Last weekend, Launch Fishers founder and entrepreneur John Wechsler was a guest on Inside Indiana Business with Lemonade Day Greater Indianapolis founder Scott A. Jones to talk about the importance of encouraging young people to become entrepreneurs.

Because of John’s passion for entrepreneurship and for inspiring it in others, he has volunteered to be our first Community Champion in Fishers. John will spearhead the effort to register at least 1,500 Fishers kids for Lemonade Day Greater Indianapolis on Saturday, May 16! John, in partnership with The City of Fishers, will unveil their plans to add some Fishers flavor to Lemonade Day in the coming weeks. Until then, here are 10 interesting things to know about this Community Champion:

John served as a Combat Engineer in the U.S. Army in the mid 80s. His favorite spectator sport is football. In February, he attended the Super Bowl in Arizona. He, along with two other inventors, holds United States patent #6,547,456 for a portable system for digital photo management. John used to own a shifter kart that topped out at 125 MPH on the racetrack! John founded Launch Fishers in 2012 as a launch pad for startup businesses. It has been so successful that the State of Indiana asked him to create Launch Indiana to mentor new businesses across the state. Before Launch Fishers, John was the founder, president or partner in seven different businesses! John personally chipped away at the Berlin Wall in the Spring of 1990 and brought back several pieces as keepsakes of the historic moment. John believes it is okay to fail. “Anyone who has ever tried anything meaningful knows setbacks are part of the game.” Along with the city of Fishers, John recently began the Launch Fishers High School Fellowship to help develop high school entrepreneurs. He still really loves snow days.