Is venture capital a whale hunt? You bet it is. And my friends and neighbors at Exact Target have just announced receipt of a $70 million capital infusion from multiple investors. This is in lieu of the IPO that the company intended to do before the market got squirrelly. Pretty big whale in my book.
Exact Target is a pioneer in the management of outbound emails from a company to its customers and prospects. Its services have grown far beyond the founding mechanisms, but they are all about customer engagement
Exact Target announced yesterday a lot of good news about sales and profitability. In a market where good news has been hard to come by, it’s welcome to hear it, literally, right next door in downtown Indy.
Indianapolis has been home to a number of innovative technology start-ups, including Compendium Blogware, where my blog is hosted, co-founded by Chris Baggott who was a co-founder of Exact Target.
Companies like these require significant investments over time in order to fully build the technologies, take them to market, and develop loyal customers and end users. Attracting that investment is a whale hunt that’s a lot harder today than it once was, so it pays to watch how the successful companies are doing it. Here are just a few of my observations about Exact Target and Compendium:
- very good leadership and management, “best places to work”
- strong roots and relationships in the home community even as they reach out to the world
- well-developed products/services and constant attention to the customer
- a culture of mentoring and trusting wonderfully capable young people
- cultivating a loyal customer following and learning from customers
I was privileged to spend time with the national sales leadership of Exact Target a couple of weeks ago. I salute them for the recent accomplishments and wish them well. We need more visible examples of small companies achieving successful business growth and development, increasing sales, capturing big deals, and making the employees and communities proud of their accomplishments. Kudos!
