When I interviewed Gerry Dick of Inside Indiana Business for a Podcast posted May 11th (you can listen to it here) he talked about the success of Launch Fishers morphing into a state-wide movement.

Inside Indiana Business recently featured an interview with Elkhart Mayor Tim Neese about his city’s efforts to begin their own Launch movement (you can read more and see the interview video at this link).

Elkhart has been a city dependent on the swings of the RV economy for many years.  When RV sales are down, jobs are scarce around Elkhart.  When RV sales are booming, as they are now, employers are having difficulty filling job vacancies.

Elkhart has caught on to the success of Launch Fishers.  The idea is to provide coworking space and incubate new businesses that will expand locally and begin hiring their own employees.  The hope is to provide employment not so dependent on the volatility of the RV industry.

It’s interesting that Fishers is the place where the (then) town council took a chance, providing seed money for Launch Fishers.  Now Launch has outgrown its quarters in the  Fishers Library and moved to a more expansive facility.  It appears the rest of Indiana is paying attention to Fishers’ success.