Kelly Hendricks

Kelly Hendricks is a longtime Indianapolis-area marketing entrepreneur best known as the founder of BLASTmedia, a public-relations agency he started in 2005. Over nearly two decades he built BLASTmedia into a nationally ranked firm (cited as a top-100 U.S. PR agency by revenue and named to Inc.'s Best Workplaces), narrowing its focus over time into a specialist B2B SaaS PR agency serving emerging and high-growth software companies across verticals such as HR tech, martech, AI, and retail. By 2016 the firm had roughly 29 employees and was headquartered in the Forum Building in Fishers, Indiana; at acquisition it had grown to about 40 people.

In June 2024, PAN Communications, a Boston-based global B2B tech and healthcare marketing firm, acquired BLASTmedia and rebranded it as PANBlast, combining PAN's ~170-person team with BLASTmedia's Indianapolis staff. Hendricks stepped back from day-to-day leadership (CEO duties moved to Mendy Werne, with Lindsey Groepper as president) and transitioned into an advisory role through the end of 2024. On the deal he said, "Our shared values and commitment to employees is what attracted us to Phil and the PAN team, and there is no doubt that they are the perfect partner."

Beyond BLASTmedia, Hendricks has launched and backed several related ventures. He founded Statwax, a conversion-focused digital advertising agency that spun out of BLASTmedia in 2015 (its work has spanned brands such as adidas and General Electric), and he has been associated with Social Sweepster as a co-founder and with vehicles including Blastmedia Ventures and Taxi Ventures. He is reported to be an alumnus of Indiana University Bloomington. Throughout, he has been a consistent booster of the Indianapolis tech scene: "There's never been a better time to be a tech services company in Indianapolis. We're proud to tell our clients we are based in Indy and look forward to growing our team and client roster here."

• Invests as an individual operator-angel rather than through an institutional fund; aggregators (Crunchbase/PitchBook) list roughly five recorded investments.
• Leans toward business/productivity software (B2B SaaS), marketing/adtech, and adjacent areas — consistent with his decades running PR and digital-advertising agencies for software companies.
• Has also backed consumer hardware / health-tech (e.g., Reemo Health), so he is not strictly SaaS-only.
• Brings hands-on marketing, PR, brand, and demand-generation expertise to portfolio companies — most useful as a value-add to early-stage founders who need go-to-market and storytelling help, not just capital.
• Active in the Indiana / Midwest startup community, making him a natural fit for local seed-stage founders.