TrendyMinds

TrendyMinds

Trevor Yager launched TrendyMinds as a video production company in 1995, shortly after graduating from Indiana University, and evolved it into a full-service digital agency anchored in Indianapolis. The firm operates as a privately held corporation rather than a traditional fund structure, generating revenue from client services while deploying a portion of its balance sheet into direct investments. Unlike most family offices, TrendyMinds did not originate from a liquidity event but from an operating business whose founder consciously built an investment function alongside the agency. The firm's investment strategy blends two distinct approaches. Through its core agency, TrendyMinds earns fee income by designing and building digital products, brand campaigns, and marketing technology for a client portfolio that has included Eli Lilly, Roche Diagnostics, and the Indiana University Health system. In parallel, the firm makes direct equity investments in early-stage and growth-stage companies, often using a services-for-equity model where the agency's creative and technical work is contributed in exchange for ownership stakes. This hybrid posture gives TrendyMinds a sourcing advantage—entrepreneurs who cannot afford a top-tier agency often welcome the arrangement, and the firm's team gains non-public visibility into the operational strengths and weaknesses of its portfolio companies before committing additional capital. With approximately 70 professionals as of early 2024, TrendyMinds is larger than most family-owned agencies in secondary markets. The firm operates primarily from its Indianapolis headquarters, though its client work spans national and international engagements. In September 2023, the firm's healthcare division deepened its relationship with Eli Lilly and Company on a multi-year digital transformation initiative (per the firm, September 2023). Investment activity typically flows through a separate entity, TrendyMinds Ventures, which has backed companies including health-tech platform Fitz and video storytelling app Seen. The firm's founder also maintains a family foundation, the Yager Family Foundation, which operates independently from the commercial and investment arms. TrendyMinds' structural differentiator is its services-for-equity model, uncommon at its scale among non-coastal agencies. The arrangement creates an aligned-incentive investment pipeline: rather than sourcing deals through conventional broker or accelerator networks, the firm identifies early-stage companies that genuinely need the digital infrastructure TrendyMinds builds, then converts its marketing and product-development fees into long-dated equity positions. This blurs the line between operator and allocator in a way that traditional venture funds cannot easily replicate, while the agency's steady fee income reduces pressure to mark portfolio returns prematurely.