One of the best things about working at Rose-Hulman Ventures is meeting so many out-of-the-box-thinking entrepreneurs and helping them make their dreams come true.
Mark McLaurine is a great example. An engineer by trade, Mark is first-and-foremost an entrepreneur. He has launched restaurants in Terre Haute and across Indiana and recently came up with an idea for a “vortex-in-a-bottle,” a luxury product linked to smart phone technology that transforms opening a 750ml bottle of vodka into a colorful, immersive experience perfect for parties or other special occasions.
Mark is just one of dozens of small businesspeople we’ve worked with in the past 20 years. Our clients also include much larger businesses, even Fortune 500 companies. At Ventures, we’re less concerned about the size of the company than we are with the type of project. We are most at home when we work closely with our partners, using our creative energy and years of innovation experience to help them discover the best path forward.
Many of our clients are based right here in Indiana. One of our longest-term associations is with NICO Corporation, an Indianapolis-based maker of revolutionary, minimally invasive brain surgery devices. Other Hoosier clients have included Comfort Motion Global, a company whose technology is improving long-distance travel safety, and XSoft, a company making online property tax data easier to understand for appraisers, local officials and homeowners.
In every case, we focus on delivering the end result our clients seek in the most effective and efficient way possible by employing our two greatest assets: experienced project managers and fresh-thinking student interns from one of the nation’s top STEM colleges.
I’m very proud of the lives we have touched in the past 20 years. We have helped create life-saving medical devices, workplace safety equipment and industry-changing manufacturing innovations all while giving Rose-Hulman student interns outstanding real-world experience. In many cases, our clients require confidentiality, so we cannot share all we’ve done. And, in every case we allow our clients to retain all of their intellectual property – something that truly differentiates Rose-Hulman Ventures from other university-associated product development services.
I’m also proud that we call the Wabash Valley home. Rose-Hulman Ventures has been a driver of economic activity and growth in the Terre Haute area since 2000. Situated on our own 100-acre campus a few miles south of the main Rose-Hulman campus, Rose-Hulman Ventures is a center of creative energy where the ideas and technology of tomorrow are already taking shape.
Brian Dougherty is the Senior Director of Rose-Hulman Ventures, and his email address is Brian.Dougherty@rhventures.org.
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