Ankur Gopal struck out into the world but returned home to Kentucky to start his companies. Michael Chambers stayed in North Dakota and built a high-growth company right there in his own backyard. Both of their home states have benefitted.
Ankur Gopal had many chances to work at big companies, but again and again deferred. He finally realized the job title he really wanted was entrepreneur. It took some trial and error, but Ankur now runs two companies. The largest one, Interapt, started out doing app development and in solving its own tech worker recruitment problems, created a growing apprenticeship program that helps other companies build their tech forces too. Interapt now has more than 300 employees.
Michael Chambers had his own federally funded research lab while still an undergraduate student at North Dakota State University. By the time he was a senior, his research had inspired an idea for a company. So upon graduation, Michael started Aldevron to provide high quality plasmid DNA and other biological products used in vaccines, cell and gene therapies and other applications. Aldevron, which has the world’s largest plasmid DNA manufacturing facility, was acquired by Danaher in 2021 for about $9.6 billion in cash.
Midwest Moxie executive producer is Audrey Nowakowski. Ele Ellis produced this episode. Subscribe to Midwest Moxie on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and NPR One. And if you love Midwest Moxie as much as we do, help us out by posting a review.
