The Spotlight Presenter for the meeting was Intelliphage, and its President, Vivek Patel, gave a brief overview of the company. Intelliphage’s products are based on technology developed through Purdue University which are used to test food for bacterial contamination. Intelliphage has engineered a virus that causes a color change in food when certain bacterial contamination is present. Intelliphage believes its product is industry-leading since it allows contamination to be identified at a very early stage and can be used at any stage of the food chain. In addition, Intelliphage believes its final product offerings will be much cheaper than its competitors and that it will encourage more testing given their convenience and lower costs. Currently, Intelliphage is seeking $500,000 in investment to enable it to complete its prototype, build out its lab and obtain intellectual property protection for its products and processes. You can learn more about Intelliphage by visiting their website at www.intelliphage.com.

Additionally, the Venture Club bestowed its annual Cy Smith Award on Mickey Maurer at the meeting. The Cy Smith Award was started in 2000 by the Venture Club as an award to recognize those who have made extraordinary contributions to the entrepreneurial community in Indiana. Virtually, everyone is familiar with Mickey’s current leadership of the National Bank of Indianapolis and the Indianapolis Business Journal, but he has also served on numerous boards of start-up and emerging companies over the years and committed countless hours of his time (and significant dollars) to numerous entrepreneurs over the years. In his acceptance speech, Mickey was clearly honored by the award and stated that he believed the best compliment anyone in business could receive is “He helped others succeed.”

For the Keynote Presentation, Scott Dorsey of ExactTarget and Christopher Clapp of Angel Learning discussed how they were able to achieve significant financing and sale transactions in theses tough economic times.

ExactTarget was started in 2001, and its primary business involves email marketing products and solutions that allow its customers to easily create, target, deliver, track, and manage successful permission-based email marketing campaigns. ExactTarget sends in excess of 2 billion permissive email messages a month, has over 425 employees, and achieved revenues in excess of $72 million in 2008. ExactTarget was recently able to secure $70 million in a private capital raise primarily from 3 venture capital firms. This was in spite of the fact that the company initially filed to go public in 2007, and the fact that it had only previously raised $6 million in capital. Mr. Dorsey shared his very insightful views on why he believed this strategy was better than an initial public offering, and those reasons included the fact that this raise provided immediate funding with no public company restrictions, it provided the company with more operational flexibility in the manner in which the funds could be deployed, and the funds were obtained on very favorable terms. Mr. Dorsey also believed that this raise better positioned the company for an initial public offering in the future in the event it ultimately decides to follow that course of action.

Next, Mr. Clapp shared his story of how ANGEL Learning was built from an idea to a multi-million dollar company. In May of 2009, Angel Learning was sold to its largest competitor, Blackboard, Inc., for $100 million. ANGEL Learning is in the business of delivering powerful online teaching and learning experiences by providing a simple and easy to use system, a powerful and rich feature set, and an openness that integrates into today’s diverse educational environment. Schools are using ANGEL Learning’s products to enrich teaching and learning, manage the classroom, teach 21st Century skills, extend the school curriculum, and facilitate professional development. IURTC provided the initial $135,000 in funding for the company (at the request of then CEO, Ron Henriksen). The company was able to grow over the years by switching to a recurring revenue model based upon the “software as a service” model and by relying on hosting services. Despite its sale to Blackboard and all the distractions that the company encountered in such a major transaction, the company was still able to achieve record revenues in the first quarter of 2009. Mr. Clapp indicated that one of the primary reasons the company was able to achieve such tremendous growth was the fact that they always focused on the core business and long-term results and didn’t seek an exit prematurely. Mr. Clapp also attributed the company’s ability to operate and grow with minimal outside investment as another key factor to the company’s economic success.

The next regular monthly meeting of the Venture Club will be held on Thursday, August 6, 2009, at 11:15 a.m. at the offices of Barnes & Thornburg LLP.

In lieu of a July lunch meeting, the Venture Club of Indiana, the Indiana Economic Development Corporation and the Purdue Research Foundation are hosting the first ever Indiana Innovation Showcase on Tuesday, July 7th. This event will be held in the new, 55,000 sq ft. state-of-the-art Purdue Technology Center located in the AmeriPlex-Indianapolis business park. The Purdue Tech Center and the 80-acre research park are key components of the 1,000-acre AmeriPlex business park adjacent to Indy’s new airport. It offers the high-tech and entrepreneurial communities a unique setting and resources to develop and grow innovations into successful enterprises.