New statewide coalition aims to advance entrepreneurship
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A national not-for-profit dedicated to championing entrepreneurship as a civic priority launched an initiative on Thursday aimed at boosting entrepreneurship throughout Indiana.
During an event at the 16 Tech Innovation District in downtown Indianapolis, Right to Start announced the Indiana Starters Coalition—comprised of eight founding member organizations from around the state—with the goal of finding ways to lower barriers to entrepreneurship.
“They are vital both to the evolution of the coalition and to ensuring that entrepreneurship is prioritized and facilitated everywhere throughout the state,” said Courtney Zaugg, Right to Start’s coalition manager for the eastern United States.
Zaugg told Inside INdiana Business that the coalition is focusing on supporting entrepreneurs from all industry types.
“This covers everything. You can be in Pike County and have a restaurant, and you still have similar barriers to folks in Fishers that are developing a SaaS product,” Zaugg said. “That is truly the focus: to be the voice of entrepreneurs to lower barriers to entrepreneurship.”
In addition to Right to Start, the founding members of the Indiana Starters Coalition are:
- Elmer Buchta Technology Center (Southern Indiana)
- Launch Fishers and the Indiana IoT Lab (Fishers)
- MatchBOX Coworking Studio (Lafayette)
- Muncie Innovation Connector (East Central Indiana)
- Northeast Indiana Innovation Center (Northeast Indiana)
- 16 Tech Innovation District (Central Indiana)
- The Dimension Mill (Bloomington)
- The Pantheon (Southwest Indiana).
Zaugg said the coalition’s steering committee will work to identify barriers to starting new businesses, propose policies to remove those barriers, and engage communities throughout the state that have been historically excluded.
“They will come up with basically a charter and an agenda for what policymakers need to consider when they’re creating policy,” she said, “such as how many steps does it take to get a permit for X, Y and Z sector? How much does it cost? How can those systems be changed? And how, perhaps, can the fees be changed so it doesn’t negatively impact the state, but positively impacts entrepreneurs at the same time?”
The early feedback from the state’s entrepreneurship community, Zaugg said, has been overwhelmingly positive. She said many have told her they’ve been waiting for an initiative like this.
“Entrepreneurs are so busy; often they’re doing they’re building their businesses, and they’re giving back to the communities, but asking them to meet individually with policymakers and other organizations in the state that that impact their you know, the work of entrepreneurs is difficult,” she said. “We collectively need to come together and have a voice that’s being shared with the powers of influence.”
Right to Start launched a similar coalition in Arkansas earlier this year and has plans for efforts in four other states in 2025.
“Indiana has enormous potential for new business growth in every community in the state,” Right to Start CEO Victor Hwang said in a news release. “To achieve that potential, there must be a robust environment to support and encourage entrepreneurship. The Indiana Starters Coalition is a crucial catalyst for that. It will focus on making the process of starting a business easier by changing the civic landscape for the benefit of all.”
Zaugg said the coalition aims to start working with lawmakers in the 2025 legislative session at the Indiana Statehouse, though specific issues of concern have not yet been identified.