Few industries have sparked as much growth in Indianapolis’ tech community as marketing technology. Take ExactTarget, whose orange culture attracted MarTech talent from around the country and set the stage for a $2.5 billion exit to Salesforce in 2013. That momentum has continued with exits such as:
- Angie’s List merging with Home Advisor.
- Fizziology’s acquisition by MarketCast.
- Delivra merging with Emma and Campaign Monitor.
Want to meet the MarTech leaders who made exits like these happen, and hear about their next ventures? Then come to our biggest Pitch Night of the year, a celebration of all things MarTech.
It’s happening on Thursday, February 28th starting at 5:00 PM at The Vogue. Get all the details below …
Pitch Night, Shark Tank Style
If you’ve never experienced a Powderkeg pitch night, now’s your opportunity to catch 3 of the most exciting companies in the Midwest. Each startup will have just 5 minutes on stage to pitch their startup—no exceptions. It’s sort of like the hit TV show Shark Tank, but without the ego and showbiz.
More on our speakers and advisors below. First, we want to give a HUGE thanks to our partners for making this event happen!
Meet the Advisors
Each founder & tech executive will have 5 minutes of Q&A from our panel of investors and entrepreneurs after their pitch. You’ll learn how investors think and how founders respond on the fly. Our “sharks” bring diverse backgrounds and perspectives, which is sure to make for interesting questions and discussion …
Glenda Akers| GM, Messaging of Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Glenda Akers has over 30 years of experience in product development with a focus on mobility, security and cloud solutions and has managed product organizations in both startups and Fortune 500 corporations (MCI, Sybase, SAP). She is currently serving as a board member at Techpoint which promotes and accelerates the growth of Indiana’s tech community.
She is active in promoting, fundraising and mentoring women in the technology field such as STEM. Outside of work, Glenda enjoys the outdoors, golfing, hiking and swimming.
Muhammad Yasin | VP Marketing at PERQ
Leading PERQ to three years of more than 100% revenue growth, Muhammad has created one of the highest returns on marketing dollars in the Indy SaaS community. That work has earned him recognition in outlets such as Inc., VentureBeat, and BuzzFeed. He’s also co-founder of Agile Marketing Indy.
Ryan Grable | VP Global Digital Demand Generation, Genesys
With more than 15 years of leadership experience across technology, software, and private equity, Ryan plays a key role in developing and shaping Genesys’ digital transformation strategy. He’s especially passionate about leveraging the digital world ecosystem to enhance today’s customer journey.
Meet the Presenters and their Tech Companies
We’ve brought together a top lineup of local founders and leaders in marketing tech. Each will have 5 minutes to pitch their company in a fast-paced presentation to our panel of advisors.
ActiveCampaign | Presented by Reem Jaghlit, VP Product Engineering
ActiveCampaign is an integrated email marketing, marketing automation, and small business CRM. Based in Chicago, ActiveCampaign will be opening an office in Indianapolis. We can’t wait to welcome them to the Powderkeg community.
Angie’s List | Presented by Chris Campbell, SVP of Product Development
Angie’s List is a leading online ratings and reviews platform. Members turn to Angie’s List to research, hire, rate and review local service providers in hundreds of home services categories. One of the largest acquisitions in the Midwest – we are looking forward to welcoming Angie’s List back to the Powderkeg stage.
Lessonly | Presented by Kyle Lacy, VP Marketing
Lessonly is powerfully simple training software that helps customer service and sales teams Do Better Work. This special 5-minute presentation by Kyle Lacy will unpack one of Lessonly’s recent marketing campaigns, sharing insights into the marketing strategy for one of the fastest-growing scaleups in town.
Meet the Keynote
Scott McCorkle, CEO of MetaCX
Few people have as deep an understanding of Indianapolis’ MarTech scene as Scott McCorkle. Fresh off raising a huge seed round of $14 million for his latest venture MetaCX, Scott will end the pitches by sharing what he’s learned during a 10-minute keynote. He’ll draw from leadership experiences including serving as CEO of ExactTarget (later Salesforce Marketing Cloud), co-founding and leading Mezzia to acquisition, and holding VP posts at IBM and Software Artistry.
Meet the Exhibitors
Before pitches begin, you’ll have the exclusive opportunity to meet companies in the marketing and technology communities in Indianapolis. Learn about their work and find out how you can get involved. (More exhibitors announced soon!)
- Element Three: An Indianapolis-based marketing agency that works across digital and traditional channels to drive transformative, measurable results for clients who strive toward market leadership.
- ActiveCampaign: Integrated email marketing, marketing automation, and small business CRM.
- Covideo: Record and send personalized videos with Covideo’s straightforward, user-friendly software.
- DemandJump: A customer acquisition platform that helps brands double marketing performance through Dynamic Journey Targeting.
- Innovatemap: A product agency. We help companies of all sizes dream, design, and scale digital products and services.
- mAccounting: Discover what a clear financial future means for your business. Learn more about automated bookkeeping and financial advisory services today!
- PERQ – Boosts website conversion through its online guided shopping solution, which leverages artificial intelligence to dynamically change existing websites to deliver the next best step in each buyer’s shopping journey.
- BLASTMedia – A national B2B SaaS public relations firm specializing in media relations, content creation and thought leadership.
- Angie’s List – A leading online ratings and reviews platform. Members turn to Angie’s List to research, hire, rate and review local service providers in hundreds of home services categories.
- Sigstr – An email signature marketing platform allows you to standardize brand consistency and drive marketing ROI with every employee email sent.
- Metonymy Media – An agency of creative writers offering comprehensive copywriting and editing services, effective content marketing strategies, and educational writing workshops to businesses and organizations with a story to tell.
- Java House – A new coffee company out of Indianapolis. Just like you’re the best in tech, we’re the best, most innovative coffee company in the country. We’re not just here for you to try our coffee, we’re here to connect you to a new standard of coffee. Come learn more and try Java House at MarTech Madness!
Meet the Host for the Night
Tiffany Sauder | President, Element Three
When Tiffany founded Element Three in 2006, she was 25. Thirteen years later, she’s grown Element Three into the largest full-service marketing agency in Indiana, leading the marketing agency to be recognized as an Inc. 5000 company for the past five consecutive years. A leader within the Indianapolis tech and business communities, she sits on the board of both the Indiana Chapter of YPO and the Orr Fellowship, and in 2018, was named one of the IBJ’s Forty Under 40.
The Agenda
As always, there will be plenty of time to connect with the community. Here’s the agenda:
- 5:00 PM — Doors Open: General Networking
- 6:00 PM — Pitches from 3 fast-growing Midwest companies & Keynote from Scott McCorkle of MetaCX
- 7:00 PM — General networking and Open House at The Vogue
- 8:00 PM — Go out and celebrate
Local Food and Drink
Think we would let you go hungry? No way! We got you. Get your fill from our great local partners at Nameless Catering and their tasty eats. We are going to have access to the Vogue’s fully stocked bar, this will be a cash bar and a +21 event!
Don’t miss our biggest Indianapolis pitch night of the year.
CORPORATE AND LOCAL PARTNERS
