The Venture Club of Indiana’s annual Innovation Showcase is right around the corner! The yearly entrepreneurial trade show brings fundable companies and capital sources together and continues to be one of the best opportunities for young startups and scale-ups to make a name for themselves in front of investors and the marketplace. This year’s expo will be held at the Dallara Indy Car Factory on July 14.

Bill Godfrey, Aprimo co-founder and active angel investor with 4G Ventures, will hold a fireside chat featuring his perspectives on building and investing in seed- and early-stage companies.

For companies trying to break into the tech market and establish themselves as a brand, getting in front of buyers, securing funding from investors, and connecting with talent within the community can be as difficult as starting a company in the first place. The Innovation Showcase recognizes these challenges and seeks to eliminate them by positioning startups and scale-ups in front of business executives, venture capitalists, and angel investors with a pitch competition.

The three-track competition allows companies to pitch within the applicable Startup, Scale-up, or University tracks to stimulate interest in their businesses and establish future meetings with the goal of securing funding.

Seth Daniels, director of sales and marketing for Rapsodo, says “It is a great opportunity to get your name out and to be as creative as possible.”

APPLICATIONS ARE DUE 5/30/2016!

Apply to Pitch Here!

Past exhibitors and participating investors speak highly of the advantages they have gained from participating in the Innovation Showcase and provide recommendations for companies and entrepreneurs seeking to use the expo as a platform to launch their businesses.

Companies: why exhibit?

Kris Parmalee, co-founder and CEO of Lectio, an assistive technology designed for individuals with a language-related learning disability says, “The Innovation Showcase is a great opportunity to network with potential investors and other startups. It’s is an opportunity to experience our thriving startup community and realize you are part of all this cool stuff happening in your own back yard!”

 

“It was huge. The biggest thing that we gained was a free month of partnership with Foxio and they helped us develop Edwin as a sleepy time and bath time aid, and we won a free month with BLASTmedia, one of the most phenomenal PR firms in the world.

“It was cool to see where BLASTmedia could put us and how they could allow Apple and BestBuy to relate to Edwin the Duck. Those two are the biggest connections we could have asked for and they helped us in a time that we couldn’t and our company has changed because of it. We’ve worked with companies with infinite PR budgets and we came here and didn’t have that, and we put a rubber duck in the Wall Street Journal.”

Don Inmon, co-founder and President of pi lab elaborates more on the impact of the Innovation Showcase below:

The Innovation Showcase – Pi Lab from Kurtis Bowersock on Vimeo.

Investors: why attend?

Participating investors have a whole day to themselves, sponsored by VisionTech, to participate in educational workshops, one-on-one meetings, and networking activities to prepare for the main event followed by a VIP dinner. For more information on Investor Day, click here.

Whether you’re an investor, entrepreneur, or a techie interested in up and coming products and services the tech community has to offer, don’t miss out on this year’s Innovation Showcase!

Click here for more info on the 2016 Innovation Showcase!