Southern Indiana Business March-April 2020 | Page 37

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Lauren
VanCleave
Operations director by day,
bartender by night
When the sun is up (and often
before), you’ll find Lauren VanCleave,
of New Albany, bustling around the
two-story space on Main Street in
downtown Louisville that encompasses
Story, a startup co-working space for
the city’s movers, shakers, and freelanc-
ers who don’t want to work at home.
“I’m the director of operations for a
startup, which means that my job is all
of the jobs,” she said. “I do bizdev strat-
egy, HR, operations, sales, memberships,
space bookings, sponsorships, and I also
clean toilets and make coffee and build
furniture and take out the trash.”
She’s good at her day job, although
she came to that realization under protest
— as the newest and youngest member
of the production company for Wicked
in New York, she was given the job of
operations. “I was like no! I’m a theater
person! Don’t make me do it!” she said.
“And then I realized that as much as I’m
a dreamer, I thrive in logistics. I like to
see how you build the legs that make the
dream run.”
Her ability to move from brainstorm-
ing into production spills over into her
side hustle, working nights at her par-
ents’ restaurant, Fireside Bar and Grill in
Sellersburg. Much like her day job, she
does whatever needs to be done, from
waiting tables to bartending to develop-
ing cocktails and helping launch their
catering arm.
But it’s not just family obligation that
brings her to the restaurant. “Typically I
work for startups, so salary isn’t always
market rate,” she said. “But I’ve always
taken the path of a side hustle to con-
tinue education, to make extra money, to
stay connected socially.” Thanks to her
parents’ entrepreneurship, VanCleave
has always been around people who
work to make their dreams come true,
and she wants the same for her two
young children.
“When my kids say one day that they
want to do this thing, I want to say you
should do it because I did and I’m so
grateful. It doesn’t have to be traditional
money making. You can just go figure it
out, and we’re in a time where there are
an unlimited amount of opportunities to
side hustle. It’s exciting.”
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