Build It or Buy It: A Conversation with Matt Truty
About this Event
Matt Truty has done two things most operators only ever do one of. He built a company from zero, and he bought a cash-flowing one. After years building software at scale, including leading a roughly 120-person technical team at Sweetwater, the multi-billion-dollar Fort Wayne company, he left to start his own thing. With co-founder Caleb Bertsch he launched BT Pro Solutions (the B and T are Bertsch and Truty).
Then he went out and bought a business. In January 2026, BT Pro acquired Spokane Computer, a 60-year-old software company serving the work-truck and truck-equipment industry, with a loyal customer base and an owner selling a business for the first time. A month later they acquired ZoomQ. Today Matt is living the kind of integration he used to coach other people through, and he serves as Board President of Fort Wayne Tech.
On September 17, Matt sits down with OWN Indiana in Fort Wayne for a fireside moderated by Nick Ladig. The focus is practical: starting versus buying, what the acquisition process actually looks like from the buyer's side, and the lessons that only show up once you've done both.
THE NIGHT AT A GLANCE
Thursday, September 17, 2026
4:00 PM to 7:00 PM
Ruoff Mortgage Stadium, VIP Room
6411 Bass Rd, Fort Wayne, IN 46818
$15 per ticket. Food and drinks included. Free for OWN Indiana members. Capped around 50.
WHAT MATT WILL COVER
This is a candid, practical conversation grounded in Matt's own experience. Here is where Nick will take it:
- The honest pros and cons of starting a company from zero versus buying one that is already up and running
- Inside the acquisition: what the buy-side process actually looks like, from first conversation to close
- Buying from a first-time seller: working with a 60-year-old business and an owner who had never sold before, without a tidy data room
- Well-capitalized versus bootstrapped: how your capital position changes the decisions and the risks you can take
- Lessons learned: what Matt would do the same, and what he would do differently
- Open Q&A, where the operators in the room get to drive part of the conversation
THE RUN OF SHOW
4:00 to 4:45: Arrive, food and drinks, networking
4:45 to 5:30: Fireside with Matt Truty, moderated by Nick Ladig, plus open Q&A
5:30 to 7:00: Open networking
WHO THIS IS FOR
Owners, founders, ETA searchers, holdco builders, and operators running businesses across Indiana. Fort Wayne and Northeast Indiana first, and we'd love operators from around the state to make the trip. If you're weighing whether to build something or buy something, in the middle of a search, or already running what you built or bought, this room is for you.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Matt Truty
Matt Truty is co-founder and CEO of BT Pro Solutions, a Fort Wayne technology firm where business and technology meet. Before BT Pro, he led a large software and engineering organization at Sweetwater. He and co-founder Caleb Bertsch have built BT Pro through both organic growth and acquisition, including Spokane Computer and ZoomQ in early 2026. Matt is Board President of Fort Wayne Tech.
Nick Ladig
Nick Ladig is Director of Business Development at BT Pro Solutions and your moderator for the evening. A Ball State entrepreneurship grad, Nick has spent his career in and around family-owned businesses across hospitality, food, and beverage, and has seen every stage of the life cycle from startup to exit. He founded and successfully exited HT2 in Fort Wayne, helped build the sales organization at Indianapolis-based Hotel Tango Distillery (where he rose to President, leading sales, marketing, operations, finance, and HR across multiple tasting rooms), and founded Digs Advising, a Northeast Indiana strategy practice now part of BT Pro. Along the way he has written the financial models behind SBA loans for main-street businesses and helped raise more than $20M in venture capital and private equity. Deeply connected across the Northeast Indiana operator network, Nick is also leading the coordination of this event, OWN Indiana's first in Fort Wayne.
ABOUT OWN INDIANA
OWN Indiana is a year-round community for people building, running, and acquiring businesses across Indiana. We host monthly events, publish a free monthly briefing called Operator Notes, and try to be useful. Learn more and subscribe at ownindiana.org.
PHOTOGRAPHY
We'll take photos and a few short video clips for post-event content. If you'd rather not appear in any of it, just let us know at check-in.
QUESTIONS
Email [email protected]. Same-day reply.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 15.00
