Indy startup gets backing from ExactTarget co-founders

Indianapolis-based software startup Lesson.ly LLC recently raised $1.1 million in venture capital, the company announced Wednesday, and it now has all three ExactTarget founders as investors.

Carmel-based Allos Ventures led the round for the company, which creates Web-based corporate training software. ExactTarget co-founder Chris Baggott invested in the company's smaller seed round last year and Peter McCormick and Scott Dorsey came aboard this round.

"This is the first time that all of the ExactTarget co-founders have made an investment in [the same] business since ExactTarget," CEO Max Yoder said. "So that's exciting."

The money will be used primarily for bolstering sales and marketing teams, Yoder said, but some will be designated for product development and client experience.

The firm's software is aimed at helping managers with no training background train customer support teams, sales teams and new employees.

"We are much easier to use and a more affordable solution than the traditional learning-management-system players," Yoder said.

Lesson.ly was founded in 2012 and began generating revenue in spring 2013. It has 10 employees and plans to have 22 by the end of 2015.

In July, when it had six employees, the company announced an agreement with the Indiana Economic Development Corp. to add 74 employees by 2018. It if upholds that commitment, it will get to keep roughly $750,000 in tax credits over 10 years.

The fresh equity capital coincides with Lesson.ly's September move into 1,200 square feet at the Young & Laramore Building, 407 Fulton St. It will add about 1,100 square feet in two months, Yoder said. The company previously occupied about 400 square feet at TinderBox Inc.’s office on Monument Circle.

The tech firm began as the brain child of business owners and partners at seed-stage investment firm Gravity Ventures—Kristian Andersen, Mike Fitzgerald and Eric Tobias. Yoder, 26, interned for Andersen and started his own Internet polling firm before the Gravity trio recruited him to run Lesson.ly.