credit for it.

Throughout this episode, you’ll get to hear Marcus discuss his role as an entrepreneur, his personal experiences with building an amazing team culture, and his current role as co-founder and CEO of Jammber. Find out more about how Marcus and his team are disrupting the music industry with their platform, Jammber. Tune in for More!

In this episode with Marcus Cobb, you’ll learn:

- How positive product culture can be a secret ingredient for team success

- About the music tech industry and the opportunities available

- Marcus’s personal experience and growth as an entrepreneur

- How the Jammber platform is impacting the music industry

Figuring out your next career move doesn’t have to be so stressful. So why not try Powderkeg Matches?

By joining Matches, you’re joining a community of thousands of top professionals in the Powderkeg community to get connected with outstanding people at the hottest tech companies between the coasts. Get matched with great employers, land your next major opportunity, and get started today!

Please enjoy this conversation with Marcus Cobb!

If you like this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on iTunes. You can also follow us on Soundcloud. We have an incredible lineup of interviews we’ll be releasing every Tuesday here on the Powderkeg Podcast. Check it out at powderkeg.com/itunes.

Most companies understand the importance of employee training, with the highest priority being the need for creating the right training resources for increasing effectiveness talent training programs. But for most companies, it always seems to come with a struggle of creating the right training tools and applications for company talent. That's why on today's episode of Powderkeg Pitch, we're featuring a company focused on helping teams learn and practice, and do better work.

In today’s episode, you’ll hear from Kyle Lacy, Chief Marketing Officer of Lessonly. Lessonly is a simple learning management software that helps teams learn, practice, and do better work.

Kyle had only 5 minutes on the Powderkeg stage to pitch his company Lessonly to a live panel of investors and industry experts from our Martech Madness pitch night we hosted in February of last year featuring some of the most innovative companies scaling in the Mighty Middle. The three experts you’ll hear from in this episode include:

--Glenda Akers | GM, Messaging of Salesforce Marketing Cloud

--Muhammad Yasin | Executive Vice President of Marketing of PERQ

--Ryan Grable | VP Demand Generation, Diligent

Today’s Presenter, Kyle Lacy, is the Chief Marketing Officer at Lessonly. Kyle brings over ten years of experience in marketing, strategy, and digital operations. Before joining Lessonly, Kyle held senior positions at OpenView Venture Partners, Salesforce and ExactTarget. He has spent the last seven years traveling the world speaking at marketing and technology industry events, including content marketing, digital marketing strategy, demand generation, and B2B marketing. And is an author of three books, Twitter Marketing for Dummies, Branding Yourself, and Social CRM for Dummies. Tune in for more!

Figuring out your next career move doesn't have to be so stressful. So why not try Powderkeg Matches?

By joining Matches, you’re joining a community of thousands of top professionals in the Powderkeg community to get connected with outstanding people at the hottest tech companies between the coasts. Get matched with great employers, land your next major opportunity, and get started today!

Please enjoy this pitch with Kyle Lacy of Lessonly!

In the last decade, the cities of Chattanooga, Knoxville, Memphis, and Nashville have grown Tennesse tech tremendously, attracting skilled talent, founders, and investors from across the country. Today, we talk with a CEO of a public-private partnership with Entrepreneur Centers in seven regions across the state focused on connecting and nurturing innovative startups, and tight-knit communities—mixed with a healthy dose of Southern hospitality—that has become a secret weapon on their journey toward startup success.

On today's episode of the Powderkeg Podcast, we're talking with Van Tucker, CEO at Venture Capital Firm, Launch Tennessee.

As CEO, Van Tucker supports the mission and vision of making Tennessee the best state in the nation for startups by empowering a network of resources. Before joining LaunchTN in early 2020, Tucker served as founding CEO of the Nashville Fashion Alliance, a trade organization that raised international awareness of its $6B economic impact. Before that, Van was a cofounder of Avenue Bank as Chief Creative Officer, responsible for award-winning brand development. Tune in to hear more!

In this episode with Van Tucker, you’ll learn:

--- How the Volunteer State is creating the next wave of entrepreneurs

--- The best ways to show support for underrepresented founders

--- What makes Tennessee Tech special for incoming talent

--- More on this year’s 36|86 Festival hosted by Launch Tennessee

--- Van’s greatest vision for entrepreneurship and startups in Tennessee

Figuring out your next career move doesn’t have to be so stressful. So why not try Powderkeg Matches?

By joining Matches, you’re joining a community of thousands of top professionals in the Powderkeg community to get connected with outstanding people at the hottest tech companies between the coasts. Get matched with great employers, land your next major opportunity, and get started today!

Please enjoy this conversation with Van Tucker!

If you like this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on iTunes. You can also follow us on Soundcloud. We have an incredible lineup of interviews we’ll be releasing every Tuesday here on the Powderkeg Podcast. Check it out at powderkeg.com/itunes.

Indianapolis Tech is growing at full throttle, but there is still so much untapped potential.

From startups to tech giants, high-growth companies have found Indianapolis (Indy) to be an ideal home. The city is outpacing the competition by providing experienced talent, lower cost of living, and a productive environment of innovative founders, investors, and leaders. That’s why Powderkeg teamed up with several Indiana organizations to gain insight into growth and innovation happening in the unique tech community in Indianapolis, IN.

Our research results were compiled in the first-ever Indianapolis Tech Census Report and released to the public back in February of 2018. With responses from over 359 tech professionals, entrepreneurs, and investors representing and 138 companies in the Indianapolis area, the census used a combination of hard data and interviews with industry insiders to help paint an accurate picture of the Indy tech ecosystem as it stands today and what it can become.

In this episode of Powderkeg Podcast, we feature a few of Indy's most innovative tech entrepreneurs and leaders that helped break down the report and get at the root of what's right and what's not so good about the state of Indianapolis tech. In this discussion, we share behind the scenes secrets behind Indy's rapid tech growth, explore possibilities for bringing more investment capital into the city, and share the best strategies for building more diverse and inclusive teams—in Indianapolis or any tech community across the country. Tune in for more!

In this episode with four visionary Indianapolis tech leaders, you’ll learn:

Secrets behind the rapid growth of the Indianapolis tech community.

What tech communities can do to overcome a shortage of investment capital.

Why building relationships in your community is the best way to grow your business.

Strategies for finding and developing young professionals to close the tech talent gap.

How to drive diversity and inclusivity in your company and the whole tech industry.

Figuring out your next career move doesn’t have to be so stressful. So why not try Powderkeg Matches?

By joining Matches, you’re joining a community of thousands of top professionals in the Powderkeg community to get connected with outstanding people at the hottest tech companies between the coasts. Get matched with great employers, land your next major opportunity, and get started today!

Please enjoy this conversation about the 2018 Indy Tech Census Report with Danielle McDowell, John Qualls, Haley Altman, and Yaw Aning!

If you like this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on iTunes. You can also follow us on Soundcloud. We have an incredible lineup of interviews we’ll be releasing every Tuesday here on the Powderkeg Podcast. Check it out at powderkeg.com/itunes.

Being able to launch a tech product can always be a difficult step for startups. The technical issues in the first product are common, and user feedback during the early days of rollout often more focused on the problems than the product's actual features. This can make it difficult for teams to focus on what's working and what isn't. Luckily, in today's episode of Powderkeg Pitch, we brought on someone focused on eliminating this massive headache for startups.

In today’s pitch episode of the Powderkeg Podcast, you’ll hear from Sashank Purighalla, Founder and CEO of BOS Framework. BOS Framework is a product framework for Microsoft developers. It’s easy to use, eliminates repeat work, and enables individual developers to work with the capacity of an entire team and get an MVP to market quickly.

Sashank had only 5 minutes on the Powderkeg stage to pitch his company BOS Framework to a live panel of investors and industry experts from our Build Better Software pitch night we hosted last year featuring some of the most innovative companies scaling in the Mighty Middle. The three experts you’ll hear from in this episode include:

--Linda Calvin | Vice President of the School of IT at Ivy Tech

--Darye Henry | CTO at DeveloperTown Starts

--Ting Gootee | Founding Member & Chief Investment Officer at Elevate Ventures

Today’s Presenter, Sashank Purighalla, is a technology leader with a strong product development background, a strategic business vision, and a keen entrepreneurial spirit.

Over the past 20 years, Sashank has had the opportunity to work with various organizations in North America, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, and India in multiple industries. Using that combined experience and knowledge, he has helped start-ups and enterprises develop the right technology solutions quickly and cost-effectively.

In 2011, Sashank developed and founded BOS Framework, a scalable, flexible, and extensible platform that quickly launches technology products. Tune in to hear more!

Figuring out your next career move doesn't have to be so stressful. So why not try Powderkeg Matches?

By joining Matches, you’re joining a community of thousands of top professionals in the Powderkeg community to get connected with outstanding people at the hottest tech companies between the coasts. Get matched with great employers, land your next major opportunity, and get started today!

Please enjoy this pitch with Sashank Purighalla of BOS Framework!

There’s no doubt that companies, big or small, can have a tremendous influence on the community. And in being a founder, CEO, and a leader, it can come with great responsibility. I'll avoid using any more famous superhero references but wanted to share the most important facts I gained from this conversation.

Almost 81% of all VC firms don't have a single Black investor. In a sample of 160 firms with more than 2 people, only 5 have at least 2 Black investors. Another study found that Blacks are underrepresented in the executive ranks of startups by almost 82%.

This is a major social issue that needs solving. There are so many great ways startups, founders, and venture capitalists in our tech community can use their powers for good and help solve this not only in our industry but in the country as a whole. That's why in today's episode, we're bringing on someone who believes in solving this issue and bringing in the good of our Midwest communities and leaders.

On today's episode of the Powderkeg Podcast, we're talking with Mike Asem, Partner at Venture Capital Firm, M25.

As a partner at M25, Mike has participated in nearly 100 investments in early-stage companies across the Midwest. Outside of his responsibilities at M25, Mike is a Kauffman Fellow (Class 24) and a board member at BLCK VC, leading initiatives in the Midwest to connect, engage, empower, and advance Black venture investors. Before joining M25, Mike founded The Anvil, a co-working space and startup incubator on Purdue University's campus, where he helped launch the first Purdue startup to be accepted to Y Combinator. Tune in for more!

In this episode with Mike Asem, you’ll learn:

--- How to find a career in Midwest Tech

--- Key advice for tech entrepreneurs seeking to raise capital

--- Mike’s thoughts on racism and adversity in tech

--- Backstage look into the investment ecosystem in Chicago

--- Mike’s greatest hopes for startups in Mighty Middle America.

Figuring out your next career move doesn’t have to be so stressful. So why not try Powderkeg Matches?

By joining Matches, you’re joining a community of thousands of top professionals in the Powderkeg community to get connected with outstanding people at the hottest tech companies between the coasts. Get matched with great employers, land your next major opportunity, and get started today!

Please enjoy this conversation with Mike Asem!

If you like this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on iTunes. You can also follow us on Soundcloud. We have an incredible lineup of interviews we’ll be releasing every Tuesday here on the Powderkeg Podcast. Check it out at powderkeg.com/itunes.

When entering the world of entrepreneurship, it can come with a long list of challenges. Rewarding challenges, but many unpleasant challenges nonetheless. The biggest battle for most would-be entrepreneurs is taking the first step. It may be quitting a job, putting up a website, entering a startup accelerator program, approaching somebody with your first elevator pitch, or simply announcing your new venture to the world and family and committing the dollars and credit you have.

That’s why on today’s episode of the Powderkeg Podcast we bring in experienced entrepreneur and venture investor, Eric Tobias. Eric has started several companies with successful exits to public companies, including Batteries.com and iGODigital.

Most recently, Eric Tobias was VP of Product of Salesforce and Exact Target before being acquired. Today he is a Partner at High Alpha, a venture studio in Indianapolis that conceives, launches, and scales high-growth B2B software companies. They invest in software companies across North America, and Eric serves as a board member with many of these companies.

Along with sharing his entrepreneurial journey, Eric dives in the leading factors of what it takes to lead and take the first entrepreneurial steps. Sharing the many challenges that can be tossed along the journey and the key difference between either startup growth or startup death. Tune for more!

In this episode with Eric Tobias, you’ll learn:

--- The massive growth happening in the Martech industry

--- Why it’s critical to share your entrepreneurial idea before your ready

--- The importance of staying up to date on the latest tools in Martech

--- More about Eric’s background and journey through the world of entrepreneurship and tech

Figuring out your next career move doesn’t have to be so stressful. So why not try Powderkeg Matches?

By joining Matches, you’re joining a community of thousands of top professionals in the Powderkeg community to get connected with outstanding people at the hottest tech companies between the coasts. Get matched with great employers, land your next major opportunity, and get started today!

Please enjoy this conversation with Eric Tobias!

If you like this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on iTunes. You can also follow us on Soundcloud. We have an incredible lineup of interviews we’ll be releasing every Tuesday here on the Powderkeg Podcast. Check it out at powderkeg.com/itunes.

Our national fight against COVID still continues in round 1. And it has been a roller coaster ride for most digital health startups here in 2020 so far. After jumping out of the gates fast, U.S. digital health companies have raised an extraordinary $5.4 billion in venture capital support across the first six months of 2020. The first half of 2020 saw more support than any previous first half from years 2011 to 2019. And there is one Indianapolis company that is capitalizing on this growth and doesn’t plan on stopping.

In today’s pitch episode of the Powderkeg Podcast, you’ll hear from Roger Deetz, Vice President of Technology at Springbuk, a health analytics software solution focused on preventing disease through data.

Roger had only 5 minutes on the Powderkeg stage to pitch Springbuk to a live panel of investors and industry experts from our Future of Work pitch night we hosted last year featuring some of the most innovative companies scaling in the United States. The three experts you’ll hear from in this episode include:

--Mimi Nguyen | VP, Product Management at Genesys

--Phil Powell | Associate Dean of Academic Programs, Kelley School of Business at Indiana University

--Nicole Wallace | Managing Director at mAccounting

Today’s presenter, Roger Deetz, Today’s presenter, Roger Deetz, is the VP of Technology at Indianapolis-based Springbuk, and the former Vice President of Engineering at ANGI Home Services. Roger has been a longtime member of Powderkeg and the tech community and has led multiple dev teams at Angie’s List. Throughout his career, he’s taken on several roles as a designer, developer, architect, and a leader. Tune in for more!

Figuring out your next career move doesn't have to be so stressful. So why not try Powderkeg Matches?

By joining Matches, you’re joining a community of thousands of top professionals in the Powderkeg community to get connected with outstanding people at the hottest tech companies between the coasts. Get matched with great employers, land your next major opportunity, and get started today!

Please enjoy this pitch with Roger Deetz of Springbuk!

Branding. It’s one of the essential elements of any company, but it’s also something startup owners might not know how to create. Fortunately, our guest on this episode of the Powderkeg Podcast is a leading expert on all things related to the brand (including employer branding). She breaks branding down to its simplest components for time-strapped founders.

Tiffany Sauder is the founder and CEO of Element Three, a full-service marketing agency in Indianapolis. In just 13 years, Tiffany has grown the company into the largest marketing agency in all of Indiana and an Inc. 5000 fastest-growing company for five years running.

Tiffany joins us for something of a beginner’s guide to startup branding, focusing in part on a less-talked-about subject of employer branding. In my conversation with Tiffany, we focus our discussion on how to build external-facing and internal-facing branding for your company, scaling that branding, instill your values into every level of management, and why you might want to find the best mascot for your company. Tune in for more!

In this episode on employer branding with Element Three President Tiffany Sauder, you’ll learn:

--- How to start building a unique brand for your startup.

--- The minimal brand identity that every company should have.

--- Why employer branding is a necessity for any fast-growing organization.

--- Proven strategies for creating and scaling an effective employer brand.

--- How a strong support system can push you to realize your full potential.

--- What’s next for Tiffany and Element Three as the company grows.

Figuring out your next career move doesn’t have to be so stressful. So why not try Powderkeg Matches?

By joining Matches, you’re joining a community of thousands of top professionals in the Powderkeg community to get connected with outstanding people at the hottest tech companies between the coasts. Get matched with great employers, land your next major opportunity, and get started today!

Please enjoy this conversation with Tiffany Sauder!

If you like this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on iTunes. You can also follow us on Soundcloud. We have an incredible lineup of interviews we’ll be releasing every Tuesday here on the Powderkeg Podcast. Check it out at powderkeg.com/itunes.

Whether you’re an employee or entrepreneur, creating your personal brand has grown and become more critical. If you want to start trusting and valuing your instincts more and maybe even advance your career, it’s time to start setting yourself apart with personal branding.

In a tech industry, that’s all about people; the importance of personal branding never goes away.

There are 21 million salespeople in this country, and that number is set to keep growing. What are you doing to stand out in the crowd? Whether you’re looking to strengthen your sales, improve the relationships you have with clients, or leverage your professional network, personal branding is key.

For these reasons, our guest on today’s episode of the Powderkeg Podcast believes in the importance of personal branding and how it’ll play an elemental impact on relationships. Chris Ducker, who is a serial entrepreneur. In late 2014, internationally acclaimed blogger and podcaster Chris Ducker coined the term “Youpreneur” to describe the rise of the personal brand entrepreneur, a new business model that very few people saw coming.

Since then, the Youpreneur has risen to the top across sectors. The good news is, anyone can be a Youpreneur.

A Youpreneur transcends the old rules of business and builds a sustainable business from the foundation of their experience, interests, and personality—their personal brand. Youpreneurs draw an engaged, loyal audience even as they pursue varying, changing interests. They play by their own rules, and they reap the benefits. Tune in to learn more!

In this episode with Chris Ducker, you’ll learn:

--- Think critically about what influences your brand

--- Consider how your messaging impacts relationships

--- Understand what it means to have a personal brand authentically

Figuring out your next career move doesn’t have to be so stressful. So why not try Powderkeg Matches?

By joining Matches, you’re joining a community of thousands of top professionals in the Powderkeg community to get connected with outstanding people at the hottest tech companies between the coasts. Get matched with great employers, land your next major opportunity, and get started today!

Please enjoy this conversation with Chris Ducker of Youpreneur!

If you like this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on iTunes. You can also follow us on Soundcloud. We have an incredible lineup of interviews we’ll be releasing every Tuesday here on the Powderkeg Podcast. Check it out at powderkeg.com/itunes.