Final Four co-chairs debrief on Post Malone, Fan Fest, coach swag and what it all meant

Indy Pride chair talks festival changes, political backdrop and financial challenges

In this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, Indy Pride Inc. board Chair Alex Richardson previews the June 13 parade on Massachusetts Avenue and a revamped festival footprint spanning Military Park and White River State Park as the nonprofit marches forward under new leadership. Richardson, a DePauw University faculty member who became board chair in December, discusses the January hire of Executive Director Jennifer Carruthers, who previously led Capital City Pride in Des Moines. Richardson also addresses the financial pressures facing Indy Pride, including a $210,000 budget shortfall in 2024 tied in part to reduced corporate sponsorship, and explains how new individual giving programs and small-business outreach aim to close that gap. This year’s events will include a Saturday night concert featuring headliners Todrick Hall, Brooke Eden and Crystal Waters, in addition to a New York City ballroom showcase rooted in the Harlem ballroom scene of the early 1970s. Richardson also responds to Gov. Mike Braun's proclamation of June as "Nuclear Family Month.”

Pete the Planner on why Americans feel broke at $150,000 a year

Hitting six figures in household income is a powerful milestone. You are situated comfortably in the middle class, which in the U.S. is currently defined as making $56,000 to $168,000 per year. If we want to zoom in on Indiana, the parameters for the middle class are $48,000 to $144,000 per year. We all know that the cost of living is rising faster and higher than anyone wants, but doesn’t it seem like you should be able to make it work on six figures per year? Over the last couple of years, a national conversation has been brewing online about why some people who make as much as $150,000 per year feel like they’re barely getting by. And consumer sentiment just last week hit its lowest point in at least 50 years.   Pete the Planner isn’t here to judge. His computations show how easy it can be for the finances for a $150,000 household to go off the rails. One unexpected blow to your budget for housing, transportation, child care or essentials like food can make it feel like the ceiling is caving in. At the same time, we need to consider whether the expenses we believe are necessary are actually the result in our culture of normalizing overconsumption. Pete is our guest this week to explain the math behind the financial struggles for $150,000 households and provide some guidance – with a dose of straight talk – about reducing expenses.

After firm’s $50M sale, co-founder was done with startups. Then AI pulled him back in.

Santiago Jaramillo has been the subject of – or at least mentioned in – 44 articles in the Indianapolis Business Journal, including several columns he wrote about entrepreneurism. The stories largely appeared between 2013 and 2021, while he was building, running and exiting two Indianapolis-area tech companies. After the second firm, known as Emplify, was acquired for $50 million in 2021, Jaramillo had a severe case of burnout. He went on an extended sabbatical, planning to forego any future forays into founding startups.   Then ChatGPT dropped. Suddenly entrepreneurs and executives had widespread access to artificial intelligence tools, and Jaramillo quickly saw their potential for transforming businesses and the workflows of their employees. The pull eventually proved too great. Jaramillo co-founded a firm named Pragmatico to help companies make the leap into AI in a way that sticks. In this week’s podcast, Jaramillo takes us on his entrepreneurial journey, which began in Colombia, South America, where he narrowly avoided a kidnapping. His career took turns through Florida, Indiana and Australia before settling back in the Hoosier state. Jaramillo also discusses why he decided to get back in the game, the reasons why many firms have trouble adopting AI and why the technology shouldn’t be set loose without human judgement as a guide.

IBJ’s editor on making mistakes, combatting bias, diversifying revenue

We at the Indianapolis Business Journal committed a serious error earlier this month that created significant problems for one of central Indiana’s most important not-for-profit organizations. If you listened to last week’s podcast, you have a sense of what happened. In the interest of transparency, IBJ Editor Lesley Weidenbener explained in her latest column how the error occurred and how that affected the organization. The column opens a window to the workings of the IBJ newsroom and the potential for multiple editors to miss a red flag when moving quickly to break news. For this week's episode, host Mason King recruited Weidenbener to throw open the curtains and give you an even broader look inside IBJ. In this week's episode, she addresses the error, some of the questions posed regularly about IBJ's financial health, and how its leaders maintain barriers between the newsroom, advertisers and the politics of IBJ’s owner and CEO.

Indiana Black Expo’s CEO on Circle City Classic’s gridiron shift and creating hoops invitational

Founded in 1970, Indiana Black Expo has broad brand recognition for its 10-day Summer Celebration, which highlights Black culture and elevation. But the umbrella not-for-profit organization operates 365 days a year, acting as a voice and vehicle for the social and economic advancement of Black youths and families. The other high-profile annual event hosted by IBE is the Circle City Classic, which typically features a football game between two historically black colleges or universities, along with a downtown parade and events focused on education, careers and culture. Last week, IBE announced a change at the heart of the Classic amid declining attendance, as well as the addition of a new event that would bring basketball teams from HBCUs to Indianapolis. CEO Alice Watson is our guest this week to explain in detail the economic tensions behind the switch this fall from college football programs to Indianapolis-based high school teams, including the $750,000-plus price tag IBE faced to recruit college teams and their bands this year. She also delves into the creation of an HBCU basketball invitational for 2027, which is expected to be more affordable for attracting programs. And she takes a deep dive into all of the educational programming and scholarships IBE offers throughout the year without nearly as much fanfare.