About Us

Indy Idea Hub is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in Independence, Oregon, that provides business and entrepreneurial support to individuals and communities in Polk County.

Our Mission

Indy Idea Hub is committed to helping our community thrive by supporting people in starting and sustaining successful businesses, fostering a can-do attitude where no challenge seems impossible, facilitating network building to support individual and community aspirations, supporting the creation of and access to opportunities, and cultivating a diverse, strong, resilient economic culture.

Our Vision

We envision our rural community as a unique place of opportunity in which everyone is able to live a productive, meaningful life and has the support to do so. By continually cultivating our can-do attitude and by creating solutions that work for our unique community, we can help realize our communal potential by offering an elevated sense of community, support, prosperity, and possibility.

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Our Values

Our work is guided by the following values: collaborative work; deliberate action-taking with the willingness to fail in the pursuit of our vision; support extension to vulnerable community members; customized solutions that respect unique needs; flexibility in our responses and iterations to ever-changing needs, opportunities, and possibilities; inclusion of all community members.

Our Story

In 2018, public and private partners who were deeply immersed in the local entrepreneurship scene in Polk County came together as a team. Our collaborations were inspired by a **common goal of building an entrepreneurial ecosystem that would focus specifically on rural needs** in and around Independence, Oregon.

In 2018 and 2019, we found success through our Rural Opportunity Initiative (ROI) efforts and recognized that our work needed its own proper organization to operate from, separate from a private business and government, to fully realize its potential. As a result, Indy Idea Hub was formed as a 501c3 nonprofit organization. **Our efforts began to broaden from the City of Independence to all of Polk County, with the understanding that our communities are stronger together**. Having laid the groundwork and connections to the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem, Indy Idea Hub became well-positioned to lead coordinated efforts between and within surrounding communities.

The original team of partners is still with us - they are us! Ever dedicated to the mission of supporting entrepreneurship, we now make up the Board and team of Indy Idea Hub. We’re excited that Indy Idea Hub continues to broaden, refine, and deepen its efforts. In some ways, it feels as if our story has just begun - -

Meet the Team