We're committed, excited, and ready to go. But there were a few moments where I scratched my head and wondered like, what have I done here? You're running a company [music] that is on trajectory to go public, and you get to happen to be on the host committee for the Super Bowl in 2012. Startups are hard in the world that you want to be different. [music] You've got the opportunity to kind of create the future. You're just like looking at yourself like, why?
Why am I doing this? [music] Like what is this all for? What did you tell yourself to keep going? From South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between, this is Get In, the show focused on the Hooser State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation. Let's talk about an insurance company that I use and believe in, Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance.
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In the words of the famous Hooser David Letterman, "My next guest needs no introduction, but in my words, I'm going to do it anyway." He is the managing partner at High Alpha, an Indianapolis venture studio that launches, scales, and invests in B2B SAS companies. Before High Alpha, he co-founded Exact Target and led the company as CEO and chairman from startup to global marketing software leader. Exact Target went public on the New York Stock Exchange in March of 2012 and was acquired by Salesforce in July of 2013 for $2. 5 billion. Yes, billion with a B.
The tallest building in Indianapolis still dons a Salesforce logo over a decade later. A testament to the hard work of the entire exact target team. If I were to construct a Mount Rushmore of Indiana entrepreneurs, you would see me up there chiseling his face in stone. He's a family man, a community builder, a civic leader, a mentor to all, and a prolific entrepreneur. Please welcome Scott Dorsey to the show. Thank you, Nate.
That was an incredible introduction. Well, this is going to be a fun conversation. Uh, and been it's been a heck of a journey. You say your uh your two decade overnight success. I'm really excited to dive in. The first thing, your journey with the city of Indianapolis begins on I65 South, moving from Chicago to Indie to take a chance on starting ex Target.
So many people in this crowd, myself included, have a similar story, whether it's I65, I74, for me it was I7 driving to the city to take the next step in life. You had your MBA and you were driving to Indie to start Exact Target. I was 33 years old, had just graduated from Kellogg with my MBA and studied internet business models and entrepreneurship. So I felt I was kind of prepared mind around starting companies and I was working for an internet company called Divine and my brother-in-law, this really extraordinary entrepreneur by the name of Chris Bagot kept pinging me about starting a new company and starting that company called Exact Target. So decided to go for it. So it was late 2000.
uh my incredible wife Erin who's so supportive and our two daughters Lily who was three at the time class of 2019 or fellow shout out for Lily [applause] and Jane was two years old and we decided to move to Indianapolis and give it a go and what I remember about it Nate was I was still working at Divine and knew shortly we'd be starting Exact Target and we really had no money so we wouldn't be paying ourselves a salary so we had to quickly buy a house so that I could get a mortgage while I still had a job. So that was really the first trip first trip on on I65 to get to Indie, buy a house and then really get ready to start Exact Target. My wife is from Greenfield. She's from Indianapolis and we were moving all over the country and started having a family and it was really her dream to live in Indianapolis. So at that point she really didn't care what I did. She's like, "Let's give it a go.
Get to Indianapolis and good things will happen." What was the final email, Slack, ping call that Chris sent to you that pushed you to the edge to say, "Let's do this thing." It was probably over Thanksgiving. So that this incredible family that Chris and I married into, they're mostly doctors. So during family holidays, they'll on one side of the room, they're talking medicine, and Chris and I would talk entrepreneurship, startups, database marketing, and I think it was probably Thanksgiving 2000 when he tipped me over the edge. That sounds like a riveting Thanksgiving discussion.
Yeah. [laughter] So, as you guys got going, I don't think a lot of people know that. I think we know that uh obviously Exact Target flourished in the Mile Square right here in downtown, but it was like a McDonald's parking lot or something in Greenfield where this thing actually got started like in the back of a building. Take us to that first office you guys had. Very humble beginnings. I I had the good fortune of working in really some of the most beautiful buildings in the United States.
I worked out in Los Angeles in a building called the Pacific Design Center in Chicago. I worked out of the merchandise mart and we started Exact Target in a strip mall in Greenfield, Indiana, right next to a McDonald's, paying $200 a month in rent. So to say it was a humbling experience, it would be would be a big understatement, but we were we were committed, excited, and ready to go. But there there were a few moments where I scratched my head and wondered like, woo, what have I what have I done here? And today in 2026, we all know AI this and you know, tech is, you know, next half for everybody. But in 2000, what were you building?
What was the original product that was Exact Target? Original vision was email marketing software for small businesses in really small businesses like dry cleaners, restaurants, pizza shops. We were starting on the low end of SMB cuz wasn't Chris was he running a dry cleaner and like collecting email addresses on paper to put into a database? He he pretty much was. I think all great businesses start from a problem that you experience firsthand. And Chris was this extraordinary database marketer with Ara Donley and really grew up in the world of print, but he understood the value of understanding as as much as you can about your customer to be very personalized in communications and relationship building.
And he really had the vision for how the internet would transform database marketing. But yes, he moved to Indianapolis first before me, bought a dry cleaner called Sanders Cleaners and became probably the most uh technologically advanced dry cleaner in the United States. but really discovered that to do email marketing and email marketing well and at scale the software tools didn't exist. So he he really had the spark of the idea based on his own experience. Wow. So you guys are working out of a strip mall in Greenfield.
Where along the journey did you feel like okay we can breathe a we have some traction maybe you add a new employee. Who was the first hire? So there were there were three of us. Me Chris and again Peter McCormack I'd worked with previously and then Peter's friend Shawn ran technology. But our first hire was Joanna Uer who's now Joanna Milikin and she's she's CEO of E Marcus and she was like a huge competitor, right? Oh yeah.
Yeah. She was really the first one we had to convince site unseen to join us and we made her an offer and she actually turned it down and uh I kept the email and we did everything it could to talk her into saying yes and thankfully she did. Wow. So when did you move out of the Greenfield strip mall? Yeah, we were maybe a year or two in and then we moved actually to the Angie's list campus and it was our first move downtown and likely how I got introduced to the Ora Fellowship through Scott Brenton and Angie and Bill. But we we had we had a vision early on that we wanted to be a downtown company that we wanted like the urban grittiness.
We wanted to be in the core of the city of Indianapolis and and had a hope that we could kind of leverage the energy and if things went well, we could somehow contribute to kind of the health and vitality of downtown. What did downtown look like in 2002, 2003 when you were just getting started here? Not much happening. There's not much happening. We really didn't have nice hotels, didn't have many locally owned restaurants. The airport was extraordinarily outdated.
You know, today bringing people to Indianapolis, I think, is such a wonderful experience. In particular, first- timers who've never been to Indie, they're blown away the moment they step into our airport and kind of all the way through the experience. It was very, very different back then. Wow. I mean, and where did you start to feel the vibrancy and where did the city start to come alive? I think it just continued to build over time.
And for us, we were on the Angels list campus on the east side. Then we moved to the Morrison Opera Place building and then ultimately we moved on the Circle and the Circle really became our home from 2005 on. Yeah. So this is interesting. You were on the Angie's List campus. At that time Angie's List is ripping, right?
Like they're also growing. You would think that uh at surface level you're competing for the same engineers. You're trying to get the same marketing leaders, but yet you move right next door to them and they're kind of a little bit bigger than you guys at the time, right? Absolutely. We were we were subleasasing. I think they were a landlord in fact and shows the incredible vision and generosity of of Bill and Scott and Angie that they would help young entrepreneurs out and you know kind of be on their campus, learn from them and then ultimately start the or fellowship that we would be huge beneficiaries of you know over many years.
Yeah. And we we have a whole section dedicated to kind of the the beginnings of or fellowship and how we all ended up here today. When people think about exact target, like it's easy to look up at Salesforce and see, you know, this giant logo smashing success IPO. I actually heard an interesting story from one of my mentors, Steve Fouchy. I think he ended up being the controller at some point of Exact Target, and he talks about there was a moment that sticks out to him where it was HR, and you had to have a locked filing cabinet at the time, like not everything was digital, and that that locked filing cabinet was in the trunk of your car. Is that a [laughter] true story?
Probably true. Probably true, Steve. Also, this shows how long ago we started Exact Target. We basically had to build our own data center. AWS didn't exist. So, we had to buy servers, rack them, find the capital to really buy all this hardware and infrastructure.
And in our second office downtown in Morrison Opera Place, I remember Steve's desk was right next to our rack of servers, and they were loud and hot. And I was always worried that I was going to damage his hearing until we could actually move to a proper data center. That's wild. Yeah. I mean, you have another story, too, uh, that we're going to get to. I'll I'll tease that one for later about the same servers and racks and, uh, the acquisition and everything.
So, Exact Target, it was all rainbows, unicorn success. Take me through a few moments. Was there ever a time when you thought the company was toasted? Pretty much always. Pretty pretty much always. And there they're a fair number of Exacto alums, so I think they they can relate.
We had tons of adversity. You know, shortly after we started the company, uh, was 911. We had to work our way through the financial crisis of '08 and and we just had plenty of things go wrong, Nate. We had security breaches. We had our databases go down one weekend. You know, we had big customers leave us.
You know, it's just startup life and scaleup life. So many things are going well, but you're also having to be so resilient because you're facing so many challenges and headwinds and you have to kind of manage it with optimism and and just keep pushing forward. So although the exact target story was up and to the right and really had a phenomenal outcome in the end for for all of our team and our investors and such, there were there were plenty of challenges to overcome. And you really can only do that when you have a culture and a group of extraordinary people that are pouring their heart and soul into the company and are really really excited to be a part of it. The one story I shared which I'll I'll share with Nate. So, we were a couple days away from finalizing the acquisition with Salesforce and I received so I was out in San Francisco working on the deal and I received a phone call from Tim Ho who now I have the pleasure of working with at Zilo and Tim was running infrastructure and Tim never called me and when Tim called it usually wasn't good news.
So, I'm in San Francisco. This kind of gets to the point of you're like never comfortable. Like we never had a moment where you felt you you'd really made it. At this stage we were public company, 2,000 employees, very very close to finalizing the acquisition. Tim calls me and he's like, "Scott, don't panic. Uh, but I've got a situation here in India you need to be aware of."
I'm like, "What's going on, Tim?" is like, "Well, the data center we have in downtown Indie, Henry Street, there's a really big raging fire that's about a block away from the data center, but I think it's going to be okay." Like, we've got, you know, we've got fire trucks and police and a lot of people helping us. And he sent me a picture and, you know, just smoke, you know, billowing out of buildings just a block or two away from our data center. And we had two data centers. We had Indie and a data center in Las Vegas.
and you do everything you can to hope you have redundancy if you ever need it one day. One data center goes down, the next data center picks everything up and doesn't miss a beat, but you really don't want to have to test that. So, so thankfully they got the fire under control and that worked. But but it's just evidence and kind of an illustration that you're you're kind of on the razor's edge every step of the way. Was there ever a moment where long day, things go wrong, maybe big customer leaves, you found yourself maybe at the kitchen table sitting there, you're just like looking at yourself like, why? Why am I doing this?
Like, what is this all for? You know, like I mean, thinking of like as a small business entrepreneur, there are days where I'm like, "Holy smokes, this is hard." And what did you tell yourself to keep going? I I honestly didn't have too many days like that because I just loved it so much. I just love company building, team building, working toward a common goal. And uh you know, certainly are there hard days, no question.
But I I just loved the team and the culture and what we're setting out to accomplish. And then really, and this is probably the essence of the Our Fellowship, knowing that if we had any ounce of success, it would acrew very positively to Indianapolis. And I received so much coaching and mentoring and support from this community that I just felt like overdrive around wanting to pay it back and do the very best I could for for this community and hopefully put a big win in the book for the for the tech community. And this is, you know, 2000, 2010, 2012, 13, all the biggest, all the best, all the baddest tech companies are being built on on a coast somewhere. Was there ever a moment where someone picked up the phone and said, "Scott, you need to move the company out of Indiana. you have to come to San Francisco.
We funded the the business through friends and family and a very small amount of angel capital. And then in 2004, our series A was with a firm called Inside Venture Partners in New York. And at that point, I really didn't think we'd ever raise venture capital. Ironically, we were we were cash flow positive. We were very frugal. And early attempts to raise capital didn't go well, Nate.
So, I really thought we're probably just going to bootstrap this business and continue to run an angel funding, but Insight approached us and they were very large and sophisticated and really pitched us on learning from them and their set of portfolio companies. And when they came to visit us in Indie, they realized how important Indianapolis was to our company, our culture, our identity, our hiring strategy that they never pressured me to move to the Bay Area, which was really quite nice. Yeah. I mean that is a testament like that's pretty cool for them. I feel like once people experience it and they come to Indie and they get to walk around they try some shrimp cocktail they're hanging out it's like oh you start saying hey how about you guys come you know be part of this. It's a big part of why we love being a downtown company.
It just gave us a a platform to really show off our city and everything it had to offer to those who had perhaps never even been to Indianapolis. Yeah. Now, one piece you talked about growing to 2,000 employees, but culture still driving everything you were doing with Exact Target. As you get to the point where you don't know all the names, you don't know all the faces, new people are passing you. How do you continue to grow and build culture when you you can't sit down and have lunch with everybody? Knowing everyone in the company was super important to me, Nate.
So, I I gave it I really really gave it my best to build friendships and personal relationships. And ultimately, we built a culture that we refer to as orange. that was really about passion and creativity and supporting our clients and supporting one another and and really giving your best. And it was the it was the orange culture that I think was probably our biggest competitive advantage over our coastal competitors and ultimately what led to success. But I we would find we would find different ways to really try to make sure that I was able to still connect and really get to know our team and that was really really important to me. So somewhere along the way we were 300 employees.
We knew we were going to go on a big hiring burst and I started decided to start a Friday note where every Friday using exact target software. I would craft an email with pictures and stories of what was happening in the week, maybe where I was traveling, KPIs, challenges we were facing, success stories. And that Friday note became really the most powerful vehicle for me to really stay in touch with our team as we were doing acquisitions and expanding around the world and also give everyone a chance to email me back with thoughts and feedback and that was really the best part. So, it was very important to me that that email, the reply to went directly to me and I would respond to every note that I would ever receive. And then it really became like self-perpetuating. Then team members would be like, "Oh, we just ran a 10K race in Australia.
Everybody wore Exact Target Orange. Can you include that picture in the Friday note?" I'm like, "Boom, awesome." So, it kind of wrote itself over time, but really allowed me to have a onetoone personal relationship with as as many exact target team members as possible. And we'll talk a lot more about the fellowship, but it's so special for me to be here and see so many remarkable people that worked at Exact Target and Salesforce and High Alpha and High Alpha portfolio companies. Like I'm so grateful to this group and the program because it's really it's all about people and bright ambitious people that are working together, you know, really create an unstoppable force.
I want to start in 2011 with the decision to go public and I mean ultimately ends up happening. you end up getting to ring the bell on the New York Stock Exchange, which I mean sounds absolutely incredible. But one piece about it was you guys registered to go public I believe in 2011 and for basically an entire year your financials were kind of out there. Competitors could see what you were doing and you talk about having like open book financials and you're trying to compete in this market. take us through that like year in some change journey trying where you're operating as a public company but you are not public. Yeah.
You know Nate I probably should have shared that is is one of the examples of adversity you know that we had to overcome. It was actually 2007. Oh. So six years after we started we were growing very quickly. Small SAS companies were going public at a very healthy clip. And we actually filed to go public December 15th 2007.
We rented out the IRT and had a company meeting and we filed our S1 with the SEC live with all of our team there. And it was actually the first day of Tim Cop who who many know who is our chief marketing officer. So poor Tim had to join at a time when we went into a quiet period and you really couldn't do any marketing and make any forward-looking statements. But Nate, what happened is we filed in December of07 and then the financial crisis hit Q1 of08 and we were stuck. We had we had filed the S1 all of our financial data competitive positioning out in the public arena for our competitors to parse and there were no IPOs happening and certainly little exact target from Minneapolis wasn't going to be the first to kind of open up the market. So we ended up staying public Q1 I'm sorry staying on file Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4.
Q1 of '09 we're still on file and we ultimately had to pull the filing and we decided to raise private capital and stay private for a couple more years and it was it was the best thing that ever happened because we were stronger, we were international, we had moved up to the enterprise. So by the time we took a second run at the IPO in 2012, we were like ready to go and we had we had a very successful offering. Wow. I mean, that would just be that would be a stressful and you get burnt one time and then someone comes back with a crazy idea a few years later like, "Hey, we should try this again." Like, what would what got you convinced that this is the right move again to try? Yeah.
I I really didn't want to pull the filing. Like, I felt like it was a sign of defeat. So, when we pulled the filing, we actually announced the $70 million capital raise the same day and had a kind of an internal mantra of better than an IPO. And that that really that really fueled us. By the time we went public, we felt like it was the right thing to do for the business. It was helping us move up into the enterprise space, start doing acquisitions, expand globally and and really bring in the capital we needed to really turbocharge the business.
I I'll tell you though, Nate, I never had a desire to be a public company CEO because you you lose a lot of privacy that comes along with it. I'm a very private person, but but we'd always talk as a team that if it was the right thing to do for the business, we'd we'd give it a go. We were public for five quarters, and I loved it. Actually, I really enjoyed being a public company CEO. So, you go public five quarters, then at some point Salesforce comes knocking. Like, is that an email that comes through?
Does Mark Benny off pick up the phone and call you? Like, how does that process start? Like all acquisitions, you tend to have a pre-existing relationship. So, Salesforce had been one of our best partners for a decade. We knew Mark, ironically, Salesforce had tried to acquire us a couple times much earlier in our journey, and we knew the team pretty well. So it really started with the marketing cloud leadership team realizing that they had done a couple acquisitions in the social space and were not truly meeting the needs of their clients.
Their their messaging and positioning was kind of out ahead of their capabilities and they thought we could be a really good fit. So that's where it started but ultimately it led to me negotiating and ultimately working with Mark Beni off which was you know kind of an out of this world experience. And there's an interesting story, right, where you're negotiating with Salesforce and other people come calling because they kind of hear that exact target might be on the market. Like talk take us through the the final approach to getting the acquisition done. And who else is calling on the phone besides Mark Benoff? when you have an opportunity to sell a software or a tech company and you have a lead, you know, who's really kind of leaning in and and putting in an offer, if you can bring a couple other biders to the table, that's really your best way to maximize value.
And we were fortunate, Nate, we had amazing relationships with IBM, Microsoft, Adobe, and many others. So, we had, you know, private conversations with a variety of other companies. Adobe was the one that really really leaned in and got aggressive. And we ended up in the best way possible having kind of a bidding war between Adobe and Salesforce. And you know, we were really not looking to sell the company, but I really thought that if we get into partnering up with an amazing company that would invest in Indie, which is never a guarantee, but that was very important part of my criteria, and then ultimately would pay a share price that would just be an absolute home run for our shareholders and our team that we would do it. And and thankfully, that's what came together.
But we we could have very easily end up being Adobe. But but Salesforce ended up kind of winning in the end. I do want to talk just a little bit and as we're going to shift the conversation, but I don't want to get into the math, but when you grow a company from nothing to an IPO to then an acquisition, there is large financial benefits for you, the team, all involved investors, the whole nine yards. How did a successful acquisition change your perspective on entrepreneurship? I think it for me it validated that company building when you you work hard, you select a a really really big market at the right time and you have some good luck mixed in that you can create extraordinary outcomes that are really really good for for communities and for teams of people. And more important than the financial outcome to me, Nate, was just building the company the right way and really striving to always do the right thing uh by our team and our customers and kind of all of our constituents.
And how special, you know, be able to do so in a city like Indianapolis where I felt I literally felt like every every mayor, every governor, every business leader was kind of cheering us on and and trying to help us and and coach and mentor us. And uh that just makes you feel so like um stitched into the community and uh it's it's really fueled me to want to give back in any way I can. Yeah. And when you talk about being the most invested community member possible, it isn't just lip service. You know, you talk about in the middle of running a publicly traded company going through an acquisition. You're also involved with the Super Bowl bid.
You're an active member of the community sports. like you're a mentor to so many different other entrepreneurs that might be a little bit behind where you guys were. I want to talk about the ROI of being a good community member. Where did you learn that investing and pouring into indie even when it wasn't something you were getting paid for, even when you had all these other priorities? Where did you learn that that was a good idea? I I've always had a philosophy of lead with yes, lean in, say yes to opportunity, don't be afraid to stretch yourself.
Brad Feld, one of our investors and I ala wrote an incredible book called book called Give First that I really recommend which is all about saying yes and giving with no expectation of return. And I really think that's what makes Indianapolis such a remarkable place is that there are so many phenomenal people and leaders that that's just that's just the way they conduct themselves. It's just who they are. And as a young guy moving to Indianapolis and building Exact Target, I really got to just model their behavior, you know, and learn from so many people that were pouring into me for no reason. Nate, I think I shared with you one story. Jim Morris, who is well known as just an absolute icon, an incredible figure in our community, was never an investor in Exact Target.
Uh we we had no formal business relationship and we met along the way and he wrote me handwritten note after handwritten note just encouraging me just cheering me on. Scott, you're doing great work. Love to see Exact Target continue to grow. Thanks for giving back to the community. Let me know how I can help. Letter and note after note after note.
And not an exaggeration, if I totaled every note I received from everyone, not Jim, uh Jim's number of notes to me would would still outpace the rest. So, it's just when you when you see that kind of civic leadership, that kind of a a caring uh pour into others kind of a person for me, I just want to I just want to be like Jim, you just want to model that behavior and and I have many many examples of that, including Mark Hill, you know, who is such a such a leader in the in the or fellowship and so many other things. So, I think I just I was so lucky, Nate, that I just got to see firsthand what being a part of a community was all about and how community leaders kind of pour in and build new organizations, create new things, and and just actually get things done. Yeah. You talk about Jim Morris, he is like one of the godfathers of the city of Indianapolis when it comes to all things sports, uh, from capital improvement board, building all the different arenas.
one interesting piece of your journey. Um I believe it is in 2011. So we had just finished a few years back Lucas Solo Stadium 2011 2012 comes around and there's a pitch for a Super Bowl. Again, you're running a company that is on trajectory to go public if it's not already public and you get tapped to be on the host committee for the Super Bowl in 2012. That's an easy like I love what you guys are doing. Thank you so much.
I'm a little bit busy right now. I I appreciate you thinking of me. Why did you say yes to that? And how important was the Super Bowl to elevating the status of Indianapolis? Yeah, I love I love telling the story. So on my list of like loves and passions, certainly it's family, but it's technology entrepreneurship Indianapolis and sports.
And I was given the opportunity to join the Indiana Sports Court in 2009, which I was really delighted to be a part of. And then we won the Super Bowl and the Super Bowl team started to form and Allison Meankton, another extraordinary community leader, was tapped on the shoulder to be CEO and Mark Miles was chair. So you had just a powerhouse duo pulling this organization together and Allison called me and said, "I'd like you to run marketing for the host committee." And um you just don't say no. You just don't say no when Allison calls or when you have an opportunity to work on on a Super Bowl, which is so transformative and so powerful for our city. And and really what's worth noting, Nate, and this this is a little bit generational.
I think goes back, you know, a couple years as well. But that generation, Mark, Jim, Allison, they just pick up the phone. Like they don't send a text, they don't send an email. They just call you and say, "Here's what I need you to do." And you say, "Yes, sign me up. point me in the right direction.
And that's just how things have gotten done in our city for decades. And the sports commission, the sports corp is just a phenomenal example of Indianapolis. Indiana being the first sports commission in the country, really leaning into amateur sports, having an early vision really before we had venues and stadiums that sports could be this incredible unifier for our city, could fuel economic development, could spark philanthropic giving and involvement and volunteerism. And I really got swept up into that. And that's probably where I learned a lot um that later informed my view of how technology can have a similar impact for our city. But I'll tell you what, the host committee in 2012 was a blast.
We had hundreds of volunteers. We had a very uh broad committee structure and I know many of you have volunteered for sports corp events and I encourage you to lean in. It's such an important nonprofit organization in our city and we're doing so many amazing things around women uh sports and and and women and leadership in the sports industry. There's just so much potential there. But the but the Super Bowl for me was a chance for me to just better understand how our city and our state operate and our superpower is how we work together. teamwork and collaboration that happens in the state of Indiana, I think, is unlike anywhere else.
And we just get things done and we just work together and get things done. And it was, you know, it was security, it was fire, it was police, it was the stadiums, it was every CEO leaning in and saying, "How can I contribute?" We raised $25 million for the bid before we had even been awarded the Super Bowl in 45 days, right? And and really just going around to companies saying, "You're really not going to get much for your financial donation. maybe you'll get a pair of tickets, but please contribute. Like, this is going to be remarkable for the city.
So, that was an absolute thrill. So, I really got to see volunteerism at its finest and how we we come together like for a purpose, you know, greater than any of us individually, like for around this common purpose and goal to do something phenomenal for our city and our state. And the other really fun part of that, Nate, was that Allison in particular just wanted to be wildly creative and innovative. And no idea was a bad idea. I mean, it was like, bring it on. What ideas do you have?
Let's make it happen. And our mantra was more than a game. So, not everyone was going to be able to attend the Super Bowl, but how do we make the Super Bowl like a two-eek party and festival for the city and the state and make a lasting impact? And and we really really did. I'll give you just a couple wild examples. We created a program called Super Service where we trained every hospitality worker in Indianapolis on how to deliver phenomenal customer service.
Taxi driver, if you're working at a hotel, working at the airport, everybody went through certification to have a consistent level of guest experience for the Super Bowl. Wow. Like that never happens. The Super Bowl is in February. it, you know, it's generally very very cold in Indianapolis. An idea was hatched.
Let's knit scarves for the 10,000 plus volunteers who are going to be working the Super Bowl. And people all over the world knitted scarfves based on our brand standards with a lot of creativity. And that became kind of the warmth and the and the gear that all the volunteers uh wore. And I I could give you so many other examples. For me personally, we got to work on being the first social media command center for Super Bowl. We got to give Commissioner Goodell a tour and that ended up becoming the template for all Super Bowl since.
So, it just I could go on and on, but it was it was such a powerful experience where I got to see like the very best of this community and and just what civic leadership is all about. That's where the uh the JW Marriott being like the the world's largest largest billboard came from. Like someone in a meeting said, "What if we put the Lombardi trophy up on the JW?" And that really was a catalyst when the uh more upscale hotels started being built. The airport renovation has been exceptional and it just really got the wheels, I think, of of progress spinning for the city of Indianapolis in a big way. This episode is brought to you by Barkeep Vodka, a Hooser State original made right here in Indianapolis.
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Let the ingredients do the talking. Look for Barkeep Vodka at your local grocery or liquor store and find more cocktail recipes at barkeep vodka. com. Let's get back to the episode. So, everyone in this room is here because of a connection to OR Fellowship in the years of growth with Exact Target. Why was OR Fellowship so important to you all and why does it continue to be important to business leaders across Indiana?
honestly don't have words to express how much I love the or fellowship sincerely and thank you all for being a part of it and creating this amazing community and I so want you all to lean on each other for friendship and for inspiration and ambition and like let's do amazing things and I know so many of you are doing amazing things in our community for me the fellowship was a gift from the very beginning so we're on campus with Angie List we learn about the fellowship that they're starting and the value prop was like undeniable. We're going to canvas every university throughout the state of Indiana, find the best and brightest and recruit them to be a part of early stage companies and and if they end up joining you, we'll help curate this really remarkable two-year journey where they really get to know the community and really become embedded in all the great things that are happening in our city.
And and uh boy, we said yes. And our our first hire was Ali Sales Roach in I believe maybe 2002. And um we just hired as many fellows as we could every year. So there are so many Exact Target, Salesforce and now High Alpha alums that are part of the fellowship. And without exception, the fellows have just all been absolute allstars. Absolute allstars.
Just the brightest, most ambitious. So many, you know, kind of worked their way into leadership roles and led very large parts of the exact target organization. So, it's funny, Nate. We we would hire as many fellows as we could, and then we would also hire as many graduating fellows as we could who were finishing up their two-year fellowship with another company and were ready for a change. And then we actually created our own version of the fellowship just to amplify the fellowship called Slingshot, which was an internship program, and Catapult, which was a new college uh graduate program, rotational program. and um and and fellows like like Bo, for example, was a part of our catapult program, but also was able to participate in the fellowship.
But we we were hiring so quickly and and really needed so much young talent to to join Exact Target that we ended up kind of building our own programming, but it was really inspired by the fellowship. Yeah. So, you have seen a lot of our fellows over your days. What advice would you have for the current fellows on how to maximize their experience? You have a very special gift being an ortho and that special gift is you have access to really anyone and leadership in particular in your sponsor company and I would really really encourage you to take advantage of that. You know, meet as many people as you can within your within your company.
Build relationships and then look for opportunities to take initiative and take on extra assignments, take on new projects. lean into AI and help uh help these organizations go through the AI transformation that they're all going through and then of course leverage like this incredible community and network of people as well. I want one example of a time where being a good community member paid off for Exact Target and your journey. We started a foundation called the Exact Target Foundation and it really was just a vehicle to like unlock the philanthropic spirit of our team and also start writing grants and organizations that we cared about. So we focused on hunger, education and entrepreneurship and had a great time with the foundation. Kind of a funny story.
Then Salesforce acquired us and they had the Salesforce Foundation which is still contributing to Indianapolis in a big way and it got really confusing. So we had the exact target foundation, we had the Salesforce foundation and the two were separate 501c3s and it it it it created some confusion in the market. So we decided essentially to spin out the foundation into a new org which we branded Nexttec and we decided to go allin on one of the pillars and that that was education and that was computer science education and our phenomenal team at Nextech are all exact target alums as well led by Karen Young but at the time only 15% of high schools in the state of Indiana were teaching computer science and we wanted to solve that problem. So so proud of the next tech team. We put some seed capital in and sincerely did it was a startup. Didn't know if we'd burn through all the capital in the year and would be done or could we create some sustainable value and here we are 11 years later in Indiana is really a top five state in the country for computer science and now AI education.
Every school throughout the state of Indiana K through eight and high school teaches computer science and then now is leaning into AI programming. So that's that's maybe the greatest legacy of the philanthropic spirit of Exact Target still making a difference many years later. Yeah. On the prep call, I compared that to Scott's version of Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. He laughed out loud. I'm still not sure if he was laughing at me or with me on that one, but it's a it's an awesome priority.
Okay, as we kind of get towards the end of the show here, I do want to talk a little bit about today. Um, growing a startup into a global company has to be extremely stressful and at times definitely push you out of your comfort zone. How do you today continue to push yourself out of your comfort zone even though you on paper would be, you know, successful and could do just about anything? I like to work. You know, I like to I like to work. I like to learn.
I I'm still very motivated to try to make an impact and help other people. like I very much view myself as a servant leader, you know, or one who just loves to support people and help and in any way I can because I've had so many people help me along along the way. And at the same time, I'm still learning, you know, I'm still learning and growing and and I like I like the challenge that comes along with that. I was sharing with Nate, you know, I've always encouraged my daughters. I have four four incredible daughters. Lily is our oldest to stretch into uncomfortable situations and, you know, kind of be comfortable being uncomfortable and and, you know, say yes even when you're nervous or anxious about the opportunity or the project or maybe the event you're going to be attending.
And I shared with Nate the ultimate example I personally had of that two years ago which turned into one of the absolute greatest honors of my life. But it was also terrifying is I I got a call from Indiana University actually a guy named Todd Richardson who used to run HR at Exact Target and he said, "What are you doing May 4th?" This was about three weeks before May 4th. I said, "I'm not sure. Let me let me check." So I I looked at my calendar and I'm like, "Oh, my daughter Ela Elaine's graduating.
I'll be down I'll be down in Bloomington for graduation. And uh he goes, "Great, great answer." Um I'm like, "Okay, what like what's up, Todd?" And he's like, "Well, we'd like you to be this year's commencement speaker." I was like, "What?" I'm like, "Todd, you got to be kidding me.
It's like three weeks away." And and it it was really a phenomenal story. the actress Glenn Close had been booked to be the commencement speaker for nine months and she had to cancel. So somehow the leadership at IU and the board of trustees came up with me and uh I'm like Todd, how about Mark Cuban? I mean, come on. They're they're way better choices than me.
I'll help you, you know, like build a short list. and he he goes, "Listen, Scott, no pressure, but if you don't say yes, we're not going to have a commencement speaker and uh we really really want you to do it. You're like the unanimous choice." It was like one of those moments where I was extraordinarily honored, but also terrified and my daughter Elaine was in the graduating class and I wasn't really sure how that was going to land with her uh or my wife Aaron. So I so I first call was my wife Aaron and she's like, "Okay, you are not going to overtake Elaine's graduation. this is about her, not you.
[sighs and gasps] And I'm like, "Okay, I know. I know, honey. It's all it's it's all about her. It's incredible honor. Do you mind if I call Elaine and see what she thinks?" And she's like, "Give her a call."
So, I called my daughter Elaine and sincerely had no idea how she was going to react. Like, Dad, that's so embarrassing. No. Or like, "That's awesome. You should do it." And she was she was like, "That's awesome.
You you should do it." I was like, "Why don't you sleep on it? I'm not so sure about that." So, I I I sincerely made her sleep on it for like three or four nights while my stomach churned and my my heart rate increased and I really didn't sleep much. And she promised that she would help me write the commencement speech. And um and we went for it.
And I really thought I I just can't say no. I can't say no because I'm nervous or I don't feel like I have enough time to prepare or like I I need to live in the example of stretching myself and saying yes. And thank heavens I did. It was it was one of the best experiences of my life and so special to share that experience with Elaine and it was it was terrifying but also super fun and rewarding as well. What was the overarching message of your commencement address? It was it was entrepreneurship.
It was we're all entrepreneurs and we're all builders and you're you know prepared to do kind of great things in the world and you know shared a little bit of the exact target story. Yeah. It was in Memorial Stadium and one of the lines I had written or I'd written with Elaine was we are Hoosiers, anything is possible. Like that was the line. We are Hoosiers. anything is possible.
And then we went on to win the football national championship. So I I'm I I'm just saying. Yeah. Just saying. Co coach Signetti had been hired, but no football games have been played yet. Yeah.
He must have been in attendance, heard a [laughter] vigorous commencement speech, and uh the rest is history. Started here or fellowship starts at all. I have a question. Just in general, when you look at a 10,000 ft view of the state of Indiana, what do you think hers are missing today? I'd like us to see see us be a healthier state. Uh I'd love to see downtown Indianapolis be cleaner and safer.
You know, I'd love for us to continue to be a state where everyone is welcome and everyone is loved and you know, so I think there's there's still kind of work to do. We have a lot of momentum and you know it's really up to young leaders like all of you in the audience to keep solving problems, keep building new things, new companies, new programs, new nonprofits, and just find ways to make our community awesome and even more awesome than it is today. And the beauty of a city like Indianapolis is we're large enough to be diverse and full of resources, but we're like small enough that any one person can really really make a difference. And like we need this group of or fellows to really step into leadership roles and building and creating and solving problems for us to be the very best we can be. Wow. And and yeah, thank you.
[applause] and and and and many many of you are already doing it. Many of you are already doing it. And I just encourage you to keep leaning in and build friendships, make those phone calls to other people in the community that you want to work with with and you just know can get things done and like we're unstoppable. Like there's nothing we can't do in this community with the right level of talent, ambition, and and teamwork. I have one final question before a few fun rapid fire like to round out the episode and we're going to do a couple open questions. When people go back and read or listen to the story of Scott Dorsey and the team at Exact Target when they look up and see the Salesforce logo on the tower right out there, what do you want that legacy to mean for the state of Indiana?
We can build the best companies in the world right here in Indianapolis. Boy, we're seeing that with the LA Lily, aren't we in spades, but we can also do that in technology. So, I'd like that to be a big big takeaway. And the second piece is just really the cultural piece of great companies are built by great people and creating companies where super talented people can do their best work. I love that. I will say I learned this stat and I keep telling it to everyone.
Uh I always ask like where is by market cap the biggest company this side of the Mississippi? Is it in New York? Is it in Miami? Is it in where it's right here in Indianapolis with Eli Liy? Hit a trillion dollars in market cap. like bigger than JP Morgan, bigger than all these companies and it's right here.
So to say that we can do it, it's pretty exciting 100%. Okay, I have some fun rapid fire questions and then we're going to round it out with uh a few questions from the audience. First I want to know if you could go back and relive any day, one specific day of the exact target journey. You have to pick one, what day would that be? Connections 2013. And so connection was connections was our big user conference where we'd bring marketers, partners, clients from all over the world to Indianapolis and we'd have amazing bands and keynotes and we just celebrate the city and and really celebrate this emerging practice of digital marketing and we never moved the user conference to Chicago or Vegas.
We would we would push the boundaries of how many people we could host in Indie and Nate it would be connections 2013. We we had been acquired and we were still in charge of connections but we had five six 7,000 people from all over the world come to Indie and and many many many people from Salesforce and they were just blown away by just the the power the camaraderie the togetherness of this community and we had we we had we had a pension for booking bands musical artists before they really hit it big and that year we had Imagine Dragons and and I I vividly remember the song on top on top of the world playing and I just felt so full of pride of what we had built and what we had created together and just showing off the greatness of our community. It sounds like a movie. That's crazy. [laughter] What was your first job? Say mowing lawns and shoveling driveways and then I worked for a pizza shop and then uh and then tennis.
Worked in a tennis shop stringing rackets. What did it feel like to ring the New York Stock Exchange bell? Oh, it that was that was really an incredible experience. The two-eek road show is certainly unlike anything I've ever experienced. You're flown around on a on a private jet all over really all over the US just telling the exact target story. And it really was a thrill getting me with very sophisticated smart technology public company investors and and being able to share like your baby like this is everything that I had poured you know into my work life over over the you know 11 or 12 years leading up to that.
So so the road show was a whirlwind. It was exhausting. It It was a lot of fun, but also stressful. And the morning of the IPO, you you have a pretty good sense of where you're going to open price-wise, but you really have no idea how the IPO is going to land and how it's going to trade in the first day. So, extraordinarily nervous, but we uh before the market opens, you you get to go up to the little podium and, you know, kind of ring ring the bell and all the excitement that comes along with it. And then right after I went on with Jim Kramer on Mad Money Live on CNBC.
So that was still weighing pretty heavy on my mind. But the the whole thing was was really kind of an out-of- body experience and had so many team members and friends and family there to celebrate with us for Mad Money to get in. I mean pretty comparable media journeys there. Exactly. Okay. Few more and I'm done and then I'm going to open up to the crowd.
One founder trait you bet on every time. Competitiveness. Oh, I like that. Okay. Now, for any avid listeners out there, which I hope there are many, uh I ask the same three questions to every guest that comes on our show, uh it's just tradition. The first one is your opportunity to shed some light on a part of the state that more people need to be talking about.
What is a hidden gem in Indiana? Brown County. Oh, love Nashville. Love Brown County. It's very Yeah, there we go. Little shout out for Brown County.
Great great hiking, mountain biking. Nashville so cute and charming. So, yeah, Brown County has been a real special place for our family. I love that. It's It's like It feels like you're in a different place. It really does.
It really does. So relaxing, [clears throat] beautiful. Now, this question is where I get ideas for new guests of the show or people that we need to keep our eye on. Who's a Hooer we need to keep on our radar? Someone who's doing big things. Nate Spangle.
I mean, really a rising star. Yeah. [applause] Yeah. [cheering] this guy 100% true. Nate Nate uh mentioned that he might be asking this question around rising star. So, he's absolutely my rising star.
First time we've really gotten a chance to hang out and get to know each other and sincerely like thank you for everything you're doing for the state of Indiana. Like your energy and passion for Indiana and storytelling phenomenal and and exactly what we need. The other part of the question was someone in the state who's like done amazing things but is not recognizable maybe or less recognizable and I just got a call from him uh last week. So I wanted to give a shout out to a guy named Earl Good. I don't know if you know Earl he's 85 he'll be 86 the end of this year and he was chief of staff for Governor Daniels and also Governor Hulcom. so humble, behind the scenes, gets things done, like lives out the best qualities of being a Hooser.
And he called me last week with one of those phone calls like, "Scott, I'm working on this little project and I'd really love for you to help." And you just say, "Yes, sign me up, Earl. Happy to do it." All right. I think we got to get Earl on the pot. You do.
He'd be He'd be phenomenal. He's hilarious also. You You'd really enjoy it. I love that. All right. And finally, my last question and then we're going to open it up.
When you close your eyes and look back from giving the commencement speech at IU to taking Exactt Target public to the acquisition to high alpha to all of the amazing things you've done. What is your favorite Indiana memory? Tell the Exact Target story and and be the commencement speaker at my daughter's graduation. That's that's probably top of the list. I love it. All right, the questions go to you.
I believe I have 7 minutes and 36 seconds. So, rapid fire. Let's hear them. I want to start with Nate. I I'm been a huge fan of yours ever since you kind of started the small town breakdowns and all that. Being a kid from like small town southern Indiana, you were you were such a huge part of me like joining the or fellowship and everything.
So, I really appreciate that. Let's go. That's hype. See what I mean? I mean, here we go. I mean, rising star right here.
I wait. I I should be interviewing Nate. Let's have that be a future podcast episode. I do I do have a question for Scott, though. Um, you know, I've I've got the chance to work in venture before the or fellowship. I was a huge fan of of high alpha is a big reason why I I went towards the or fellowship as well.
Um, and I feel like one thing I've always found about founders and about entrepreneurship is the importance of finding a pain point. Um, and I I would love to hear your thoughts on that when you were starting out. Um cuz I I just have have heard that over and over again and I I really wanted to hear your thoughts. I certainly mean that sincerely. It was my experience at Exact Target and Zyo and so many other companies we've started through the high alpha studio that I think the best way to start a company is by wanting to solve a problem that you experience firsthand. And it it does two things for you.
One, it gives you very unique insights into the nature and contour of the problem. And then secondly, it gives you this like fueling desire and passion to do hard things and and really commit to it over the long arc of time because it's just something in the world that you want to be different and you feel like you've got the the opportunity to to kind of create the future and and that's really important because startups are hard. you know, you're met with a lot of setbacks and and a lot of adversity along the way, and you just have to have a a commitment and and a passion for what you're doing that helps you get through some of those tougher days. And and for us at Exact Target, it was Chris experiencing the challenge of a small business owner starting to leverage digital marketing. And then I'd say for me, it was just that that desire I had for building teams and culture and and creating a company and then ultimately hopefully doing something special for the community.
All right. Thank you so much. First, I just want to thank you for coming today and kind of telling us your story. It's been very inspirational. You were one of the key people of bringing the Super Bowl to Indianapolis and then uh and creating new opportunities for the city. Uh now with the NBA Cup Championship being hosted in the city um at Hinkle Fieldhouse specifically, uh what are the opportunities that being a big host city for these major sports events brings for our community?
It's so great, you know, on so many levels. the the financial impact of bringing these sporting events to Indianapolis is really material. Hotels, restaurant revenue, like it really fuels the hospitality industry. We also pick up a lot of uh no charge press and PR, you know, being on live TV to a national or international audience. So good, you know, for Indianapolis. And then I really do think just spawning volunteerism.
And one of the reasons we win so many of these big sporting events is our base of volunteers, 10,000 plus strong, who show up, love being a part of it, and are really committed to our community. So the the who's your hospitality shines through in these big sporting events. We also need we also need the venues and the infrastructure and the fi financial support, but we've got a really nice formula going at the sports corp, and I think it'll only continue to get bigger and better. And also we have we have incredible sports owners. The ERS family on the cold side and then the Simon family, Pacers Sports and Entertainment, they are doing like innumerable amazing things in our community and also just wanting to keep building and creating and that's really really neat. So Mel Mel Reigns who who runs Pacers Sports and Entertainment, she works closely with the Simon family and Herb Simon in particular who's in his late 80s maybe 90 and she was sharing with me the other day that they FaceTime every day and he is just pressing the boundaries on what more can we do for the city of Indianapolis and they're you know building the music venue, building the RZ Carlton and I'm like that's where that's where I'm like if if Earl Good is calling me at age 85 wanting me to help with the project and the Simon family are still tackling these super ambitious projects.
Like I've got a lot of good years ahead of me like to try to try to really make a difference in this community. That's that's like that's where I get my inspiration. Yeah. All right, we have time for one final question. Hi. Um I'm Jenna.
I am a new or fellow. Um I wanted to say thank you for you both being here tonight and especially to you Nate. Nay has been a mentor to me for the last two and a half years and one of the main reasons why I joined or fellowship. So, thank you for that. Um, Scott, my question for you, um, I firmly believe that entrepreneurship is something that you can practice and it's a muscle. Was there a particular skill when you first were starting your company that you felt like maybe you weren't the most natural at and you wanted to get better at and what was that skill and how did you perfect that?
It's a great question. I should probably have Hunter from High School Hustle talk about the the great work he's doing to spawn entrepreneurship, you know, right into right into the classroom or right into middle school and and high school students. I think I think entrepreneurship is about taking initiative and, you know, being comfortable building something that didn't exist and also kind of the inherent risk that comes along with it. But I think often starting something new is a lot less risky than you think. And and it's interesting. I'm not a big risk taker, which which might sound surprising given that, you know, I started Exact Target with, you know, two daughters and a third on the way and we weren't going to pay ourselves a salary and everything comes along with it.
But I always think about like what's the worst thing that can happen? And in the case of Exact Target, if it didn't work out, I'd go find a job and we'd still live in Indianapolis and and life would be good. So, I think part of getting you comfortable taking a risk is really thinking through what's the worst thing can happen. And often you're going to pick up an amazing experience along the way. I will say one other thing I think you have to know yourself also to know whether you're built to be a sole entrepreneur or whether you're really built to start a company with co-founders. In my case, I really really love co-founders.
I had two co-founders at Exact Target, three co-founders, Christian, Mike, and Eric who are amazing at High Alpha. And and that's just like knowing me. I'm very team oriented. I I like being around others. I like sharing the highs and lows. And also I I really need to surround myself with people that have are different and are wired differently and think differently, have different skill sets to kind of bring out the best.
So So I think that's important to know. And some people are super comfortable being solo entrepreneurs and and many others find that a co-founder structure is significantly better. Yeah, I do have to say shout out to Jenna. She writes almost all of the outlines for my show and I believe is the first ever fellow and partner company at the same time. like runs her own business. Like, it's pretty sick.
So, kudos to Jenna. She rocks. The final thing I want to leave you all with is uh just like a few words of my time in our fellowship legitimately changed my life. Like, I think about moving to Indianapolis. My dad didn't play golf with the mayor. I knew no one.
I was from a town of 1500 people in the middle of nowhere. And I came here and I got plugged in and I said yes to everything. And along the way, like, yes, it we didn't make the most money. And sometimes it was hard and you had to show up late for things, but it truthfully did change my life. And the opportunities that await you just on the other side of a LinkedIn message, just on the other side of picking up the phone and calling are like beyond your wildest dreams. So if you go out there and and really take advantage of your time in the fellowship, it can do wonderful things for you.
And so that's my plug for fellowship. Also, if you are an alumni and you have a similar experience as to me, there's going to be a QR code and you should donate to the fellowship to help them fund really cool things. Stephen's gonna love me for that one. Finally, please put your hands together for my guest, Scott Dorsey. Thank you. Thank you.
[applause] Thank you. [music] This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater. Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level, click the link in the description to see all my gear recommendations at [music] Sweetwater. If you want a behind-the-scenes look at everything we're doing across the state, make sure you follow me on Instagram and Tik Tok, Nate Spangle. [music] Thank you so much for listening and being a part of what makes the Hooer State great. We'll see you next time here on Get
