Catalyst Brings Small Businesses Together at Launch Fishers

Table of Contents

• What is the Catalyst program and why does it matter for small businesses?
• Why do so many businesses struggle to identify their real problems?
• How does breaking the echo chamber lead to better ideas?
• Why are people and processes more important than any single tool?
• What makes the Midwest a unique place for business collaboration?
• Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Catalyst program and why does it matter for small businesses?

Big changes are coming for small businesses. New technology, shifting markets, and tighter competition are hitting Main Street harder than ever. Most business owners feel it, but not all of them have a way to respond. That’s where Catalyst comes in.

Catalyst is a program built around a simple idea. Small businesses, startups, and Main Street companies across different industries should be talking to each other. Not just networking. Actually sitting down, comparing notes, and working through challenges together. The program connects business owners with subject matter experts and fellow entrepreneurs so they can get ahead of the changes instead of reacting to them.

Andrew Curtis, founder of Fuel VM, put it plainly. The idea for Catalyst grew from watching businesses try to tackle problems alone when the answers were often sitting right down the hall at Launch Fishers.

Why do so many businesses struggle to identify their real problems?

Here’s something that doesn’t get talked about enough. Most business owners know something is off. They can feel it. There’s a bottleneck somewhere, a process that takes too long, or a customer experience that’s not quite right. But knowing something is wrong and being able to clearly define the problem are two very different things.

Andrew described it this way. You might be emotionally aware that a problem exists. You see the friction. You notice where things slow down. But you can’t always articulate it well enough to bring it to someone who can help you fix it. That gap between feeling a problem and defining it is where a lot of businesses get stuck.

Catalyst is designed to close that gap. By bringing business owners together with people who’ve solved similar problems before, the program helps companies put words to their challenges. Once you can name the problem clearly, you’re already halfway to fixing it.

How does breaking the echo chamber lead to better ideas?

One of the biggest risks for any business is hearing only its own ideas reflected back. Andrew shared a perfect example. He has an intern he genuinely values, but he told the intern to go work somewhere else for the summer. Not because the intern wasn’t good enough but because Andrew didn’t want to hear his own thinking parroted back to him.

That takes a level of honesty most people don’t practice. But it’s the truth. When everyone on your team comes from the same background, reads the same material, and follows the same playbook, you end up in an echo chamber. And echo chambers don’t produce breakthroughs.

Even medium-sized businesses deal with this. You see your coworkers every day, but that doesn’t mean fresh ideas are flowing. Collaboration isn’t automatic just because people share a building. It has to be intentional. Catalyst creates those intentional moments by bringing together people from completely different industries and backgrounds.

Why are people and processes more important than any single tool?

There’s a lot of noise right now about AI and technology changing everything. And yes, those tools are part of the picture. But Andrew and his colleague Jason agree on something critical. It really comes down to people and processes. AI is a tool that can improve those things, but it’s not the center of the conversation.

That distinction matters. A business that invests in better people and smoother processes will outperform one that just throws new technology at old problems. The technology works best when the foundation is already solid.

Catalyst reflects that philosophy. The program isn’t about chasing the latest tool or trend. It’s about connecting business leaders with real expertise so they can strengthen the fundamentals first. When the people and processes are right, the tools become a lot more powerful.

What makes the Midwest a unique place for business collaboration?

Andrew pointed out something that people outside the Midwest might not realize. There’s a genuine “rising tide lifts all boats” mentality here. Business owners in Indiana actually want to see other companies succeed. That’s not just talk. It’s baked into the culture.

And Indiana has the ingredients to back it up. There are roughly 500 companies in the Launch Fishers ecosystem. The state has a strong mix of higher education institutions producing sharp graduates. There’s no shortage of talented, experienced professionals. The raw materials are all here.

The missing piece, according to Andrew, is intersection. All of those resources exist, but they don’t always connect. Catalyst is about creating those points of intersection so that great ideas, skilled people, and growing companies can actually find each other. For a state that already believes in collaboration, that’s a powerful combination.