Indianapolis, Indiana–“This is a city of smart people,” said Josh Gentry, a tech entrepreneur in Indianapolis.
“There’s so much opportunity here, so much innovation.”
The Indianapolis-based entrepreneur and tech leader, who lives in Indianapolis, was one of hundreds of thousands of people to gather for the annual “Start Up Indy” event on Monday.
He and others took part in a three-hour session that brought together top-tier tech executives, startups and entrepreneurs from around the country.
“It was a good learning experience for me,” Gentry said.
The three-day event was hosted by Startup Indianapolis, a nonprofit organization that helps entrepreneurs launch and grow companies.
Participants also learned from some of the biggest names in tech, including Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
It also featured some of Indianapolis’ most successful startups, including Bionetics, which makes medical devices, and the Indianapolis-born startup Blender, which sells custom-made vaporizers.
The event was a part of the Indianapolis Startup Week, which began with a series of panels and lectures from top executives and entrepreneurs on topics including social media and mobile payments.
The panels were held at the Innovation Academy in downtown Indianapolis, and participants got the chance to learn from some tech innovators in the city.
“The goal is to get a more informed audience to start investing in companies and startups that have a strong vision for their future,” said Startup Indy co-founder Adam Schulman.
“We hope that this event will be an important opportunity to engage with the community.”
The event comes as Indianapolis has seen a surge in interest in startups.
The number of entrepreneurs in the state has increased by about 40 percent since 2010, according to the Indianapolis Business Journal.
The city has also seen a dramatic surge in startup activity over the past decade, with nearly 500 startups currently operating in the area.
Indianapolis has also become a hub for tech companies as the city becomes a hub of new tech companies.
The state’s population is now nearly 5 million, and more than 25,000 people are now working in tech in the Indianapolis area, according the city’s Economic Development Corp. (EDC).
In addition to being a hub, Indianapolis is also known for its tech talent.
Indianapolis is home to more than 70 companies and 500 startups, according EDC data.
The region has the largest tech workforce in the nation, with more than 40,000 employees, according EDC data.
In addition, Indianapolis has been the site of some of tech’s biggest successes, such as Uber, Lyft, Zipcar and Expedia, as well as the emergence of other startup hubs in the Midwest.
The tech community has also played a role in the growth of the tech sector.
In 2017, the Indianapolis Innovation Hub hosted a $1.5 million TechStars TechStars program, where startups in the region could learn how to start, grow and support their companies.
The economic impact of the startup boom has been felt all over the region.
Startup Indiana estimates that in the last three years, the state’s economic output grew by about $4.4 billion.
“That’s almost 50 percent of the $3.6 billion that the state was losing to other states over the last five years,” said Gentry.
“And that’s without factoring in inflation, which is going to be even higher.”
A number of other cities and states have also been experiencing a boom in the startup community, with the cities of Minneapolis and Chicago accounting for more than half of all startups.
“The economic opportunity that we have is really incredible,” Gentries said.
“What we’ve seen in the tech industry is that you can’t just say that you have a job in tech or you have startup activity.
You have a lot of opportunity in the industry.
It’s just the opportunity to have it come from people in the community that are really passionate about it.”
