Episode
From a Strip Mall to a $2.5 Billion Sale | Scott Dorsey, ExactTarget
- Podcast
- Get IN. with Nate Spangle
- Published
- Jul 24, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3628
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Summary
On today's show I sat down with Scott Dorsey, former CEO/co-founder of ExactTarget and currently the managing partner at High Alpha, about his move from Chicago to Indianapolis to start ExactTarget and build email marketing software with co-founders Peter McCormick and Chris Baggott, the latter also being his brother-in-law. ExactTarget originated in a Greenfield, Indiana strip mall, where Baggott identified the need while running a dry cleaner. Dorsey looks back on early hires, downtown Indianapolis' evolution, resilience through 9/11, the 2008 crisis, outages and breaches, and leadership practices like ExactTarget's "Orange" culture and a weekly Friday note to keep 2,000 employees connected. He explains filing for an IPO in 2007, pulling it during the financial crisis, successfully going public in 2012, and selling to Salesforce in 2013 for $2.5 billion after interest from firms including Adobe. Our conversation highlights civic leadership, Orr Fellowship's impact, the 2012 Super Bowl host committee, and ExactTarget's philanthropy that became Nextech to expand computer science education statewide. If you like this episode and want to hear more Get IN. episodes where I interview Hoosiers making a difference, visit getindiana.com/podcast. You are going to learn about: - How ExactTarget was Founded and Grew to Become a $2.5B Company - Leadership Practices for Large-Scale Companies - The Impacts of Orr Fellowship Thank you to our partners: Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance Barkeep Vodka Check out these great clips from the show: 00:00 Startup Doubts Hook 01:32 Guest Introduction: Scott Dorsey, ExactTarget 02:42 Moving to Indy 04:58 Strip Mall Origins 05:45 Early Product Idea 06:58 First Hires Traction 07:42 Downtown Vision 08:58 Angie's List Neighbors 09:41 Scrappy Infrastru…