Why Hoosier tech titan Scott Jones is leaving Indiana
Scott Jones and his wife are living full time in Hawaii 'making literally the world's most comfortable underwear.'
Why Hoosier tech titan Scott Jones is leaving Indiana Scott Jones and his wife are living full time in Hawaii 'making literally the world's most comfortable underwear.' Check out this story on IndyStar.com: http://indy.st/2xZ8P3b
Will Higgins, will.higgins@indystar.com Published 6:00 a.m. ET Sept. 11, 2017 | Updated 3:24 p.m. ET Sept. 12, 2017
Tech guru and multi-millionaire Scott Jones grew up in Indianapolis.(Photo: IndyStar file photo)Buy Photo
Tech entrepreneur Scott Jones, one of Indiana's most prominent 21st-century citizens, is absolutely loving Hawaii.
And leaving Indiana, where he has lived most of his adult life.
He owns houses in both states, but his wife, Vee, and their children have lived primarily in Honolulu for the past couple of years. He put his Indiana house, in Carmel, up for sale last week. (The asking price: $4,995,000.) This week, Sept. 14-17, the furnishings and other belongings will be offered at a public sale at the house, 1150 W. 116th St.
Everything from 50-cent, half-full Windex bottles to a $9,250 Tyrannosaurus rex skull replica will be sold.
► For sale: Hoosier multimillionaire Scott Jones simplifies, will sell everything in Carmel home
► Photos: Look inside the lavish estate of Scott Jones
► More mansions: At his death, 'Mr. Big' left gaudy north-side Indianapolis home in shambles
Jones explained his decision to move in an email exchange with IndyStar, offering a compare-and-contrast of Hawaii and Indiana in which Hawaii came out ahead.
"Hawaii is the #1 healthiest state in the union, every year," Jones observed. "Indiana is 39th, which puts it almost in the bottom 20 percent. Maybe that's why Hawaii also has the No. 1 longest life expectancy in the U.S. Indiana is 39th."
Hawaii has "almost no semi trucks," Jones noted, adding that "it hits us hard when we come back to Indiana to have to deal with the big semis again. It's amazing how much we come to appreciate NOT having them here."
Manners were also on Jones' mind. "Here in Hawaii," he went on, "everybody is proactively courteous. One hardly ever hears anyone honk their horn, and if one needs to change lanes, people almost always let you in front of them and then the recipient of the favor waves back, even on highways.
"In Indiana, the norm is for people to speed up rather than let you merge into traffic. It's just different here. It's now jarring to come back to Indiana traffic.
"People are much more considerate of others here, and generally just happier here, by a large margin!"
Also, Jones added, "we love having three Apple stores here instead of just one." Plus: "Sushi is 'hands-down' better here."
Jones, 56, was a teenager when he moved to Indianapolis with his family in the mid-1970s. He graduated from North Central High School, then Indiana University. He took a job in Boston where he soon invented the technology that made voicemail practical — and made Jones rich. He was worth some $50 million by the time he was 31.
In 1993, he founded another company, Gracenote, which in 2008 was sold to Sony for $260 million. He became a venture capitalist and was an early investor in Art Technology Group, for which Oracle paid $1 billion in 2010. Jones estimates his personal take from those deals at "well over $200 million."
Jones returned to Indianapolis in 1995. As he explained in 2008, when the Indiana Historical Society was honoring him by proclaiming him an "Indiana Living Legend," he wanted to give something back to his home state.
As a 30-something tech wunderkind, he cut a wide swath. He lobbied for Indiana's move to daylight saving time, a surprisingly hotly contested transition that he and other business leaders considered critical to aligning Indiana with business interests on the coasts. He pushed for more resources for local tech education and investment and in 2014 started a nonprofit computer coding school, Eleven Fifty Academy.
He gave money away, most notably $3 million to The Children's Museum for its "Dinosphere," a dinosaur exhibit.
He started several businesses here including, in 2008, ChaCha, a question-and-answer service along the lines of Apple's Siri and Google's Now. ChaCha failed in 2016.
In the mid-1990s, he bought an old mansion on 24 acres in Carmel and began adding on and on and on, in a way that reflected not just his money but his creativity. The work lasted seven years and cost $20 million. The result is a 24,000-square-foot house with the usual (fine wood paneling, home theater) and also the fantastical (indoor spiral slide, at least one secret passageway, retinal scanner for access to master bedroom).
A look inside the lavish estate of Scott Jones
Inside the home of Scott Jones, recently listed as a residence on Airbnb, in Carmel on May 4, 2016. Mykal McEldowney/IndyStar
The home theater inside the home of Scott Jones, recently listed as a residence on Airbnb, in Carmel on May 4, 2016. Mykal McEldowney/IndyStar
The wince cellar inside the home of Scott Jones, recently listed as a residence on Airbnb, in Carmel on May 4, 2016. Mykal McEldowney/IndyStar
Scott Jones gives a tour of his home recently listed on Airbnb in Carmel on May 4, 2016. Mykal McEldowney/IndyStar
The hobbit house on the property of Scott Jones, recently listed as a residence on Airbnb, in Carmel on May 4, 2016. Mykal McEldowney/IndyStar
Scott Jones talks about a mahogany slide inside his home during a tour on May 4, 2016. Mykal McEldowney/IndyStar
The mahogany slide inside the home of Scott Jones, recently listed as a residence on Airbnb, in Carmel on May 4, 2016. Mykal McEldowney/IndyStar
Texas limestone mantle above the fireplace inside the home of Scott Jones, recently listed as a residence on Airbnb, in Carmel on May 4, 2016. Mykal McEldowney/IndyStar
In Indianapolis, Jones lived a somewhat public life. He gave frequent media interviews, mostly about business matters. But in 2001, five years after divorcing his first wife, when People magazine named him one "America's Top 50 Bachelors," he opened up personally. He told People he'd like to meet a woman "who can go to a presidential ball or be comfortable camping in a tent on the side of a cliff." He married Vee a decade later.
Since 2015, Jones has rarely stayed in his Carmel house and instead has rented out its bedrooms on Airbnb. "We get back to Indy about every two months to visit my parents," he said. "I'm still involved in several businesses in Indiana. And I'm still chairman of Eleven Fifty Academy."
Eleven Fifty, which initially operated out of Jones' house, last year moved to a larger space in Fishers.
In Honolulu, Jones has downsized to a seven-bedroom, 10,000-square-foot house with ocean views. It's not on the beach but is within walking distance of the beach, where Jones surfs and snorkels. He lives with Vee and five of their six children.
Vee, who in Indianapolis started a high-end nail salon called Little Nail, in Hawaii has started a clothing business called Hippies and Housewives, which Jones said had sold nearly 10,000 swimsuits in fewer than six months. "Now," he said, "we are making literally the world's most comfortable underwear."
As for Jones himself, "I'm inventing 'my next big thing,'" he said.
"Not much I want to say about my next big thing," he added, "other than to say we are making excellent progress on a stem-cell solution for strokes and ischemic events, especially during heart surgery, where mini- and major strokes are a common side effect.
"And I am also working on a nano-technology and MEMS project that could be world-changing, but it's still early in the incubation process!"
Once their Carmel house sells, the Joneses may buy a house in the tony Williams Creek neighborhood for use as a pied-a-terre.
Call IndyStar reporter Will Higgins at (317) 444-6043. Follow him on Twitter @WillRHiggins.
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