Growth Alliance Blog

“I get by with a little help from my friends” should be Cheryl Mochau’s theme song. The personal chef was inspired to start her business, Food Tours, after a girlfriends’ getaway to Saint Louis with her bff. Feeling in need of a pick me up, Cheryl invited her friend to take a road trip to break out of a cooking rut. They walked “The Hill” district, stopping in authentic Italian bakeries and restaurants along the way, sharing entrees on a self-made walking tour. Mochau and her gal pal had so much fun they repeated the adventure in Franklin and Nashville, TN and Louisville, KY. And thus, the inspiration for Food Tours of Evansville was born.

The Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation understands that tomorrow's employees are today's students, and that's why they encourage all students to sign up for the Governor's Work Ethic Certificate program. Watch this video with Governor Holcomb, Mayor Winnecke, and Superintendent Smith to learn more about how the EVSC is helping students get to the #NextLevel.

Hillary Melchiors is a doula. She gets to be there for one of the most significant events in a woman’s life. Ironically, her original career plans didn’t include babies in her own picture, let alone become the focus of her career. She also didn’t plan on starting her own business as she prepared herself for a life in academia. Babies certainly have a way of turning life upside down.

Growth Alliance and USI representatives toured the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) – Crane Division to discuss our Partnership Intermediary Agreements and increased opportunity for Technology Transfer in Southwest Indiana. View this blog post to learn about recent development and opportunites.  

Many companies have intellectual property and may not even realize it. Martin suggests that every business should do an annual IP audit. When advising business start-ups, he suggests they start with deciding on a good name for the business and to trademark it. While a unique name is easier to trademark, a descriptive name helps with marketing. New businesses are advised to do some research to make sure you are not infringing on someone else’s trademark before spending money to market or brand your business or product.

Losing a job is extremely stressful. For Mike Stagg and his partners, it presented the opportunity to start a new business and created a passion for bringing high tech jobs into Evansville.

The data team at realtor.com has located the housing markets where millennials (age 22 to 36) make up the largest share of home buyers, and our home sweet home made the list!

Wouldn’t it be cool to have a NASA inspired appliance in your kitchen that saved you on grocery store runs, provided organic fresh produce on a continual basis and added an aesthetic value to your home?

Evansville native, Scott Massey, CEO of HELIPONIX™ is working on just that appliance. Inspired by an internship as a research engineer at the Purdue University Horticulture College, Scott worked on the design of a NASA funded automated hydroponic plant growth chamber with the ultimate goal of growing sustainable food in space colonies. Scott began thinking about utilizing the same technology in a current day residential setting.

“Evansville is the perfect size. You can do what you want to do, test out the market, take risks and explore options,” says Mary.  “It’s the kind of town where you can make a difference.”

Read about Mary's startup success in Evansville and her advice to aspiring entrepreneurs.

Life is too short to drink bad coffee. Lucky for Evansville, Tim Piazza has our back on that front. Tim has had a long love affair with coffee and has made it his mission to share that passion with Evansville.