The IBJ Podcast

Upland expands Indiana footprint as it sends beer overseas

Upland Brewing Co. opened its main brewery and first brewpub in Bloomington in 1998 and this year will produce 16,000 barrels of beer a year, making it the state's third-largest brewer.

It now operates two brewpubs in Indianapolis and one each in Carmel, Columbus and Bloomington, as well as tasting facilities at its two Bloomington breweries.

Host Mason King talks with Pete Batule, Upland’s chief operating officer, about the company's growth, including its busy new brewpub in Fountain Square, and the line of sour beers that its selling across the country and overseas.

For more info, read IBJ reporter Susan Orr's story about Upland in the most recent issue of IBJ.

This episode of the IBJ Podcast is sponsored by Krieg DeVault.

  

Don Brown's newest venture combines his two passions: health and technology

Don Brown is best known in Indy tech circles for launching and selling high-profile tech companies, including Software Artistry, which he sold to IBM for $200 million, and Interactive Intelligence, which  sold to Genesys for $1.4 billion.

What many don't know is that he's also a doctor. That's right, Brown has a medical degree from Indiana University and and a master’s in biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University. (He earned the former while simultaneously earning a master's of computer science and the latter just a few years ago while running Interactive Intelligence.)

Today, he's running a company that combines his health and technology passions—LifeOmic, which operates a cloud system for precision health data. 

Host Mason King talks with Brown about he has juggled all of that work (he also has eight kids) and how is interest in intermittent fasting has led LifeOmic down a new path.

To learn more about LifeOmic's new consumer app, read John Russell's story in this week's IBJ.

This episode of the IBJ Podcast is sponsored by Krieg DeVault.

  

Is the historic Drake building worth saving?

The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis last month announced it planned to demolish the Drake, a nearby, 91-year-old apartment building it owns, with the goal of using the space—at least for now—for additional parking.

But historic preservationists want to save the building, and urbanists say the region needs more affordable housing, especially given that the Drake sits near a stop for the soon-to-open Red Line rapid transit route.

IBJ reporter Hayleigh Colombo talks about the controversy—the possibilities for the building—with podcast host Mason King. They explore whether moving the building is an option, whether Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission might step in and what the role the city could play in the process.

To read more, check out Colombo's story here. 

This episode of the IBJ Podcast is sponsored by Krieg DeVault.

  

How Indy will use tax incentives to combat low wages

Soon companies will need to pay at least $18 an hour and offer other benefits—like health insurance or help with child care, transit or other worker needs—to be eligible for tax incentives and training grants from the city of Indianapolis.

The change is part of an effort by the city and Indy Chamber to combat poverty and help move more lower-income residents into the middle class.

Host Mason King talks with Ian Nicolini, vice president of Develop Indy, the city's economic development agency, about the new policies, which will take effect Jan. 1.

To learn more, read reporter Hayleigh Colombo's story detailing the policy.

This episode of the IBJ Podcast is sponsored by Krieg DeVault.

 

Profitability for Blue Indy still 'a few years away'

The Blue Indy electric-car-sharing service launched in Indianapolis in 2015. It had its detractors, but you couldn’t fault the service’s backers for being timid.

Basing Blue Indy on a service that had tens of thousands of subscribers in Paris, they predicted that by 2020 the company would be profitable and have at least 15,000 members, 200 charging stations, and 500 electric cars on the road.

Wholeheartedly supported by the Ballard administration, Blue Indy carved out curb-side stations for its vehicles in some of the city’s busiest areas. The city of Indianapolis invested $6 million to help get it off the ground, with a profit-sharing plan that would kick in once the company was profitable and its own considerable investment was recouped.

That won’t be in 2020, or at any time soon. While Blue Indy has grown significantly since its inception and its numbers are on the upswing, it’s still not close to the results it initially projected.

In this week’s edition of The IBJ Podcast, Blue Indy’s local market chief admits that the original predictions for Indianapolis were too optimistic, being based on the performance in Paris. It won’t be in the black next year, and profitability “is going to be a few years away,” he said.

“The mobility industry is a tough industry to make money at, and it really is a long-term project to offer members the different services they want, the locations they want and the use cases they want,” said James Delgado, managing director for Blue Indy.

 

This episode of the IBJ Podcast is sponsored by Krieg DeVault.

 

Country clubs make updates from age of Cadillacs and ‘Caddyshack’ to attract family-oriented millennials

This isn’t your just father’s weekend retreat or mother’s opportunity to binge on bridge. Not anymore.

Country clubs across the nation are in the midst of a transformation as the latest generation of breadwinners decide how they want to spend their leisure time and disposable incomes.

As the conventional wisdom goes, millennials are fiercely independent, burdened by college debt and skeptical of traditional institutions. But research by the golf and country cub industry indicates that some in the demographic are looking for a local place to get away with their children for secluded family time, as well as the traditional advantages of forging career and social connections.

To attract millennials, clubs in the Indianapolis area are updating their facilities, beefing up their recreational offerings for kids, adding activities that would appeal to young adults and adjusting the way they charge for memberships. They’re also trying to air out any remaining whiffs of snob appeal, so delightfully skewered by the classic film comedy “Caddyshack.”

In the latest edition of The IBJ Podcast, host Mason King gets the lowdown from reporter Samm Quinn on how central Indiana’s clubs are changing, while they get the national perspective from Jeff Morgan, CEO of the Club Management Association of America.

This episode of the IBJ Podcast is sponsored by Krieg DeVault.

Avoiding the icebergs that can sink your startup

Husband-and-wife team Kim and Todd Saxton, both professors at the IU Kelley School of Business at IUPUI, have spent a lot of time inside and outside the classroom serving as mentors to startup founders trying to make their way through the choppy waters of entrepreneurship.

So they recently teamed up with Michael Cloran, a local entrepreneur and partner at DeveloperTown, to write a book of advice about what NOT to do when you're starting a company. The book—“The Titanic Effect: Successfully Navigating the Uncertainties that Sink Most Startups”—uses the tragedy of the Titanic as its outline, detailing some of the icebergs (which the authors call "debtbergs") that founders face in their journeys to success or sometimes failure.

Host Mason King talked to the Saxtons about the biggest problems that entrepreneurs face and how to tackle them—and they explain how they faced some of those same problems as they crafted their book.

You can learn more about one of the key problems startups face—finding a match between a product and customers—in this week's IBJ.

This episode of the IBJ Podcast is sponsored by Krieg DeVault.

 

Pete the Planner on the magic of a 15-year mortgage

In residential real estate, the 30-year-mortgage is king. But why?

A 15-year mortgage saves you money, reduces your expenses later and helps you be more realistic about how much house you really need, says Peter Dunn, better known as Pete the Planner.

Pete talks with guest host Lesley Weidenbener about all things mortgages—determining how much house you can afford, why you shouldn't put down less than 10% and why the idea of starter homes and family homes is silly.

And Pete explains why those mortgage calculators you can get online are one of the worst things to happen to family finances.

You can also read Pete's column about the 15-year mortgage at IBJ.com.

This episode of the IBJ Podcast is sponsored by Krieg DeVault.

 

 

Morales Group wants to get you a job—then a better one, then a career

Morales Group launched in 2003 with a focus on placing Hispanic workers into jobs, but the company has grown and expanded—both in geography and in the people it serves.

Today, about half of the people Morales Group places are migrants, immigrants or refugees. In fact, 37 countries are represented by Morales Group’s internal employees and the associates the company has placed.

That means the $100 million firm spends more money upfront to solve language barriers and provide training. But Seth Morales—the company's president and the son of the founder—says that investment pays off later for the workers, Morales Group and the manufacturers, distributors and other companies that are its clients.

Morales talks to podcast host Mason King about the company's culture and mission, the challenges and opportunities presented by the tight labor market, and how his standout college football career at Purdue University impacted his career.

To read more about Morales Group, check out this story by IBJ's Sorell Grow. 

IBJ photo/Eric Learned

This episode of the IBJ Podcast is sponsored by Krieg DeVault.

 

 

This IU pediatrician is a health care myth buster

Should you avoid red meat? No. Will gum last in your stomach seven years? No way. Should you strive for 10,000 steps a day? Not unless you just want to.

So says Dr. Aaron Carroll, a pediatrician and researcher at the Indiana University School of Medicine who sees it as his life’s calling to debunk what he considers health myths and weak medical research. He writes books and a column for The New York Times, hosts "Healthcare Triage" on YouTube and tweets at @aaronecarroll, all with the goal of educating the public about health issues. 

Dr. Carroll answers questions from podcast host Mason King about probiotics, sodium, sunscreen, marijuana and more, and he explains why we all—doctors included—misinterpret health care research.

To learn more about Dr. Carroll, read IBJ reporter John Russell's profile at IBJ.com.

IBJ photo by Daniel Axler

This episode of the IBJ Podcast is sponsored by Krieg DeVault.