Launch Fishers and LEAP Managed IT

LEAP Managed IT is expanding

The 1930’s were a difficult time in the United States, and it was no different for manufacturers like the Remington Rand Typewriter Company. A young C.F. Thomas lost his job when Remington Rand had to make aggressive cuts to improve the bottom line.

After losing his job, C.F. received numerous requests for the repairs and servicing of typewriters and adding machines that he had taken care of through the years. So facing the decision to work out of his home, The Adding Machine and Typewriter Company was born. C.F. Thomas started The Adding Machine & Typewriter Company during the worst economic time in our country’s history.

The Great Depression was bearing down, bread lines were long, and the struggle was real on how to support your family. He worked out of his basement and used the kitchen phone as his helpdesk. Always tinkering to find better ways to serve his clients and to stay ahead of the market, he realized that it is difficult to innovate in a vacuum.

It takes interacting with other innovators to find the next innovative solution. And he needed to do something bold, something that would launch him onto a new path towards success. An entrepreneurial ecosystem was so important to him that he moved out of the comfortable confines of his basement and into the tech innovation hub of its day, the Rose Court Building in Muncie. The building, still in fantastic shape and in use today, housed around 30 small enterprises including six of his direct competitors.

He learned from his peers, shared resources, ideas, and made lifelong friendships. When C.F. moved out 20 years later and built a new facility, he was the market leader and one of the most respected business people in Central Indiana.

Launch Fishers

86 years later, here we are at LEAP Managed IT. We are taking the lessons learned from our grandfather C.F. Thomas and emulating his path of success. And that’s why we are now here, launching our second office location at Launch Fishers. We toured the new 54,000 sq. ft. Launch Fishers facility and were blown away by the ecosystem that they were putting in place. A place where entrepreneurs could come together, learn from one another, and invent new ways of doing business.

Launch Fishers opening

We knew this was something we had to be a part of, just as our grandfather did many years before. Launch Fishers is a co-working space for entrepreneurs working on a startup, high-growth and high-potential enterprises. Members can take advantage of a variety of workspace options ranging from couches and private offices to treadmill desks. They also have perks like a full-service coffee shop, rentable conference space, and meeting rooms.

LEAP Managed IT/Launch Fishers

We love the thought of working alongside some of the brightest minds in the Midwest. We are also excited to work in the same space as Ball State’s Entrepreneurship Center of Excellence and the forthcoming Inside Indiana Business’ new studio. We will be using our second office location as an extension to our headquarters for our engineers and client solution team members to work and grow in their careers. We will host client meetings, technology classes, and Tech Talk conferences.

Launch Fishers/LEAP Managed IT

We are taking what C.F. would have done (and frankly did) as our next step. By working in a collaborative co-working space, we can create the next generation of successes. C.F. took a leap of faith that he could outperform, operate smarter and deliver better services with a smile. That’s exactly what LEAP Managed IT continues to do today. He passed away nearly 30 years ago, and we still hear his stories from people all around us. Here’s to history repeating itself.

Thanks for all the lessons and guidance, grandpa!

 

Patrycja Thomas

Author: Patrycja Thomas

Fortune 500 sales and marketing veteran dedicated to helping small businesses change the world with technology.