Technology Entrepreneurship

Legendary Indiana investor and filmmaker will receive award at TechPoint Mira Awards Gala event May 15

TechPoint is pleased to announce that legendary investor and innovator  Robert Compton is its 2010 Trailblazer Award recipient for significant and lasting contributions to Indiana’s high-tech economy. The Trailblazer Award is part of TechPoint’s annual Mira Awards program recognizing Indiana’s technology success stories in various categories for industry, institutions and individuals.

Thirty years ago, Robert Compton chose to forsake the security of a systems engineering career with IBM and venture in a new direction as an entrepreneur and investor.  For Indiana’s technology sector, the rest is history – Compton has built an unparalleled record of investing in and supporting firms that became the foundation of the state’s high-tech industry, spawning successive generations of new companies (many of which Compton also became involved in).

Compton’s track record is truly a Hoosier high-tech ‘who’s who’ – firms like Software Artistry, Aprimo, Exact Target, Interactive Intelligence, Vontoo, IndianMathOnline, Compendium Blogware, Compression Engineering, Mezzia, Sci-Tech Ventures, Veregon and Warsaw Orthopedic (which went on to become Sofamor Danek, the world’s largest spinal medical device company, with Compton as its President). In all, he has been active in more than 40 businesses in software, telecommunications, healthcare, medical devices, and education.

“When you try to chart the progress of Indiana’s technology sector over the last two decades, most roads seem to lead back to Bob Compton,” said Jim Jay, TechPoint’s President & CEO.  “He has been a catalyst for bringing so many new innovations to market, for making Indiana a hotbed for online measured marketing – the list of achievements goes on and on. 

“This award only confirms what every Indiana technology entrepreneur knows to be true – Bob Compton certainly blazed a path that all of us continue to follow.”
 

Compton’s involvement in entrepreneurship doesn’t end with his direct involvement in for-profit ventures.  He also serves as a Trustee of the Kauffman Foundation, a $1.8 billion institute dedicated to accelerating entrepreneurial activity.  His recent exploits as a filmmaker – most notably the documentary “2 Million Minutes” – has explored the critical role of education to success in an entrepreneurial, knowledge-based economy, taking a look at the differing approaches employed by the U.S., China, and India.

“Bob is a venture capitalist in two senses of the phrase – he invests both intellectual and financial capital in companies and causes that he cares about,” added Mark Hill, Chairman of TechPoint and managing partner of Collina Ventures. “Indiana’s tech community has certainly been a beneficiary of his work, and this Trailblazer in Technology recognition is a well-deserved and long-overdue expression of our appreciation.”

For the last decade, TechPoint’s annual Mira Awards have put a spotlight on Indiana’s high-tech all-stars, understanding that celebrating success is one way to create more of it. The Mira Awards are Indiana’s largest and most visible technology awards program; learn more at http://www.techpoint.org/Mira/.  This year’s Mira Gala awards ceremony will be held on May 15th at the Westin – Downtown Indianapolis. Tickets are available for purchase through the website.

About TechPoint
TechPoint is Indiana’s only statewide technology initiative, representing industry stakeholders including publicly-traded companies, private businesses, colleges and research universities, and local economic development organizations. The group’s mission is to accelerate Indiana’s emerging and vibrant information technology sector by: promoting the successes of information technology companies and professionals; supporting the formation, expansion, and attraction of IT companies; and advocating appropriate public policy.  TechPoint is an initiative of the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership. Visit www.techpoint.org. 

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE MIRA AWARDS GALA
LEARM MORE ABOUT BOB COMPTON

Most-welcome news is starting to arrive. Believable reports of abating economic turmoil increase daily, accompanied by fresh intelligence that the crushing global recession is nearing its long-awaited end.

As Indiana commences on recovery over the coming months, we all need to refocus our efforts to accelerate recovery and replace lost jobs.

The task of creating jobs is not going to be an easy one, but it does represent a unique opportunity. Although the Hoosier state lost thousands of jobs as the global economy nose-dived over the past 18 months, the state did enter the worldwide fiscal era of carnage in dramatically better financial shape than its neighbors. Now is the time to leverage that enviable position and advance Indiana quickly.

How can these new jobs be organically created over the coming months and years?  Earlier in September, BusinessWeek magazine had a most interesting comment for Hoosiers to consider:

“Name an industry [presently in the United States] that can produce one million new, high-paying jobs over the next three years. You can’t, because there isn’t one. And that’s the problem.”

Adrian Slywotzky, a partner for national management consultancy Oliver Wyman, went on to illustrate for BusinessWeek readers how real American innovation from the mid-20th century – the transistor, cellular telephony, photovoltaic solar cells and others – all became building blocks for new industries and the subsequent creation of millions of new jobs. The paramount task at hand, according to Slywotzky, is for American entrepreneurs, scientists and business professionals to redouble their efforts and produce the next set of truly transformational building blocks.

Those of us living in Indiana would do well to consider how real innovation can dramatically accelerate our own respective position in the national – even global – economy.

“How so Indiana?” one might say. Take a look at Indiana University. Through some amazing and creative collaboration, IU is now a player in the top ranks of supercomputing horsepower. That gives the state an attractive tool for transformational development and innovation through the university’s Big Red supercomputer, which is already available to entrepreneurial businesses and technology entrepreneurship in the state.

Take a look at Purdue University. The Boilermakers raised more than an eyebrow or two when Purdue pulled down a $105 million grant from the National Science Foundation – the largest in the university’s 140-year history – for earthquake research and education. Purdue will now lead no less than 14 other major research universities in this endeavor, positioning even more firmly the state’s outstanding resources, such as Discovery Park in West Lafayette.

The list of Indiana technology innovation and Indiana technology research assets, emerging business technology and the positive impact on Indiana technology jobs and Indiana economic development goes much farther.

If you’re serious about job creation – and you should be – consider gathering with us on Sept. 29 for the statewide Innovation Summit. The Summit’s keynote speaker Clayton Christensen is the Harvard avatar responsible for defining disruptive innovation and how to achieve it. He will be joined by dozens of successful innovators, technologists and finance professionals striving to ignite Hoosier innovation.

Will you be part of the Hoosier solution to drive real transformation and innovation? Join us.

LEARN MORE ABOUT INNOVATION SUMMIT  |  DOWNLOAD AGENDA  |   REGISTER

New film from businessman Bob Compton examines entrepreneurship in China and the country’s rise to a global superpower

INDIANAPOLIS (September 14, 2009) — The Indiana premiere of Win in China, Bob Compton’s new documentary on the explosion of entrepreneurship and new venture creation in China, will be part of TechPoint’s Innovation Summit at the Indiana Convention Center on Sept. 29.

Compton, creator and executive producer of the provocative documentary on global education, Two Million Minutes, said he wants Indiana CEO’s and university students to see his new film to better understand the challenges they will face from a tidal wave of Chinese entrepreneurs.

“In Communist China, the country’s heroes are not sports stars or entertainers but entrepreneurs, because they create jobs, wealth and strengthen communities,” Compton said. “Indiana has many successful entrepreneurs who have advanced the state’s economy, but the Chinese are investing in entrepreneurship education, infrastructure and venture capital on a scale unimaginable to Americans.” 

He continued, “Remember what you saw at the Beijing Olympics, and imagine that scale of money, talent, energy and coordination being applied to building the entrepreneurial sector of China’s economy. Now double everything. The Politburo’s efforts are on a massive scale, and Americans are entirely unaware.”

“The point of the film and my desire to reach out to the TechPoint Innovation Summit audience isn’t to criticize Hoosiers or Indiana businesses – quite the opposite,” Compton said. “Indiana’s tech sector is our state’s future, and I believe this film can be a catalyst for renewed commitment to Indiana’s new venture initiatives by Innovation Summit attendees.”

Win in China is a 60-minute documentary film that centers on the largest, most lucrative business plan competition in history. Organized as a Donald Trump-like TV show, it was broadcast across China on CCTV3 and serves as a metaphor for the country’s dramatically increased entrepreneurialism.

Win in China follows the path of China from Cultural Revolution and abject poverty to the Entrepreneurial Revolution and rise to be the third largest economy in the world. It vividly illustrates the role entrepreneurship has played in the dramatic changes China has undergone over the past 30 years.

The Indiana premiere of Win in China will follow the national plenary panel at the Innovation Summit entitled “Funding Innovation,” which will feature Bob Compton and other venture capitalists from both coasts including:
 

• Mathias Schilling, Senior Partner at BV Capital – San Francisco
• Michael Arpey, Managing Director, Customized Fund Investment Group, Credit Suisse – New York
• Michael Brown, General partner of Battery Ventures – Boston

The panel is sponsored by Alerding Castor Hewitt LLP and will be moderated by David Castor, partner at the firm.

The keynote speaker for the luncheon at the Innovation Summit will be renowned innovation expert, entrepreneur, bestselling author and Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen.

The screening is scheduled to begin at approximately 5:15 p.m. at the Indiana Convention Center. You must be a registered Innovation Summit attendee to attend the screening. Early-bird tickets cost $150 in advance or $175 after Sept. 22. Visit http://www.techpoint.org/summit/ for more information about TechPoint’s Innovation Summit.

About Win in China
Win in China is a documentary film about the world’s largest and most lucrative business-plan competition, held not in the United States or any western country, but in communist China. Over 120,000 entrepreneurs compete for prize money in excess of $5 million with the winner receiving nearly $1.5 million dollars to invest in a new business plan. Documentary filmmaker Ole Schell was given unprecedented access to the show’s creator, the contestants and the judges. His documentary opens a window into Chinese capitalism, which differs in many ways from Western capitalism. Beneath the game show’s surface lies a nuanced, subtle view of Chinese business practices, ambitions, ethical norms and competitive behaviors. For more information, please visit www.WinInChinaMovie.com.

About TechPoint
TechPoint is Indiana’s only statewide technology initiative, representing industry stakeholders including publicly-traded companies, private businesses, colleges and research universities, and local economic development organizations. The group’s mission is to accelerate Indiana’s emerging and vibrant information technology sector by: promoting the successes of information technology companies and professionals; supporting the formation, expansion, and attraction of IT companies; and advocating appropriate public policy. Visit www.techpoint.org.

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CONTACTS:
Joshua Hall, TechPoint, 317-464-5416, jhall@techpoint.org
Meghan Devitt, Dittoe Public Rel., 317-202-2280, ext. 11, meg@dittoepr.com