A Civil War veteran’s tiny Indianapolis pharmacy grew into a trillion-dollar drug company
- Eli Lilly: first to mass-produce insulin (1923) and the polio vaccine (1955)
- First healthcare company on Earth to reach a $1 trillion valuation (2025)
- The Indianapolis 500 has run since 1911
- Cummins diesel engines have been proven at the Brickyard since 1931
How Indiana’s digital economy grew
Eli Lilly and Company is founded
Civil War veteran and chemist Eli Lilly opens a small pharmaceutical company in Indianapolis.
A pharmacy that mass-produced two medical firsts
Eli Lilly and Company, founded in Indianapolis in 1876, became the first US company to sell commercial insulin in 1923, then supplied 60% of the initial Salk polio vaccine in 1955. Its modern act is even bigger: demand for its tirzepatide drugs, Mounjaro and Zepbound, has driven explosive growth, and in November 2025 Lilly became the first healthcare company in history to reach a $1 trillion market valuation — only the second non-tech US company ever to do so, after Berkshire Hathaway. It is still headquartered in Indianapolis, with around 50,000 employees.
Built as a proving ground, still proving things
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway wasn’t built as a stadium — it was built in 1909 so Indiana’s automakers could test cars at sustained speed. Cummins, founded in Columbus in 1919 by a mechanic who’d worked the pit crew for the first Indy 500 winner, used the same track to prove its diesel engines for decades, culminating in a 1952 pole position that remains the only one any diesel car has ever won there. Cummins is now an S&P 500 company, $33.67 billion in 2025 revenue, still headquartered in Columbus.
How Indiana businesses buy websites
Indianapolis’s pharma and motorsport giants get the headlines, but most of Indiana’s businesses are the trades and shops serving towns across a state that calls itself the Crossroads of America.
Trades and home services
Indiana’s cities are spread across the state — say plainly which towns and counties you actually serve.
Professional and B2B services
A state built on precision manufacturing and pharma rewards clarity about exactly what you do.
Shops and hospitality
Race weekend and everyday trade both matter — keep hours and offers current.
How well do you know Indiana’s digital economy?
3 quick questions. Get all 3 right and you win a 10% off discount code. Every answer is somewhere on this page.
Indiana quiz · 1 of 3
In 1923, Eli Lilly and Company became the first US company to do what?
Why FastSites works here
A state that tests everything on a track before betting on it understands the value of getting the basics right, fast. A clear one-page site, live in days, at a published price, is that same discipline applied to a small business’s website.