Forty-seven rapid-fire elevator pitches highlighted the diversity and passion of the Indiana tech sector during TechPoint’s “Meet the Mira Nominees” event sponsored by Faegre Baker Daniels and hosted by Eleven Fifty Academy and Eleven Fifty Consulting.

This fun, fast-paced showcase featured about half of the companies, startups, schools, organizations, teams and individuals competing for the state’s top tech honors in the Mira Awards program. This year’s winners will be announced live on stage during the Mira Awards gala coming up on April 23, at The Westin Hotel in downtown Indianapolis. Tickets are sold out, but we’ll be covering the event live on social media and right here at techpoint.org with feature stories photos and videos.

Robin Fleming

Robin FlemingBest Socks Winner!

Since no shoes are allowed inside Eleven Fifty Academy, we encouraged people to wear their favorite colorful, funny and/or outrageous socks!

Robin Fleming from Angie’s List won the prize for “Best Socks” with her bacon and eggs footwear!

The ExactHire team wore matching branded socks while Matt MacBeth from pi lab sported Edwin the Duck footwear!
The ExactHire team wore matching branded socks while Matt MacBeth from pi lab sported Edwin the Duck footwear!

Click here to see more photos from Mira Pitch Night on Facebook.

Nick Mathioudakis, partner at Faegre Baker Daniels, once again served as our master of ceremonies for “Meet the Mira Nominees” night and he runs a tight ship. The speed and urgency of each 60-second pitch is one of the keys to making this event so interesting. Where else can you watch a few dozen innovators explain why they are awesome and deserve an award, doing their best to squeeze in as much detail before the slow clapping of the audience cuts them off?

Learn more about the nominees who participated and for what award categories they are nominated in the brief descriptions included below.

Following all 47 pitches, our honorary judges for the night selected five semi-finalists. They were:

  1. Jeff Ton representing Bluelock
  2. Brittany Young representing InnovateMap
  3. Tim Balz representing Freedom Chairs
  4. Matt Ray representing eImagine Technology Group
  5. Nikki Cremer representing Moser Consulting

Next, by volume of the loudest applause, the crowd chose Rose-Hulman Institute student and founder of Freedom Chairs Tim Balz as the winner of Mira Nominees Pitch Night! Learn about Tim’s work by watching the video below.

Mira Pitch Night winner Tim Balz, founder of Freedom Chairs, poses with Craig Downing, head of engineering management at Rose-Hulman Insitute of Technology.
Mira Pitch Night winner Tim Balz, founder of Freedom Chairs, poses with Craig Downing, head of engineering management at Rose-Hulman Insitute of Technology.

Congratulations to Pitch Night Winner Tim Balz!

Thank you to all of the 2015 Mira Award nominees who participated and helped make Mira Pitch Night at Tech Thursday such a fun, interesting event!

COMPANY & CATEGORY BRIEF NOMINEE DESCRIPTION
1st Maker Space

Tech Educator of the Year

 1st Maker Space develops in-school maker spaces that enhance kids’ creativity, critical thinking and problem solving – 21st Century Skills!
Adam Gillaspie, PactSafe

Rising Star Award

 Adam Gillaspie is Director of Engineering at PactSafe responsible for innovation and development. Patent holder and formerly of ExactTarget.
Andrew Harris, IUPUI Computer Science

Tech Educator of the Year

 Andy is engaged in connecting people of all ages to the dynamic discipline of computer science.
Blue Pillar

Scale-up of the Year

 Blue Pillar provides the world’s first self-configurable Energy Network of Things™ platform to connect and control distributed energy assets
Bluebridge

Scale-up of the Year

 Bluebridge is the world’s leading mobile app engagement platform for building branded, compelling mobile apps.
Bluelock

Scale-up of the Year

 Bluelock provides Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service for complex environments and sensitive data to help companies mitigate risk with confidence
Cimcor, Inc

Scale-up of the Year

 Cimcor, Inc. helps secure organizations with its product, CimTrak, which detects, alerts and responds to changes in your IT environment.
Clear Software

Best New Tech Product

 Clear Software is a disruptor whose mission is to simplify business software and make its users’ jobs easier and more productive.
Copper Mountain Technologies

Scale-up of the Year

 Copper Mountain Technologies has transformed vector network analyzers with its compact, affordable, lab-grade test systems.
Delivra

Company Culture of the Year

 Delivra is an email marketing service provider and strategic consultancy that helps businesses engage in meaningful customer conversations.
DemandJump

Innovation of the Year, Best New Tech Product & New Tech Startup of the Year

 DemandJump untangles billions of data points and shows marketers the best opportunities to maximize revenue across digital channels.
Dow AgroSciences

Tech Educator of the Year

 The Dow AgroSciences Science Ambassadors empower employees to inspire their communities by promoting scientific literacy.
POLARIS Laboratories  

Best New Tech Product

 POLARIS Laboratories® analyzes oil, coolant and fuel to evaluate equipment health and offer actionable maintenance recommendations.
Duke Realty Corporation

Tech Educator of the Year

 Duke Realty Corporation is actively working with socioeconomically at-risk Indianapolis students to encourage their future STEM pursuits.
eImagine Technology Group

Company Culture of the Year

 eImagine Technology Group is a software development company that has been providing information technology solutions for more than 17 years.
Eleven Fifty Academy

Tech Educator of the Year

 Eleven Fifty Academy, a nonprofit coding academy, exists to close the technology skills gap through creating an ecosystem of coding talent.
Lectio, LLC

Innovation of the Year

 Lectio is a new assistive technology designed for individuals with language-related learning disabilities.
ExactHire

Innovation of the Year

 ExactHire helps small- to medium-sized employers scale for growth with HR software solutions for recruiting, hiring & employee onboarding.
Formstack

Company Culture of the Year

 Formstack is an easy-to-use online form builder that makes it simple to capture and manage data without coding knowledge.
InnovateMap

Corporate Innovator of the Year

 InnovateMap is a Product Agency ready to help you with your Product Management, User Experience (UX), and Product Marketing needs.
Interactive Intelligence

Tech Company of the Year & Best New Tech Product

 Interactive Intelligence is a global leader in cloud services for customer engagement, unified communications and collaboration
Kinney Group, Inc.

Tech Company of the Year

 Kinney Group, Inc. is a data center solutions provider and systems integrator founded in 2006 and headquartered in Indianapolis, IN.
mAccounting

Corporate Innovator of the Year

 By leveraging technology using cloud-based accounting platforms, mAccounting is changing the way small businesses handle their accounting.
Angie’s List

Innovation of the Year & Company Culture of the Year

 Angie’s List is building the world’s best home service marketplace and redefining the way consumers take care of their home.
Mesh Systems LLC

Innovation of the Year

 Mesh Systems -an IoT software, services & solution provider of connected products- uses MESHVista to rapidly bring Smart products to market.
Miles Sterrett, Fretless

Tech Educator of the Year

 Through Indy Hackers, Indy.rb, Hack Indiana, and Fretless, Miles educates the hacker community to strengthen Indianapolis tech.
MOBI

Company Culture of the Year

 MOBI provides software and services to help companies manage mobility.
Moser Consulting

Company Culture of the Year

 Moser Consulting provides the talent, tools and technology to give businesses that rely on data a competitive advantage.
NextGear Capital

Tech Company of the Year

 NextGear Capital is the automotive industry’s premier lender, offering flexible solutions and cutting-edge technology for dealers worldwide.
PAN – Performance Assessment Network

Best New Tech Product

 Performance Assessment Network (PAN) is the most customizable talent measurement platform built for the new world of work.
pi lab – Edwin the Duck

Scale-up of the Year

 The team at pi lab believes in the power of imagination, inventing product experiences that transform the way children and families learn.
Eleven Fifty Consulting

New Start-up of the Year

 EFC a mobile / web app & staff augmentation firm. We modernize & build custom applications. We build quality @ rates competive with offshore
Raytheon Mission Data Server

Innovation of the Year

 Raytheon Company is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, civil government and cybersecurity solutions.
Renaissance Electronic Services

Tech Company of the Year

 Connecting dental offices, insurance companies, and patients in real-time.
Return Path

Company Culture of the Year

 Return Path is the world’s leading provider of email data solutions. Founded in 1999, Return Path now has more than 500 employees worldwide.
Rook Security

Scale-up of the Year & Best New Tech Product

 Rook Security provides advisory and managed security services on a global scale to protect sensitive data against dynamic, emerging threats.
Rundown, LLC

Innovation of the Year

 Rundown is a collection of intelligent Apps you can use to build your own Content Studio specifically customized for the way your team works
Springbuk Analytics

Best New Tech Product

 Powered by Healthiest Employer, Springbuk Analytics helps employers target their spending and improve the health of their population.
Studio Science

Company Culture of the Year

 Studio Science is a design and innovation consultancy for B2B brands and digital products.
Teresa Becker, TKB Consulting, LLC.

Rising Star Award

 Teresa Becker is a results-driven marketer with years experience guiding strategy and execution for B2B SoaS companies across the nation
The AME Group

Tech Company of the Year

 The AME Group is a premier technology managed services provider focused on helping organizations thrive by simplifying their I.T.
Tim Balz, Freedom Chairs

Rising Star Award

 Tim Balz, founder and president of Freedom Chairs at age 16, has taken in, fixed up, and given away over 130 electric wheelchairs.
Tim Hickle, MilesHerndon

Rising Star Award

 MilesHerndon is a branding agency focused on holistic, brand-centric engagements that help organizations deliver meaningful results.
Torchlite

New Start-up of the Year

 Torchlite connects businesses to experts who build, manage and measure effective digital marketing campaigns that drive leads & boost sales
Vennli

Scale-up of the Year

 Through its patent-pending algorithm, Vennli brings efficient and effective customer data analyses to businesses’ growth strategies.
Work Here LLC

New Start-up of the Year

 WorkHere has developed the first location based social/mobile recruiting app.