SOURCE River West Entrepreneurship Center facility opening this spring

Written by Teresa Francis

SOURCE River West Entrepreneurship Center is a catalyst project of the River West Great Place initiative. Its goal is to create an environment where entrepreneurs are welcome and contribute to an equitable and thriving neighborhood business sector by fostering place-based entrepreneurship through coaching, education, training, and resources to support aspiring and existing entrepreneurs.

While IUPUI serves as founding partner and fiscal agent for the launch of this work, the intent is for this project to stand on its own in the River West area. SOURCE River West has partnered with the local Westside Community Development Corporation, with support from LISC Indianapolis, to rehabilitate the new space at 2230 West Michigan Street that will serve as a physical hub for aspiring and existing business owners in the area. An open house for SOURCE River West is being planned for May 2, 2017 from 5-8pm during Small Business Week.

Through partnership with the Indy Chamber’s Business Ownership Initiative (BOI), foundational business courses and coaching have already begun with the first Kauffman Business Owner Education Series course completed last fall and the next course to kickoff April 13. For more information or to register for the Kauffman course, click HERE.

New Director of SOURCE River West

IUPUI is pleased to announce the hiring of Mark A. Roger as the first director for the SOURCE River West Entrepreneurship Center. Mark was chosen after a four-month search by a committee that included members from the Near Westside, LISC, and IUPUI staff and faculty, and began his work as director on February 20, 2017.

Mark’s expertise is entrepreneur education and assisting those aspiring to be small business owners throughout Indiana. Since 1993, Mark has worked with entrepreneurs from “start-up plan” to “right-size plan” to “succession plan.” He is a graduate of Indiana University-Bloomington (4^th generation Hoosier), a Myers-Briggs Certified Instructor, and past columnist for the IBJ. His personal experience as a small business owner provides a unique perspective to help his clients identify real opportunities, risks, and timing to make sound decisions.

Most recently, Mark worked as a franchise broker providing entrepreneur due diligence and business principle education for the SBA, the ISBDC and SCORE statewide. He founded the E Round Table – a public-private entrepreneur educator collective and recently began his second season leading the successful Entrepreneurship Carmel Discussion Series at the Carmel Public Library. Mark is an active civic leader, both locally and nationally, focusing on economic development, leadership development, and servant leadership.

“We are looking forward to creating a space where business ownership inspiration, education and coaching are readily available – from start-up to scale-up,” Roger said. “One of my favorite sayings is that the entrepreneur is the artist of the business community – and it’s important for artists who have actually done the artwork to work with younger artists on their business plan. A passion of mine is introducing promising entrepreneurs to the brushes, canvases and techniques for them to create their own work of art.”

For more information on the SOURCE River West Entrepreneurship Center, visit http://www.sourceindy.org/ or contact Mark Roger at maroger@iupui.edu.