HeavyTech Hosts the First-Ever Founders Forge Meetup

A Community-Led Movement Begins: HeavyTech Hosts the First Founders Forge Meetup

Northeast Indiana is home to a growing number of builders, innovators, and entrepreneurs—but until now, there hasn’t been a consistent place for these founders to gather, collaborate, and support one another. That’s why a group of local founders and stakeholders came together to create Founders Forge: a new meetup dedicated to bringing serious innovators together on a regular basis.

While the initiative was conceived by leaders across the regional tech and startup community, HeavyTech had the honor of hosting the very first meetup at our shop this month.

A Grassroots Effort to Strengthen the Midwest Startup Ecosystem

Founders Forge isn’t owned or operated by any single company. It’s a community-led effort born out of the shared belief that high-growth, high-impact startups thrive in environments where:

• Founders openly share their experiences

• Builders have a space to talk shop

• Engineers and technologists can plug into real company creation

• Early-stage ideas can find honest feedback and support

• Collaboration happens naturally, not competitively

The organizers—from multiple local companies, investors, and tech leaders—wanted to create something specifically for venture-scale, innovation-driven founders, not traditional networking or lifestyle-business meetups.

The result is a space built by founders, for founders.

A Strong Launch With Broad Community Support

The first Founders Forge Meetup exceeded every expectation. HeavyTech’s shop filled with a diverse and talented group of people:

• Founders across mobility, hardware, SaaS, AI, robotics, manufacturing tech, clean energy, and advanced materials

• Engineers and product builders

• Students exploring new ideas

• Operators and early employees from scaling startups

• Community leaders and ecosystem supporters

The conversations were lively and practical—from product development challenges to lessons learned raising capital, from supply chain strategies to the realities of building a startup in the Midwest.

It quickly became clear that this kind of environment has been missing in the region—and that there is a strong desire for a consistent gathering place where serious founders can push each other forward.

HeavyTech’s Role: Hosting, Not Organizing

While HeavyTech hosted this first meetup, the credit belongs to the community that created it. The organizers did an outstanding job bringing people together, shaping the purpose of the meetup, and defining the founder-first mindset behind it.

Our role at HeavyTech was simply to open our doors, provide a space, welcome the community, and support an initiative that aligns deeply with the future we want to see in Northeast Indiana:a region where ambitious founders can build world-class companies without leaving home.

What’s Ahead for Founders Forge

The Founders Forge Meetup will continue on a monthly basis, with hosting rotated across different venues and supported by the founding organizers and participants. Each session will evolve based on what the community needs most—whether that’s founder roundtables, problem-solving sessions, guest speakers, or informal discussion over beer and pizza.

HeavyTech is excited to be one of many supporters and looks forward to helping the community grow.

Join the Movement

If you’re a founder, technologist, engineer, builder, or someone who wants to be part of a high-caliber startup ecosystem in the Midwest, Founders Forge welcomes you.