Tom Kilcoyne

Tom Kilcoyne is currently listed by the Northeast Indiana Innovation Community as Senior Vice President of Innovation, with a verified NIIC email address. NIIC describes itself as a regional network supporting entrepreneurs, employers, educators, investors, students, researchers, and civic leaders across Northeast Indiana.

Before NIIC, Kilcoyne was a Managing Entrepreneur at NEXT Studios, an Indianapolis benefits corporation focused on innovation strategy and entrepreneurship support. NEXT’s team page lists him in that role, and a 2023 Business People feature describes Kilcoyne and John McDonald as serial entrepreneurs who founded, grew, and sold several businesses before building NEXT Studios to help established companies, startups, nonprofits, and communities.

Kilcoyne was previously Chief Operating Officer at CloudOne / ClearObject. A Gust profile for CloudOne lists him as COO and describes his prior background as Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Newroad Partners and as CEO at several Internet technology and security companies. FinSMEs also identified him as ClearObject’s COO in 2017 when ClearObject received a multi-million-dollar credit line from Silicon Valley Bank.

In 2019, Kilcoyne co-launched Boomerang Ventures with Oscar Moralez. Indianapolis Business Journal reported in February 2020 that Boomerang was launched by Moralez and Kilcoyne, that Kilcoyne and Moralez served as managing partners, and that the firm was raising a $50 million first fund.

• Kilcoyne’s current and recent work is founder-development-heavy rather than check-only investing. NEXT Studios’ public materials describe a model that helps founders with business models, pitch decks, fundraising preparation, and early validation.
• NEXT Studios’ LinkedIn profile says the NEXT Community Impact Fund provides “philanthropically-sourced venture capital to underserved and first-time founders,” while its Discovery Workshop helps underserved first-time founders gain confidence in their idea and themselves.
• Business People quoted Kilcoyne on NEXT’s shift toward underserved founders: “It was through their eyes that we came to understand the particularly challenging situation that underserved founders and communities can face.”
• The same Business People article describes the Impact Fund model as donated capital that can be reinvested after returns, giving the fund freedom to invest earlier than traditional venture capital.
• At Boomerang Ventures, IBJ reported that the firm planned to invest in IoT, medical device, life science, digital manufacturing, and agriculture-related companies, with an Indiana and Midwest ecosystem-building orientation.
• Founder-fit signals from Kilcoyne/McDonald workshops emphasize customer problem clarity and buyer economics: in a 2023 KEDCo / Catalyze NEIN event recap, McDonald and Kilcoyne taught that “People do not care about your solution. They care about their problem,” and “Buyers pay. Users do not.”