IU Ventures

IU alumnus Daniel Caridi is the Co-Founder & CEO of Kibu, a modern EHR and engagement platform purpose-built for intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) service providers. He is a 2026 Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree in Social Impact and a graduate of Indiana University's Kelley School of Business. Hear what drew him to IU from Connecticut, how Kibu is drastically changing the game for IDD serv...

IU Indy alum Anna Dorris is the Founder & CEO of Everewear, an AI-powered shopping platform that helps people find the secondhand clothes they love in minutes instead of hours. She's also the Entrepreneurship Program Manager at IU Innovates Indianapolis, where she helps the next generation of entrepreneurs connect with the funding & mentorship resources necessary for them to succeed. Hear how she...

IU alum, lifelong IU fan, and Indiana native Connor Hitchcock founded Homefield in 2018 alongside his wife and co-founder Christa out of their Broad Ripple basement. What began as a passion project to create thoughtful collegiate apparel has grown into a premium collegiate apparel brand, with over 180 university licenses and distribution through 100+ retail locations. Today, the 30 members of the...

Stephen H. Simon is a Co-Owner and the Alternate Governor for the Indiana Pacers. He is also the Founder of Simon Equity Partners, LLC and has been a Managing Member since January 2007. From February 1997 to December 2006, Mr. Simon served as President & Chief Executive Officer of Melvin Simon & Associates, Inc., a privately held real estate and investment company. Hear his stories celebrating IU...

Jennifer Holmes is CEO of PrecisionCare AI, a Boomerang Ventures portfolio company. She brings 30 years of senior executive experience in the medical device and MedTech sector. Hear her experience at the Peach Bowl, her career in figure skating, how PrecisionCare AI is differentiating in the MedTech industry, their top use cases, and why you need a Plan B & Plan C. Learn more about Jennifer at Pre...

Richard DiMarchi is a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Gill Chair in Biomolecular Sciences at Indiana University. He's a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and is a former Group Vice President at Eli Lilly and later at Novo Nordisk. He's co-inventor on more than 100 U.S. patents, co-author to more than 250 peer-reviewed scientific publicatio...

Paul Caine is the President of premium experiential hospitality leader On Location, part of TKO Group Holdings (NYSE: TKO). In this role, Paul oversees a diverse and global portfolio of consumer experiences, hospitality, and brand partnerships. He previously served as Global Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) of Bloomberg Media, as Chief Executive Officer of Westwood One, and in numerous roles at Time In...

Benton Miller is the Founder & CEO of RetrievAir, an innovative public charter operator focused on improving the pet travel experience. His vision is to create air travel that prioritizes pets, offering safe, comfortable, and convenient flights for both pets and their owners. Hear how his Kelley Direct Online MBA experience shaped the trajectory of his company, how he navigates the complicated wor...

Indiana Women's Volleyball Head Coach Steve Aird is in his 8th year in Bloomington. Aird signed a contract extension through the 2029 season on January 1, 2024 after guiding the Hoosiers to one of the best years in program history. A 2-time NCAA Champion as an assistant coach at Penn State, Aird is an elite recruiter and has brought new energy into the Indiana Women's Volleyball program. Hear how...

Darius Willis is the Founder & CEO of ScoutSync, a sports-tech company transforming global athletic scouting & recruitment. A former Indiana University football standout and Under Armour High School All-American from Indianapolis, he attended NFL camp with the New York Jets before playing and coaching internationally for over a decade. Hear his favorite on-field & off-the-field memories from IU, h...

Anthony Leal, a former Indiana University basketball player and MBA in Finance from the Kelley School of Business, co-founded Motion. Motion is a tech platform designed to streamline communication, scheduling, and management for coaches, athletes, and athletic departments in college athletics. Hear his biggest pinch me moment playing basketball for the Hoosiers, the Entrepreneurship course that in...

Rachel Zhao is Principal at PayPal Ventures, where she's tapping into her passion for helping tech companies & founders. Previously, she had been focusing on growth-stage Enterprise and Fintech investment. She's interested in infrastructure, cyber, privacy, SMB & Vertical SaaS, and ecommerce enablement. Hear her love for the jazz concerts at IU, how she pivoted her career to more closely align wit...

Neil Powell has almost 35 years of corporate finance experience in the banking and high-tech industries. He is currently the Director of Finance, Cloud and AI Supply Chain at Microsoft and has served as the VP of Finance and Corporate Controller at Lattice Semiconductor, as well as numerous roles at Intel, including Senior Director at Intel Capital's venture capital fund and as the CFO of Intel Ja...

Kenzie Weston Mucci is a member of the investment team at Takeda Digital Ventures, focused on virtual-first care and PharmaTech investments. Previously, she worked in strategy on the Digital Health Sciences team within Takeda's Data Sciences Institute. Prior to her time at Takeda, she managed the Beiwe digital health platform at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and worked in the Healt...

Drushya Musham is a senior at Indiana University, triple majoring in Management, Entrepreneurship, and International Business, and serves as a client manager for IU Innovates' Sparklab Incubator program. She is the Founder & CEO of Taptic, an app enhancing accessibility for Deaf individuals by transforming audio alerts into tactile and visual notifications, and NiCE: Name on Rice, a micro-art jewe...

Amy Brown is the Founder & CEO of Authenticx, the conversational intelligence platform that analyzes and activates customers' voices at scale to reveal transformational opportunities in healthcare. She built her career as a rising executive in the healthcare industry, during which time she advocated for underserved populations, led and mobilized teams to expand healthcare coverage to thousands of...

IU alum Emily Atkinson, PhD is an analytical thinker with deep technical expertise and a well-connected figure in the life sciences community and the startup ecosystem. She joined BioCrossroads as the Senior Director of Innovation in July of 2024, where she runs initiatives to advance innovations in Indiana's life sciences sector. Prior to joining BioCrossroads, she served as a venture analyst for...

Mike Farah is a producer of film & television. A 3-time Emmy winner, select credits include Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, @fter Midnight with Taylor Tomlinson, Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis, Billy on the Street, Drunk History, and American Vandal. Mike recently embarked on a new phase of his career as an independent producer after leaving Funny Or Die, where he started as its first prod...

David Krane is the CEO & Managing Partner at GV (Google Ventures - Google's venture capital fund) and balances his time between directing GV's global activities & leading investments. His portfolio includes Uber, StockX, Mill, NOTHING, Nest, Bored Ape Yacht Club, and Blue Bottle Coffee. His Google career began nearly 25 years ago, where he helped grow the company from a small startup to a multi-bi...

Julie Heath serves as Executive Director of IU Innovates, a new initiative that advances entrepreneurship at Indiana University. She co-chairs the Ecosystem Building Leadership Network (EBLN), a fiscally sponsored project of Community Initiatives, catalyzed by a series of initiatives funded by the Kauffman Foundation. Hear about her upbringing in a family of public servants, her memories from work...

IU alum Dan Hanrahan is the Founder of Neighbor Serve, which helps Indy neighbors care for their homes by finding vetted, local-owned contractors. An experienced entrepreneur in tech, marketing, and the trades, Dan also founded and co-owns Haulstr (home services), Sigstr (marketing tech acquired by Terminus), and iGoDigital (ecommerce tech acquired by ExactTarget/Salesforce). Hear how his showdown...

IU student Matt Gacek is a first-generation entrepreneur and a rising senior at the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering at Indiana University. As a sophomore, Matt created Theia, an AI-driven therapy and personal growth app designed to encourage more men and marginalized groups to seek mental health and self-care treatment. Hear the perks of being a digital nomad in Bali, his j...

Vince Wong brings significant valuable multinational and startup company experience to BioCrossroads, a catalyst for Indiana's diverse and growing life sciences industry. Before becoming CEO, he was most recently Chief Commercial Officer at Geneoscopy, a venture-backed start-up company focused on developing gastrointestinal diagnostics. Hear his experience in Bloomington for law school, what he le...

Megan Caldwell recently helped sell Elevate Security to Mimecast. Previous to the sale, Megan spent 5 years at Elevate Security, leading at different times the customer, sales, and operations teams. Hear her memories racing in the Little 500, stories of famous phishing scams, lessons from leading multiple exits, how to develop an exit strategy, and her secret spot to hang out on campus. Learn more...

Jean Ross, RN is the Co-Founder and CEO of Primary Record, an app designed to provide families with a secure platform to organize, collaborate, and share health data. As a second-degree nurse, Jean's career began in critical care before she expanded her focus to the community - driven by her passion for supporting older adults and family caregivers. Hear her unlikely path to IU, how to focus on fa...