Mentors

Jane Kupersmith - City of Bloomington/Hopscotch Coffee/Rainbow Bakery

Jane Kupersmith hails from the Great Plains and is a jack of all trades. She studied French literature and film history, which she parlayed into a 10-year career in book publishing. She is co-owner of Hopscotch Coffee and Rainbow Bakery and currently serves as Assistant Director for Small Business Development in the Department of Economic and Sustainable Development at the City of Bloomington.  In her role at the City she offers a variety of direct support to local businesses and serves as President of the Bloomington Urban Enterprise Association. She is also currently secretary for CDFI Friendly Bloomington—a nonprofit that aims to bring CDFI investment to Bloomington and the Indiana Uplands region.

Andy Lehman - The Mill

Andy Lehman is Head of Accelerator Programming at The Mill. His focus is on prepping startups for pre-accelerators and accelerators to further their growth with pitch bootcamps, mentor network, gBETA liaison, Firestarter liaison, Crossroads, and SBIRs. Formerly the Head of Innovation at the Herald-Times (Gannett), he started a business within a business there (BTown Box), taught design thinking to various newspapers they owned, and worked with the BEDC on projects like Best Places to Work.

Mohammed M. Mahdi - The Mad Optimist

Mohammed M. Mahdi is co-founder and co-owner at The Mad Optimist by Soapy Soap Company. Mohammed founded Soapy Soap Company in early 2012 with co-founders Anthony Duncan and his brother Mohammed A. Mahdi. He is a 2017 graduate of Cincinnati based start-up accelerator, The Brandery, and appeared in the Season 11 Finale, Episode 24 of ABC’s “Shark Tank”. His areas of expertise include out-of-the-box-thinking, product R&D, website development/IT systems, purchasing, community involvement/outreach, and analyzing processes and systems for efficiency. He is an alum from Indiana University-Bloomington, where he received a BA in Psychology, with minors in Sociology and Criminal Justice. He enjoys gardening, foraging, finding great deals, skiing, photography, and DIY projects.

Chris Martoglio- Blue Burro

Co founder & COO of Blue Burro since 2010 and was previously the President of The Contract Management Company from 1997-2010.

Shaun McDermott- Cornerstone

 Shaun has more than twenty-five years of experience in corporate finance, strategic planning, financial analysis, budgeting and control, contracts, and product management and intellectual property development, especially with growth companies in software technology. He was Chief Financial Officer of Mad Doc Software, a video game developer start-up, now Rock Star New England, from 2000 through 2006 in Andover, MA. Since 2006 he has served as CFO of Cornerstone Information Systems (www.ciswired.com), a travel software company based in Bloomington, IN. Shaun also held the Chief Commercial Officer title at Cornerstone until 2018, when he shifted to executive oversight of the product management functions at the company.

Cy Megnin - Entrepreneur-in-Residence at The Mill

Cy Megnin grew up in Bloomington, Indiana and has been an entrepreneur, founder and advisor for the past two decades.  Companies he has founded include Intel Capital portfolio company PrepFlash; an artificial intelligence company that uses natural language processing to automatically create flashcards from any content, and CloudCoreo a configuration management company that garnered investment from Microsoft and ultimately sold to VMware.  He was in the 2014 class of 40 under 40 for Professional Remodeler Magazine at the helm of the long running real estate investment firm OCPS and was twice featured on TLC’s hit TV show “Flip That House”.   After spending the last 15 years in Austin, Seattle and the Bay area he is currently back in his hometown of Bloomington, IN with his wife Andrea and son Jack. His role at Elevate Ventures is as an EIR for the Velocities region, which is a joint venture between the Columbus Chamber of Commerce and The Dimension Mill in Bloomington.  He has a degree in Economics from Indiana University and an MBA from Baylor University, where he is an executive judge for their annual MBA Ethics competition.

Ben Swanson - Secretly Group

Ben Swanson is one of the co-founders of Secretly Group, which includes independent record labels Dead Oceans, Jagjaguwar, The Numero Group, and Secretly Canadian, as well as music publisher, Secretly Publishing. These labels are home to such acts as Bon Iver, The War On Drugs, Mitski, Moses Sumney, ANOHNI, Phoebe Bridgers, William Eggleston, Angel Olsen, Whitney, The Tallest Man on Earth, comedian Tig Notaro, Khruangbin, Dinosaur Jr., Phosphorescent, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Jens Lekman, and Sharon Van Etten. In 2018, he has taken on the role of Chief Operating Officer of Secretly Group. Swanson also co-founded Secretly Distribution in 1998, which has since grown into the preeminent independent label distributor in the U.S. 

Originally from Fargo, North Dakota, Ben graduated from Indiana University with a degree in Ethnomusicology. He now resides in Bloomington, Indiana, having helped turn the Midwestern city into a launching pad for indie artists. In addition to his work in the music industry, he is also a board member of The Dimension Mill, a large coworking and business incubator space located in downtown Bloomington, Indiana.

Mike Trotzke - Cheddar
CEO of Cheddar, Mike is an experienced technology enthusiast obsessed with entrepreneurship, investment, design and development.

Geng Wang - Civic Champs

Geng Wang is currently the CEO and Cofounder of Civic Champs, a benefit corporation with a mission to provide communities with a seamless volunteer management platform. He is a proven serial entrepreneur with multiple successful exits - RentJungle.com acquired by The Rainmaker Group in 2014 and Community Elf acquired by Topanga Partners in 2016. Geng is also a former McKinsey Engagement Manager with an MBA from Harvard Business School. He currently resides in Bloomington, Indiana with his wife Stephanie and their two boys, Marcus and Mason. 

Sheryl Woodhouse - Rock Paper Scissors, Inc.

MBA and creative with twenty-six years’ experience managing finances, operations, HR, and communications in art, small business, government, and nonprofit settings. Sheryl is a creative problem solver with a talent for leadership, strategic planning, systems building, networking, and positive workplace culture. She’s known for her integrity and for getting things done— creating a vision and moving between the big picture and day-to-day details to set goals, take action, and turn ideas into reality—while always focused on what’s best for the organization and everyone involved. Sheryl is interested in leadership and advisory roles in social impact businesses and sustainable economic development.

Staff