In 2016, a small group of entrepreneurs, creatives
and innovators from the greater Madison County region gathered in a local tap room in search of community, support and answers to common questions. In short order, this loosely organized group was galvanized to become Vesuvius Coworking Inc. (VCi). Today VCi is widely regarded as the authentic voice of the region’s Entrepreneur and Innovator community.

VCi exists to advance the interests of our regional innovation ecosystem. Facilitating high-level conversations, enabling cross-sector collaboration, and hosting strategic gatherings, the VCi team works tirelessly for the benefit of our community. Favoring genuine relationships over networking, we bring leaders together to drive positive change and move our region forward.

In the early years, VCi worked diligently to create opportunities for our region’s fledgling innovation ecosystem to coalesce. Flagship event series such as StartUp MeetUp, an every other week collaborative event, allowed small curated groups of entrepreneurs and industry experts to build relationships while learning from one another. Over 500 Unique Entrepreneurs and Innovators have attended one of more meetups.

In 2018, VCi started Vesuvius Coworking Pitch Night (VCPN), the region’s largest innovation Idea Generation Event attracting over 750 attendees and 20 presentations. The VCPN keynote by Elevate Ventures COO, was the first Major Venture Capital Firms Official Visit to Madison County in many years. The State of Indiana Economic Development team were the first to financially and logistically support VCPN. As a Result of VCPN’s over 80 Applications have been recieved by local Innovators and Entrepreneurs. They were reviewed by 11 Highly Successful Entrepreneurs from around the country. Aerial Fit2Fly, Farm Society and Madison County Pickleball have been enabled by the dollars raised and were selected by the Audience to receive over 80% of the monies raised with no strings.

In the past three years the greater Madison County region’s innovation ecosystem has developed immensely. There are now more resources, events, and opportunities for entrepreneurs to connect than ever before. With that in mind, VCi has set out to better understand the dynamics of our community and use that under-standing to help guide critical policy and investment decisions, maximize impact, and increase the competitiveness of our region.

Why Now?

The VCi Startup Census is being created in response to a need for a more granular, localized understanding of our region’s innovation ecosystem. In the last decade the greater Madison County region, and Anderson in particular, has experienced a surge of entrepreneurial activity. Many different factors have influenced this momentum, some better understood than others, but where are we now? And where do we go from here?

How will the policy decisions and investments we make today affect the long term viability and competitive position of our region in the future? These are incredibly difficult questions to answer. Without a clear understanding of what drives this part of our local economy, choosing the best path forward becomes almost impossible. VCi does not pretend to be capable of making these difficult decisions, but we can help those who do.

The VCi Census provides the missing context that decision makers need to chart a path with confidence. The hyper-local focus of the Census allows unique insights and relevant data to surface that would otherwise go unnoticed. By repeating the Census each year, long term trends will emerge in the data that not only help guide us going forward, but measure past progress as well.

2020 marks the first of what will become the annual VCi Census. Over the course of several months, hundreds of local companies will be asked to add to tens of thousands of data points. Our data science team will use the database to generate visualizations and identify possible correlations for analysis which will be presented in the first annual “Vesuvius Coworking Inc. Census Report”, released in April 2020.

In 2020, VCi will complete this process with the goal of more than 100 Companies and dramatically expanding currently hidden data. All data will be anonymized and displayed in a way that protects the privacy of Census participants and the proprietary information of participating companies.

The data collection, analysis and report will be completed to the highest scientific standard the project’s resources allow. Best efforts have been made to eliminate bias and confounding variables wherever possible. It is important to note, however, that the information to be presented in this report does not represent a comprehensive assessment of every company in the region nor will the results necessarily represent the views of our partners.

The Survey will become Available before January 1st 2020. For many businesses this will be your first chance to have your data speak to the community and raise the profile of your contribution to the region. Please make sure Vesuvius has your email address to keep you in the loop.