Navigating Career Growth and Networking in Indiana's Tech Ecosystem with Milan Ball

In this episode, host Casey Harrison sits down with Milan Ball, the Director of Development and Marketing at Be Nimble Foundation. Milan shares her fascinating journey, from her background in fashion design to her transition into the tech industry. She discusses the thriving tech ecosystem in Indiana, the support Be Nimble offers to underrepresented founders, and offers valuable insights on networking and getting involved in the Indianapolis community.


Key Takeaways:

• Diverse Opportunities in Indiana: Milan discusses how she found a thriving tech industry in Indiana that offers diverse opportunities for entrepreneurs and professionals.
  
  
• The Role of Be Nimble Foundation: Milan explains how Be Nimble Foundation accelerates diversity and inclusion initiatives in technology and supports underrepresented founders.
  
  
• Networking and Community Engagement: Milan encourages listeners to attend events, join organizations, and connect to the Indianapolis community.
  
  
• Leveraging Resources: Milan highlights the abundance of resources, organizations, and support available for those looking to grow their careers in Indiana.
  
  
• Building Lasting Relationships: Milan shares her personal experiences of building strong friendships and professional connections in the Midwest, emphasizing the welcoming and supportive nature of the community.
  
  
  

Connect with Milan Ball
For more resources on the jobs, companies, and opportunities in Indiana, visit
https://www.cicpindiana.com/syi/  

Transcript

Casey Harrison: Welcome to today's episode of See Yourself IN. Where you will learn about cool jobs, people, and companies in Indiana, hear about skills that will help you find success, and most importantly, we hope it inspires you to dream big. I'm Casey Harrison, your host. On today's show, we're going to dive into Indiana's advanced industries and why they're important.

We'll talk about skills that are transferable across jobs and industries and determine some of the best ways to explore these great opportunities. I'm here today with Milan Ball, and you're in for a treat. I know Milan, and I love singing her praises, and she wears a few hats. So today she's here as the Director of Development and Marketing with Be Nimble Foundation.

Be Nimble is a social enterprise that accelerates diversity and inclusion initiatives in technology. Milan has traveled the world championing diversity and equity in diverse industries and career paths, and now she's making a tremendous impact in Central Indiana. Milan, welcome to See Yourself IN. 

Milan Ball: Oh, thank you for having me.

Casey Harrison: We're so excited that you're here. So, Milan, let's just dive right in. You might be a Hoosier at heart today. You're not necessarily from Indiana. Talk about where you grew up. 

Milan Ball: I am not. I'm originally from the Northern Virginia region. the DMV is the acronym D. C., Maryland, and Virginia. Both my parents are from Baltimore, so there you have Maryland and then I lived in D. C. for a little bit. I love it. 

Casey Harrison: Milan, did you have, when you were growing up, that linear sight of, I want to do this when I grow up? 

Milan Ball: I did not. I actually think what I was most passionate about when I was a kid, I actually thought I wanted to be in the military. Not a lot of people know that I did a junior ROTC program where I had to learn how to sew patches onto my uniform and my mom did not want to have to sew all these different patches on my uniforms, so she put me in a sewing class and from then I learned how to draw. I realized I was pretty good at it and started doing both of them. So that's actually how I stumbled into fashion design. And my undergraduate degree is in fashion design.

Casey Harrison: So. You have this undergraduate degree, and then what? 

Milan Ball: And then what? Okay, so I, I was one of those people that I just, whenever I had a goal, I would just chase after it and I would achieve it. So, I knew what school I wanted to go to for fashion design by the time I was a sophomore.

I was doing pre college courses and ended up getting into my dream school, FIT, the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. It has a 10 percent acceptance rate for students in the design program. specifically. So you had to apply directly into exactly what you were going to study. It was very intensive and funny enough, while I was there, I, I mean, again, I was so driven.

I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I had a job before I even finished my second, my second year of college. So I was working in a design office for a luxury fashion company called Millie. I got to meet, the founder. Very involved in the founding team. We had, I mean, it was, it was a very unique situation in New York where you could see everything, every part of the design process from having a factory within the same building as the design team, the marketing team, e-commerce, all of it.

So I got to experience essentially all of what you can experience in the fashion industry in one place. And post grad, I realized I don't want to be a designer. So, I actually, second to fashion design, the most popular degree at my school was in fashion merchandising. Also incredibly competitive.

And post grad, I became a buyer. I was hired at a fashion technology startup, I had, you know, dabbled in so many different areas in the industry that. I was actually prepared enough to do that and it was kind of unheard of to go from fashion into buying. so I was really grateful that I had that experience and I had really amazing mentors to kind of coach me through that process.

Casey Harrison: I mean and what a great example of getting in somewhere, just getting your foot in the door and trying everything. I think those experiences sometimes are the most beneficial. So I know Milan, that you didn't just Stay in New York. Talk to us a little bit about your journey overseas and what attracted you to go over there and learn a little different.

Milan Ball: Oh my gosh. Yeah. I, I have a, we're going to have to keep going through this, but I have a terrible habit of leaving out the most interesting parts of myself. So I spent half of my time in New York City, half of my time in Italy. Milan, Italy is probably where I spent the most time, but I also studied in Florence, Italy, and I did a study abroad program that, also took place in Belgium and Paris.

So I had a bit of different experiences, half in design, half in trend forecasting. But yeah, I, I lived in Italy for a total of almost about two years. I loved it. I loved every aspect of it. I'm still fluent in Italian to this day, and it is like a second home for me. 

Casey Harrison: Let's jump around a little bit in your journey because there's so much to cover. I don't know how we're going to fit it all in, but not only were you going to school, were you shifting your focus, but you also were starting a business. 

Milan Ball: Oh yes, I was. So, Like I mentioned, post grad, I was a buyer. I was working for a company called Corporate Catwalk. It was a subscription box service for women's work attire.

And so while I was there, I had the pleasure of attending a bunch of trade shows. And at those trade shows, I would meet Founder after founder of, social impact driven companies. And I didn't understand why, there were so many businesses that I had never heard of that were making so much impact in the world.

And when I went back to my CEO at the company I was working for at the time, I kept getting told no as to why we couldn't bring their products into our business. It just wasn't advantageous for these smaller companies, there were different rates with the wholesale process that it just wasn't feasible for us.

And so post-pandemic, I lost, you know, like many other people rolled off my job at that company. And then, I started consulting social impact driven fashion businesses. So. That's really what kicked off my journey into consulting and working with fashion founders that wanted to make impact in the world.

Casey Harrison: It's got to feel good. I mean, there's something to be said about traveling and gaining those experiences, but I can't imagine, especially after something as disruptive as a pandemic to have that, that sense of stability. Like I want to be here again. 

Milan Ball: I do. part of my journey to Indiana was actually for my master's program at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.

I realized on my consulting journey that I could benefit from a lot more theory and, and practice based knowledge in the nonprofit sector to figure out how to better serve entrepreneurs. Prior to finding the Lilly School, my mom was actually a travel nurse in Indianapolis and I decided to visit her, spend some time with her, and I absolutely fell in love with the charm of the city. At that time, I was also looking at MBA programs and I came across the Lilly family school of philanthropy. So naturally, I was looking at social entrepreneurship and decided this is exactly where I needed to be. 

Casey Harrison: So let's move in a little bit and talk about Let's level set the conversation at least and let's talk a little bit about the tech industry here in Indy. Cause I think it's important to share the ecosystem before we dive into how you intersect with this industry. Today, the tech industry accounts for 51 billion in economic impact. It's 441 million as of 2022 in venture investment with over 9, 000 establishments and 119, 000 workers in tech, it's also ranked 24th in the United States for tech employment.

So we're seeing a ton of growth in the Indiana technology sector. And quite frankly, a lot of that growth is due to companies like the one you work for, like Be Nimble. So I'd love if you would share a little bit about how you first came across Be Nimble and what caught your eye. 

Milan Ball: Yeah, before I actually made the commitment to come to Indianapolis, I visited for an event called Garden Party.

It's Be Nimble's banner fundraising event. And so it's a large party that takes place over at the Newfields Museum, Juneteenth weekend. And I visited as a guest with someone that worked for 68 Capital, my current boss, Kelli Jones’, venture capital firm. She's one of the, I believe the first in Indiana black woman venture capitalists with this size fund, giving towards organizations, or businesses that are, underrepresented. And so then I was attending a pitch competition and being a startup founder myself, it was the first place where I really saw that I could belong here. There wasn't as many support systems in Northern Virginia for me. I think a lot of the tech there focused on data and security, and that just was not the industry that I personally was belonging to. 

Casey Harrison: So for those that are, that are listening now and that are just hearing about Be Nimble for the first time, give us an overview about the company and the work that they do.

Milan Ball: Be Nimble believes that Black and Latinx people deserve investment. they create unforgettable experiences and programs that help people, build highly scalable companies. And so we have everything from entrepreneurship programs, we're actually in, 16 tech right now at the 16 tech innovation district, and we have what's called Melon Ghost Kitchen.

It's one of our most incredible programs. We just finished cohort one by the time that this is live cohort two should be, fully announced, but, it's a ghost kitchen where black and brown chefs can test their food concepts, build out their restaurants and similar to an Uber Eats structure and people can order their food and they can design their menu and full on business development program for one year and, we're very, very excited to, to share and see companies go from just an idea, just a menu to landing a brick and mortar location we just celebrated earlier this year of one of our cohort members.

So it's one fantastic example of our programs, but we have others dedicated to different industries and retail and e-commerce, tech development, or pitch competitions are another one. That's a very big one where we've awarded about $150,000 in funding to local founders here in central Indiana.

The Nile fund is another big, bucket that we pull from. We've deployed about $700,000 in resources and investment to central Indiana founders. So it's a, we do a multitude of work just helping where we can in the industries where underrepresented people are most populous in, you know, in those areas.

Casey Harrison: Yeah, I just want to underscore that. $700,000 worth of investments to help diverse small business owners. that cultivates to the vibrancy of a place and economic opportunities. But I think for some of our listeners that are currently probably taking notes on your conversation, or they should be, you're giving a lot of nuggets, but I think they're thinking.

I have an idea. How do I take my idea and access those kind of resources and start realizing the potential of this idea? So as people listening start to think about just that, how do they get connected to Be Nimble? And what are some of the best ways to plug into these programs or, or maybe just learn about these programs and figure out where plugging in makes sense?

Milan Ball: Yeah. Our pipeline for how people end up getting engaged with us usually starts with events, we're very intentional about having these large scale events because it brings everybody in. At these events is usually where we have, you know, we give the checks away for founders so audiences can see, you know, see someone that looks like them receiving the exact support that they think they could need.

And so I would say starting with our events, engaging with the community that way, but in a more practical sense. What they can do right now is get on, BeNimbleco.com. It's our website where you can find just about all of our programs. You can subscribe to our newsletter. We also have our, I mean, we're on every social media platform you can think of so LinkedIn is what I would say first for founder resources. And then I would say Instagram, Be Nimble co. Probably the handle for just about all of them, but we also, for our events specifically, we have, we like to party (pardi) with a D I at the end. 

Casey Harrison: Okay. We're all following now. Stay tuned for an uptick in your followers. Let's talk a little bit about one of the things that we didn't, we haven't dived into yet is just, you are a minority woman now working to advance other diverse populations. Talk a little bit about if you ever imagined you'd be doing that work in Central Indiana. 

Milan Ball: Oh my gosh Yeah, the the end of that question in Central Indiana is the key there obviously for this podcast episode, but I think you know, I had a friend that was living in Kansas City who similarly made the decision to come to the Midwest, and that was two years before I ended up here.

And I was part of the crowd that was trying to make sense of why would you leave the East Coast to, to go where it might be, you know, the assumptions that it would be slower pace. And I think once getting here, it just clicked for me instantly. It's not only me. an affordable landscape to be a part of, especially as a founder myself, the people are so kind and helpful and supportive.

The friendships that I've been able to build with other driven people who are here have been, I mean, people like you, honestly, who have really propelled me forward and championed me being that I knew absolutely no one before getting here. I mean, I can't sing the praises enough since joining the community.

And then I think being a part of Be Nimble's work specifically, just seeing so many other people that are in a similar boat as me and being able to point them in the right direction and leverage the experiences that I have had being from different places. But yeah, I just, I mean, in the Midwest specifically, in Central Indiana specifically, I think a lot of assumptions that I had were completely changed within the first month of living here.

It's not just corn. You can completely crop out. Or that can kind of blooper, but that no, seriously, I constantly have to explain to my friends on the East Coast that this was the best decision I could have ever made for my career, for my personal development. I don't have to sacrifice the prospect of buying a home in efforts to continue to grow and develop my own company. I can do both at the same time. I can travel out of our beautiful airport that every time I leave, I get excited. I mean, I was just in New York last month and I was so excited to be back in Indianapolis just stepping into IND.

Like it just, I don't know, I don't know how to explain it beyond just, I mean, you can probably hear the joy in my voice as I talk about it, but I, I mean it being 15 minutes living downtown, you know, 15 minutes to the airport. It's just easy to get in and out. If I start fundraising for full on my startup, I could be on the West coast or the East coast, you know, far shorter than if I was still living on the, if I was still living on either coast and so there's a lot of small. But pretty large reasons or small reasons that make up one bigger picture of why it was a good decision. 

Casey Harrison: Sure, sure. Well, so let's lean into that maybe a little differently. There are a lot of people listening that aren't sure how to leverage their experiences to get to the next level and figuring out how to continue to grow in their career.

Talk to us about how you've navigated the progression of your career, especially being in a brand new city cultivating a whole new network. 

Milan Ball: There are so many networking opportunities here. I think because Indianapolis specifically is a pretty big conference and convention city, I've not found a weekend where there was not something to do, whether it be career specifically or social related.

There are so many things that come to Indianapolis that I don't actually have to go anywhere else to experience or learn or network. And then in a local aspect, there are so many business support organizations that are constantly having events, to support that are free for people of, you know, my age, or if you are, you know, penny pinching, developing a startup or pulling purse strings, it's hard to just join any sort of business league or, or group when you're a bit on the younger age. You know, it's just not an investment that you might be able to make right away. And so the fact that there are so many organizations that are doing ground level development work for smaller businesses or emerging businesses, that's one of my favorite things that I've been able to kind of leverage here.

Maven space is another spot that I know you like too, that's been really helpful in terms of meeting people. And, they have a program that you can join, if you are unemployed or if you're a student where you have discounted rates to get support and that network of women is fantastic. So many professionals with a lot of experience to offer and, you know, you just all co-work together and have lunch and think tanks.

Casey Harrison: So what were some of the organizations that you started to plug into to access resources as you arrived in Indy? 

Milan Ball: So the first place that I got connected was Pattern Magazine. I was doing a graduate assistant job there. And from there, there were so many events and other organizations that they were connected to.

So that's actually where I found out about first Fridays. So for those people who are interested in social activities, that's a phenomenal one. from there, there was also the Indy Chamber. There was Visit Indy. There was Indy Hub. Indy Hub has a welcome party that, I got my wisdom teeth taken out the same week that the Indy Hub welcome week, welcome party was, and I told myself I had I literally, I still went, I had cotton balls like literally in my teeth and I was like no, I still need to like go and see all the different clubs and organizations. 

Casey Harrison: So for somebody who hasn't gotten to a welcome party, what is that? 

Milan Ball: Oh, the welcome party, oh my gosh, the Indy Hub welcome party. There were 34, I mean, maybe there were more than 50 organizations that were in one place they had different tables and booths where you could get involved, which reminds me Indy Hub also has an event called IndyVolved where you can meet with civic organizations if you're interested in volunteering opportunities in the city. As far as business support organizations, the Indy Chamber was the first place that I really got connected with.

Casey Harrison: So when you connected with the Indy Chamber, what were you looking for and what did you find? 

Milan Ball: I was just looking for events to go to I'm the kind of person that just likes to show up somewhere and so for someone that doesn't know anyone in the city that was the best case scenario for me so the Indy Hub welcome party knowing that many of the organizations that would be in the city would be represented there and I could meet everyone at one shot. That was a great avenue for me.

Casey Harrison: It's almost like a bad analogy, but it's speed dating with nonprofits. So you can start figuring out where you might want to volunteer some of your time and start cultivating your network in the community. I really love that event. I'm a big fan. 

Milan Ball: I think some other organizations that I really love that have great events, some are free, some are membership based would be, Maven, Maven Space, specifically they have a lot of events, but Create Connect Collab is another fantastic one. The Boss Babe Network is another fantastic one. They will have workshops for women business owners. They will have networking, kind of like speed dating opportunities. They'll bring in speakers to talk through everything from finances and accounting to legal to everything that makes up, how to build your business. They're all fantastic. And Be Nimble also likes to leverage those organizations as well. 

Casey Harrison: Well, we haven't even covered MidStates. I mean, MidStates has an entire Accelerate 100 program dedicated to helping small businesses over a 12-month period just think about their structure, their resourcing, and everything they're going to need to either launch, grow, or scale.

So yeah, there are a wealth of resources. Yeah. So, for people listening that maybe are in Indy, but have been hesitant to put their foot out and really step into the Indy community, share with us some of the things that worked for you. 

Milan Ball: I would say, do not be afraid to try different things, of different affinity groups, of different people, different backgrounds, everything.

The first three events that I went to in Indianapolis, again, I was for the most part by myself in these different things. The first one was Garden Party with Be Nimble. That was an overwhelmingly incredible experience and was part of the reason that cemented why I was going to come here. The second thing was Butter, hosted by GangGang.

It's a fine art fair. Another fantastic thing to go to, but very different from garden party. The third thing that I went to was Creative Mornings. So that was a creative, creatives of all different kinds of disciplines get together to watch a monthly speaker. And again, I started showing up to those events by myself, but there were so many wonderful people there to welcome me in.

And I would just say, don't be afraid to just show up because a lot of times, you know, they want you to They want you to arrive, they want you to come, they want you to come back. So I would sometimes just reach out to the organization before going and let them know, Hey, I'm coming here myself. Like, is there anyone that I can sit with?

Yeah. and, and just not being afraid to ask for the things that you need to make the experience more comfortable. I think it's okay to do that and to make sure that, You're best cared for because this community really cares about you being a part of it. And when you're reaching out to, to ensure that you can thrive and participate in it, it's, it's almost like, you're, you're partnering the same effort to make sure that this is a really thriving place and giving it the best shot you've got.

Casey Harrison: Yeah. Well, and you might be surprised who then later out of that experience creates a seat for you at the table, right? 

Milan Ball: Some of my best friends have come from events that I showed up to alone. 

Casey Harrison: Yeah, I love that. Thank you for joining us today, Milan. This was wonderful. 

Milan Ball: Oh, thank you so much for having me. I'm so honored. It doesn't feel real. 

Casey Harrison: Well, we're so glad that you were able to join us today to learn about Indiana's advanced industries and how you can start or enhance your career journey. Until next time, we hope that you'll be able to see yourself in the unlimited opportunities in Indiana.