Local entrepreneurs, Capital Coaching program honored in 2024 IEDC yearbook

CDFI Friendly is proud to be recognized alongside several local entrepreneurs in Entrepreneurship Indiana (PDF, 405MB), the 2024 Yearbook of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC).

The 165-page publication was released on Thursday, November 21, at the first-ever Indiana Entrepreneur Support Organization (ESO) Summit held in Fishers, Indiana during Global Entrepreneurship Week.

The yearbook profiles entrepreneurs and support organizations from across the state.

(PDF - 405MB)

Billed as an annual celebration of Indiana’s entrepreneurship success stories, the yearbook profiles 100 entrepreneurs and support organizations from across the state – including four from South Bend.

“These are the best of the best of what our state has to offer,” says Morgan Allen, entrepreneurial ecosystem director for the IEDC, “so we were really excited to feature CDFI Friendly South Bend this year because they were doing a phenomenal job with their Capital Coaching Program.”

Capital Coaching Program

The 2024 yearbook recognizes the early success of that program, created in response to feedback from entrepreneurs unfamiliar with the complexities of business finance. The Capital Coaching program pairs entrepreneurs with an expert mentor – a “Capital Coach” – to help them understand their options and avoid common pitfalls.

The 2024 yearbook recognizes the early success of CDFI Friendly South Bend’s Capital Coaching program.

“CDFI Friendly South Bend is filling a critical gap in Indiana's entrepreneurial ecosystem,” says Allen. “CDFI Friendly is helping coach entrepreneurs in becoming capital ready, and then connecting them with that capital when they need it.”

CDFI Friendly South Bend executive director Sam Centellas was also invited to participate as a panelist at the summit’s Access to Capital workshop, where he shared the Capital Coaching program’s success with ESO’s from across the state.

“It's great to see our work in South Bend being highlighted here and talked about as a clever solution to a local problem that could also be scaled in other places around the state,” Centellas said following the event.

Success story: A Bite with Mee

Also profiled in the 2024 yearbook was A Bite with Mee, launched in 2019 by Robyn “Mee Sun” Klingerman and Jairo Mauro Aleman.

The duo began their culinary enterprise by catering a unique cuisine of Korean-Mexican fusion at local pop-up events, including last year’s debut of South Bend’s Fusion Fest.

An early client of CDFI Friendly South Bend, A Bite with Mee participated in 2023’s Fusion Fest pilot program – a streamlined application process for a $2,500 small business line of credit. The program was designed in part to help small businesses establish early credit history in anticipation of future growth.

A Bite with Mee were featured in our 2023 Fusion Fest recap video.

While the duo enjoyed two sellout days under their pop-up tent at the 2023 event, they had bigger plans. “We’re hoping that by next year we can have a food truck,” said Klingerman during a short break in customer traffic.

“[The Fusion Fest pilot program] is helping us build credit, build rapport, that really good relationship so that in the future we can ask for that higher dollar amount loan, so we can get the food truck,” Klingerman said.

Sure enough, their strategy paid off. The business later qualified for the City of South Bend’s revolving loan fund.

Fast forward to 2024, when the remaining pieces fell into place. Today, the IEDC yearbook includes a photo of Klingerman and Aleman standing in front of their new food truck, which they rolled out this summer.

Robyn “Mee Sun” Klingerman with the 2024 yearbook

“It felt good to be featured in something like this,” said Aleman, just after seeing A Bite with Mee’s page in the printed yearbook for the first time.

Honoring successful entrepreneurs

Several other businesses in our region were also profiled in the 2024 yearbook including a few well known local companies:

• Brain Lair Books began in 2018 as a pop-up provider of books uplifting marginalized voices, and opened a permanent storefront in the Near Northwest Neighborhood in 2022.

• Code Works launched in 2016 as a digital product studio that combines technology and social impact, including a collaboration with the City of South Bend to support digital equity.

The summit concluded with an awards reception, when the yearbook’s honorees were presented with a framed copy of their yearbook pages.

• See the full 2024 yearbook (large PDF - 405MB)

• See local excerpts of the 2024 yearbook (PDF - 41MB)