The original item was published from March 25, 2016 12:07 PM to March 25, 2016 12:16 PM
The following post is part of an ongoing series about the experiences of entrepreneurs in Fishers written by entrepreneur Anderson Schoenrock, CEO of Memory Ventures.
With the grand opening of the new, significantly larger Launch Fishers building this month, I thought it was only fitting to tell the story of one of the earliest entrepreneurs and companies that three-plus years later still call Launch Fishers home.
Growing up in Minnesota, Yaw Aning dreamed of going south for college in search of warmer weather. He accomplished that…sort of…and ended up playing soccer at Rose-Hulman in Terre Haute. Upon graduating, Yaw became an Orr Fellow and worked at City Securities. As a Financial Analyst in their Corporate Finance group, Yaw got to see firsthand how to finance and grow high-growth companies. He helped Indianapolis-based organizations, like AIT Laboratories and Angie’s List, raise growth capital. His experience with the Orr Fellowship and City Securities gave him the knowledge and confidence to understand how he might start and fund his own company.
In 2009, Yaw co-founded a company called Pocket Tales, an online game focused on improving the reading skills of children. Pocket Tales was backed by investors and advisors Dreamit Ventures, Startl.org, and Sproutbox, with a $125,000 grant from the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Innovation Fund.
Although the company ultimately failed, he learned a lot about the do’s and don’ts of launching a new technology business, and he leveraged that experience to launch his next venture. He and his co-founder, Anthony Smith, launched Sticknleaves, a product development agency that over its 5-year history has served a diverse group of over 70 clients from IUPUI to Rolls Royce. In 2013, one of their corporate partners mentioned that they were working out of a new place in Fishers called Launch Fishers that was specifically built for entrepreneurs. Soon, Sticksnleaves called Launch Fishers home.
The company, now a team of 12, continues to work out of Launch Fishers today and is producing amazing applications for companies. When I spoke to Yaw about why he was compelled to bring his company to Fishers, he said “you can really tell there is a tremendous focus on building an ecosystem for entrepreneurs.” He mentioned how much fun it has been to see Launch Fishers grow and expand over the past two and a half years.
Yaw believes one of the most exciting and unique aspects of the environment being built in Fishers is that “as entrepreneurs we have the ability to push the community forward and help write the story of Fishers.”
Sticknleaves just moved over to their own office suite in the new Launch Fishers building just last week where they expect to continue to grow and thrive as a company for years to come.
For more about Sticknleaves, check them out here: https://www.sticksnleaves.com.