Hi, I’m Katie—SproutBox enthusiast and one of their summer interns. I’m helping SproutBox with odds and ends this summer, and when I’m not hanging out at The Box, I’m researching tech development in the Hoosier State. My interest in innovation and creative culture is what brought me to the masterminds at SproutBox, and it’s what I want to share with you.

Creativity and innovation researchers commonly cite the works of Richard Florida, who has written abundantly on the topics. Among his best-selling titles is Who’s Your City?, a book about why your location matters more than your career or your significant other. If Richard Florida spent more time in the Midwest, it’s likely that he’d write an epilogue titled Hoosier City?, a chapter about how foolish he feels for not considering the booming innovation happening right here in Indiana. The state’s promising future of innovation and development is due to a combination of factors, and it’s happening all over the place.

Let’s take Bloomington, Indiana—SproutBox headquarters and emerging tech hot spot—as an example. It’s a city of 80,000 nestled in the rolling hills of south central Indiana. Home to Indiana University’s main campus and a branch of Ivy Tech Community College, Bloomington is an ideal place for starting a business. The ties between the universities and the city offer interactions critical to the entrepreneurial spirit while connecting start-ups to the bright students that will comprise the future workforce. The city is a hub between several major Midwest cities—Indianapolis, St. Louis, Nashville, Cincinnati, Columbus, Chicago—making it a center for commerce all its own. Even better, the area offers small town charm while still managing to do great business. Technology is changing, and innovation doesn’t just happen in big cities anymore.

Here in Bloomington, we’re doing our part to continue growing creative startups. Organizations like Bloomington Tech Partnership and Bloomington Life Sciences Partnership strengthen the ties between innovative companies already and connect them to future business prospects. Bloomington is also host to The Combine, an annual gathering of creative people and tech savvy individuals for idea swapping and connection making. We’re all about bringing new business to the area, but we’re also into making the city an even better place for the innovators already here. The recent TEDxBloomington event brought together many of the area’s best and brightest, but more than that, it attracted individuals from all over who wanted to see what was going on in Bloomington, and they weren’t disappointed.

And Bloomington’s not the only spot in the state where innovation is spreading. If you check out a map, it’s not hard to figure out why Indiana is commonly referred to as “Crossroads of America.” A number of the country’s major interstate highways converge in the state center, Indianapolis. Really, any city or town in the state is an “ideal location” for a business to start up or relocate, because the infrastructure connecting you to the major cities in the Midwest (and the country) is already in place. It’s a quality touted on nearly every Indiana county’s economic development page, and it’s one of the reasons why a recent Wired magazine article shows Indiana as one of the hottest states for innovation right now. It’s no surprise to us, but if it’s something you didn’t expect, maybe it’s time for you to start listing the Hoosier state as a frontrunner for relocating or starting your business.

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Working with almost all guys can definitely be hard from time to time, especially when there is only one other girl in the office to balance it out. Luckily, these guys are all pretty awesome. We recently added two more developers to our team, which means the guys now outnumber the girls four to one. Many of you might not have had the pleasure to get to know them, so I’m here to introduce you the two newest developers at SproutBox.

Brent Wooden

Brent Wooden first collaborated with SproutBox on a contract basis before  joining our team as one of our full-time software engineers. Brent taught himself how to code. He picked up a book on Ruby on Rails (RoR), watched some Rubycasts, made a simple opinion polling application and now he builds SaaS applications for us. Before SproutBox, he developed online browser-based games in RoR. Brent believes the best part about being a developer is the feeling of accomplishment that comes with tackling a tough problem, working through it and making something awesome. And he has done just that while working on MyJibe, his self-proclaimed favorite Sprout thus far. He enjoyed the complexity of the project due to its numerous interactive features and need to tie into some great APIs. Although Brent felt this was challenging, he says it was the complexity that made the project so much fun.

When he isn’t coding, Brent spends his nights in one of his favorite places, the bathtub, or on the couch playing video games or watching TV with his wife. Some other fun tidbits about Brent: he can play the guitar, bass, ukulele, piano, drums, and even the saxophone. He also claims he has conquered every Zelda and Mario game, but we’re not sure if this is a legitimate claim–he has yet to prove this.

Chris White

Chris White first joined forces with SproutBox doing freelance work before joining us as a true full-time SproutBoxer. Prior to SproutBox, he worked at Indiana University where he tackled problems, small and large, related to computer security and IT policy. Chris has always had a passion for creating applications for the web, but his passion for developing started as he was finishing college. Luckily, his first job provided the freedom to learn and work on a variety of web application programming. Chris says his days fly by because he cares about his work and finds great satisfaction in solving the interesting puzzles that programming creates.

Chris primarily develops for ScheduleThing, which, luckily, has been his favorite project yet. ScheduleThing’s many features interact together in complicated ways, and  Chris enjoys the challenge of combining new and existing features while keeping the application highly accurate. This project has even allowed Chris to work on some front-end interactivity, keeping his tasks diverse.

Chris spends 90% of his day coding. The other 10% he spends in the kitchen with his wife experimenting with new dishes, and every weekend Chris bakes artisan bread. If he isn’t cooking, he is playing video games or playing cards with his brothers.

Chris and Brent enjoy the SproutBox atmosphere. Between the business model and the people, they both find what SproutBox offers to be very inspiring. The atmosphere encourages the staff to find the passion and knowledge to keep learning and improving their skills. SproutBox allows them to surround themselves with other developers from the SproutBox family, providing a collaborative environment that encourages growth and learning from one another.The business model creates a fast pace and changing environment that also keeps things fun.

For the developers out there, Brent and Chris have some advice: Brent suggests all developers learn TDD, test driven development, as soon as possible. It will save you time! And Chris adds, “If you are interested in programming, just go for it. Show off everything you make, including your code, to people who can help make you better. Developers need great relationships with other developers and non-developers to keep pushing you to great heights.”

We are very lucky to have these two as a part of our team. They continue to push SproutBox to new heights each day, even if it is a new level of patience when having to deal with so many guys.

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Hint: We don’t make food.

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