Angie Hicks '95 Offers Advice to Young Entrepreneurs

August 7, 2015

"If I knew then what I know now, I would have not sweated taking a risk," Angie Hicks, founder and chief marketing officer of Angie's List and 1995 graduate of DePauw University, tells Indiana Minority Business. 

In a feature headlined "Indiana business leaders give advice to their younger selves," Hicks recalls, "In 1995, just out of DePauw University, I agonized between a consulting job and accepting my internship boss’ offer to spend a year launching what became Angie’s List. I fretted over the uncertainty of the entrepreneurial option until my grandpa pointed out that looking for a job at age 23 isn’t much different than looking for one at 22."

Hicks reflects, "(I would have) been easier to work with and for. I’m a hands-on, get-it-done type and it took me a few years to learn to loosen up. Taking a break to get my M.B.A., and the experience of raising my kids, have helped mellow my work style."

Access the piece at the magazine's website.

Angie Hicks founded Angie's List shortly after graduating from DePauw, where she was an economics major and Management Fellow.  The recipient of an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, Hicks is a member of the board of directors of the Indy Chamber and is co-founder and past member of the board of the Governor Bob Orr Indiana Entrepreneurial Fellowship Program.

In 2007, DePauw honored her with a Distinguished Alumni Award for Management and Entrepreneurship and she received the Robert C. McDermond Medal for Excellence in Entrepreneurship in 2009.

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