Braun appoints state entrepreneurship director

An Indianapolis business owner will lead the state’s new Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, with a focus on supporting Hoosiers’ launching the next generation of Main Street businesses.

Brian Schutt, the co-founder of Refinery46 — a co-working space and startup incubator in Indianapolis — and co-founder of Homesense Heating and Cooling, graduated from Purdue University’s business school in 2003. He said part of the office’s role includes featuring successful, homegrown startups in the Hoosier State.

“The most inspiring thing is to just know somebody else’s story. And I think we have a lot of those,” Schutt told the Indiana Capital Chronicle. “A big part of the job is connecting with some of the flourishing businesses that already exist and sharing those stories. Because I don’t think the state can force entrepreneurship — but we can help tell more stories that inspire people to recognize that they have gifts and they can be problem solvers.”

The Indiana General Assembly established the office earlier this year in conjunction with an Indiana Economic Development Corporation transparency effort, explicitly charging the director with “develop(ing) and administer(ing) programs to support the growth of small business, entrepreneurship and innovation.”…

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