Let’s recap our visit to DORIS Research in Indianapolis.

Founder and co-owner Sam Julka shared how her path from erasing a draftsman’s mistakes at a lumber yard to earning a master’s degree in design thinking at IUPUI led to creating a company unlike any other.

💡 DORIS stands for Design Oriented Research for Impactful Solutions. It all started as Sam’s grad school thesis. With an investor who believed in her idea, she built a business that helps organizations understand how people really work and interact with their environments.

Sam talked about the challenges of launching something no one had done before. “The hardest part was convincing people to spend money on what we do,” she said. “It’s not always glamorous…it’s a frickin’ grind and hustle.”

Looking back, she shared one lesson she’d change if she could: “Hire people smarter than me, sooner.”

To close out the visit, Sam led us through a convergent and divergent brainstorming activity, helping us stretch our thinking and generate ideas for this year’s class business.

From thesis paper to thriving company, Sam’s story is a reminder that great things often start with a question — and the courage to find your own answer.