“We chose to launch at verge in indy versus SXSW because Indy has come of age.” – @sschwegman#withgustopic.twitter.com/H2z0cCjhu6

— Verge ® (@VergeIndy) February 28, 2014

The question has been asked of Shawn Schwegman too many times. The founder of Gusto, an email app about to launch, had entertained the idea of launching at South by Southwest (SXSW), but declined. Instead, he decided to launch his company from the Verge stage here in Indianapolis. The result? The largest launch in Verge history.

So if you were a tech startup, why would you want to launch in Indy? Keep your eye on these three trends in Indy that set it apart from other tech scenes throughout the nation.

1. Community

Personally, I have been involved with Verge for about 8 months and I’ve heard this community receive high praise from everyone who comes to know us–from IEDC President Eric Doden last night, to reddit.com co-founder & best-selling author Alexis Ohanian just a few weeks ago. And what we have in Indianapolis is special for many reasons beyond our tech talent. Yes, Indianapolis is the Marketing Technology Capital of the World. Yes, Indiana is second in the nation at attracting out-of-state talent to our Universities. Yes, Indianapolis is positioned to launch some of the nation’s coolest tech startups, but that alone isn’t what makes Indy great.

Our community came out in a big way last night. 500 techies joined to help launch a new brand that is in a position to revolutionize the way we view email and personal storage, and that’s what this community is best at. Supporting one another and lifting each other up.

Just giving a testimonial for an Indy startup #withgusto#vergestartupspic.twitter.com/QUTa0lw2lh

— Matt Hunckler (@Hunckler) February 27, 2014

Building a stronger startup community fills us #withGusto http://t.co/CfzRhLsREj @Indiana_EDC @VergeIndy @IndyChamber @TechPointInd

— Joe Albano, PhD (@LogikaJoe) February 28, 2014

Why Indy? This! > “@PerqMarketing: Excited to have company! Another great tech company launching in indy #WithGusto pic.twitter.com/yQXdLNlh4d”

— Steve Lausch (@stevelausch) February 27, 2014

2. Access to Talent

A common refrain for Shawn throughout the process of building Gusto was “Go Big or Go Home.” He wasn’t going to half ass this app, so he found five of the best developers in the state, grabbed the best branding agency and PR firms he could find, and shelled out some serious dough.

Well, one of those is a lie.

Shawn talked last night about how the talent we have here in Indianapolis is as good as anyone in the world, but here you don’t have to pay the premium. You can get world class work done for half the price of Silicon Valley or New York.

“We really focused on building a rock star team. In 5 developers, we have over 90 years of experience.” – @sschwegman #withgusto

— Verge ® (@VergeIndy) February 27, 2014

“You know you have a great team when someone asks if you can buy a futon for them to sleep in the office” – @sschwegman #withgusto

— Verge ® (@VergeIndy) February 27, 2014

3. Analytic and Marketing Capacity

Indianapolis is uniquely positioned as the Marketing Tech Capital of the World, and Shawn used every bit of that capacity he could find. As an analytically-driven person, he’s running thousands of marketing campaigns with this launch, micro-targeting every single one with the ultimate goal of making the advertising as personalized as possible.

This highly-analytic, yet creative, approach is a quintessential Indianapolis move that takes advantage of technologies that didn’t exist until recently. While this is definitely the more difficult path, Shawn doesn’t flinch at the task. He understands that this is what you have to do if you want to tango with big data.

“You get data out at the granularity you put in.” – @sschwegman #withgusto

— Verge ® (@VergeIndy) February 27, 2014

“Most of marketing is failure.” – @sschwegman#withgusto

— Verge ® (@VergeIndy) February 27, 2014

I was extremely proud of the Verge community last night. It was incredible to see such a large group of people come out and support Shawn and the Gusto team. This community is why people like Shawn are choosing to launch in Indy as opposed to at SXSW, and it’s why so many new Indy-made companies have so much forward momentum right now.

And we aren’t showing any signs of slowing down.

What else makes Indy a great place to build and launch tech? What opportunities do we have to step our game up to the next level? Drop your thoughts in the comments below!