SproutBox cofounder Mike Trotzke has built his career around startups. This Q&A with Trotzke, who started his first company while attending Indiana University, is the first of a three-part “About the Founders” blog series. Covering everything from Bloomington babes to valuable startup advice, Trotzke makes his case to the tech world: “Why not Bloomington?”

What attracted you to Bloomington in the first place?

Girls. That’s actually the answer. I went on the campus tour and there were all these good-looking girls laying out in Dunn meadow and that’s how I got here.

I’m sure you’ve heard: “Culture drives innovation.” How would you describe SproutBox culture?

Bloomington culture is a big part of SproutBox culture. Bloomington has an incredibly walkable downtown and there are all kinds of tech companies along the B-line trail and the courthouse square. We are very laidback. We walk together to lunch most days and have a very close relationship with our tech neighbors.

When I was thinking of setting up this company, I looked at other towns, like Boulder and Austin, and from a cultural perspective, Bloomington has a very similar vibe. Those towns have incredible tech scenes, and I thought: why not Bloomington? I think a lot of people on the creative and development sides of what we do are attracted to towns like Bloomington.

What is Bloomington’s advantage over established startup meccas such as Silicon Valley?

Certainly, there’s an obvious cost advantage. I don’t think it’s just about that though. There are a lot of problems with the valley in terms of it being an ecochamber of people following a singular path to profitability, or lack thereof. We put a Midwestern spin on that thinking by focusing on revenue earlier in the startup process.

Coming to Bloomington to launch your startup is like coming to an oasis where you can be completely focused on the product. The last two sprouts we’ve launched were from California. They recognized that coming here and focusing solely on the product is extremely effective.

I don’t think Bloomington can be or should be Silicon Valley. It shouldn’t be the tech capital of the world. But I think Bloomington can be known as a startup hub: where you come to startup and maybe grow into another location later.

What role does the university play in making Bloomington an ideal location for startups?

We have a tight relationship with IU’s School of Informatics and Computing. We are their corporate sponsor and their dean is on our advisory board. Their program is the first of its kind in the state. The core concept is that technology isn’t an entity in itself. Studying technology and another discipline is far more useful.

We also have a good relationship with the Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the Kelley School of Business. It is a respected graduate program and they are a great resource for us as well.

What is your vision for Bloomington and the tech sector in the future?

The goal is to launch four companies a year. That’s 20 startup companies in Bloomington in the next five years. Some will stay, some will go, but it will have a permanent impact on the city. I’d love to see some of those companies thriving here in downtown. I’d love to see more conferences here as recurring events. I’d love to bring more people in to show what Bloomington has to offer startups.

Central Indiana is ranked first in the Midwest for employment growth in the high-tech sector. Why is it so important for the state to support and sustain this type of industry?

I think no one questions that the technology sector is by definition the future. It’s a focus on the future of how we live. Obviously, you do not ever want to fall behind in investment or in the interest of technology. As we struggle to figure out ways to have clean, high-paying jobs, the tech field is important in improving our ranking and position in that space.

Why is now a good time to get a web startup going?

There’s still in somewhat of a downturn, which I think is actually a great time to get a startup going. I think sometimes companies are overfunded, and a lot times I feel like companies raise too much capital and don’t have a revenue model set and bust. Not having enough pressure in the beginning can be a bad thing. I also think it’s a really convenient time because if you can survive right now, you’ll be in the position to dominate as the economy improves. And anyway, it’s always a good time to start a company.

What is the greatest challenge facing entrepreneurs today?

A lack of funding. Everyone is searching for funding. If you don’t have friends and family with money – not because of your idea or talents, but because of your background – it’s really difficult to get from idea stage to the actual product.

Senior engineering talent is another major asset. Building right the first time is difficult, and most companies go through that.

People also keep getting into these hit markets. By that I mean it’s like iPhone apps. One person started making a ton of money creating iPhone apps, and everyone thinks they can do that. So now there are thousands of people making iPhone apps and only a few good ones. It’s the same with facebook. There can’t be 12 facebooks. It’s a gold rush mentality, and I think it traps a lot of people who would be otherwise really talented.

What is the best advice you give entrepreneurs who come to SproutBox for help?

Limit the scope of your product in the first version. It’s really hard for entrepreneurs to do. They have this vision, and it’s big. They want to build this full product with all the features and they’re not completely wrong. The vision is right, but every idea changes. When you have an idea, you’re identifying a problem and the solution isn’t quite there yet. You have to build the product very simply, get it out there, listen to feedback, track behavior, focus on the metrics and adapt. Evolve your product based on what will generate the most revenue instead of what idea you had before releasing it. That’s not intuitive to most entrepreneurs and it wasn’t to me either.

We’ve been eagerly awaiting the arrival of a CheddarGetter open-source C# wrapper for the benefit of all of our .Net pals out there. Thanks to John at Confer, we can all relax. Seriously, my shoulders just left my earlobes.

John wrote a post that clearly illustrates usage of his offering to the reoccurring billing community. The code is clear and well commented throughout. The implementation is very clean and straightforward. We’re quite happy to list it as a member of our wrapper page.

Confer offers a very slick collaboration app hosted in the cloud. Intra-office social networking, customer & contact tracking, activity tracking and file management are all provided via a very well put together interface.

In conjunction with sponsoring a couple of events in the Midwest, we’ve extended the deadline for new applications until August 15th. So, if you haven’t already, you still have time to submit your application to be the next Sprout! Just visit http://www.sproutbox.com/apply. TECH cocktail and Geek Dinner are two great events for the tech community and we wanted to lend them our support, but realized anyone we’ve met at the events would narrowly miss our deadline. We’ve received applications from entrepreneurs in over 20 states and 6 different countries, but we really wanted to give entrepreneurs at these events a chance to meet with us, ask questions, and still have time to submit a great application.

SproutBox is excited to be sponsoring TECH cocktail on August 6th in Chicago. Enthusiasts from all over the country will be in Chicago to continue to light the technology fire in the Midwest. TECH cocktail helps amplify the technology signal in under served markets and they have fun doing it! http://techcocktail.com

We’ll also be opening our doors to the Bloomington community and hosting Bloomington Geek Dinner on August 13th at the “Box”. Come by for pizza, drinks and tech talk with all the geeks of Bloomington! http://www.bloomingtongeekdinners.com/