#IBJtech — April 7, 2017

IUPUI tech-diversity program for high schoolers catches fire
Nearly two years ago, officials at IUPUI's School of Informatics and Computing decided to do something about the lack of women and minorities in tech careers. Their target: high school students from underrepresented communities. The program they came up with is called iDEW, and it's designed to be a four-year elective class where students conceive projects and create tech solutions. The program has been such a hit that one school expanded the curriculum, and a bevy of companies and charitable organizations have opened their wallets for it. More

TID-BYTES

>Hoosier startups looking to raise venture capital over the next year or so are going to have to do so without the help of Allos Ventures. The Carmel-based firm, which raised a $40 million fund in 2013, has deployed that capital and is now in harvest mode, Managing Partner Don Aquilano told IBJ this week. That means it "can no longer make new investments in new companies" until it raises another fund. The situation could deal a blow to a tech ecosystem that's already starved of growth-stage venture capital, as we're reporting in a story coming out this weekend. Allos has been a catalyst in leveraging other investments from inside and outside the state. Just in the past five months, Allos invested in Fuzic, Bolstra, Lumavate and BidPal, and since 2010 it has put $25 million into Indiana companies, leveraging $150 million from investors outside the state. Aquilano said he intends to raise Fund III, but that may take a year. He said he’s interested in seeing more growth-stage venture funds emerge in Indiana and in having the state play a bigger role in investing in scale-up companies, as Ohio and Michigan have done. (Allos also recently moved into Carmel's new co-working space Platform 24 after spending a year in Launch Fishers.) 

>ExactTarget co-founder Peter McCormick and private equity firm Vector Capital bought a majority stake in Experian’s Cross-Channel Marketing business, and McCormick joined the operation as chairman. New York-based McCormick left ExactTarget in September 2014, according to his LinkedIn profile, and later served as an adviser and director at a variety of marketing-tech firms. But this appears to be his first operational stint since ExactTarget. CMO Australia quoted a Punt-IT analyst who said, "First and foremost, CCM must be doing something right if it can inspire McCormick's return to business." The company has offices in 18 countries and 1,600 employees. In a statement following the $400 million, 75-percent stake purchase, McCormick said: "When we founded ExactTarget, we created a unique company culture that underpinned our commitment to establishing market leadership and to serving our customers, and we have found that same approach mirrored in the CCM team." (This Experian division is not related to its Experian Decision Analytics division, which came into existence through the purchase of Carmel-based Baker Hill in 2005. Experian sold Baker Hill in 2015.) 

>Angie's List said this week that it's sticking with its decision to run ads on Fox News' “The O'Reilly Factor,” amid a wave of advertiser defections following sexual harassment allegations against show host Bill O'Reilly. The news sparked some consumer backlash on social media, The Daily Mail pointed out. In a statement, Angie's List said: "We do not have plans to change our ad buy. The advertising strategy we have long used at Angie's List is meant to reach as many people as possible with news that our service exists and is available to them. We place ads across a wide spectrum of venues intending to reach as many viewers/listeners/readers as possible without taking a position on the viewpoints of the venues themselves. Just as we trust members to make their own hiring decisions, we trust them to make their own media consumption decisions." 
>Salesforce spent $3 million to close unexplained pay gaps this year, company officials said in a blog post. The enterprise tech giant spent the same amount last year when it initiated the “equal-pay audit" program.  
                               
>IndyPy, a meetup group for users of the programming language Python, is celebrating its 10th birthday next week. 

>ICYMI: Indianapolis-based Greenlight.guru, a medical device software firm, said it would add 120 jobs by the end of 2020; and Platform 24 debuted as the first co-working space in Carmel. It’s associated with The Speak Easy.

MENTIONED

Two years ago, Seth Hamilton, an administrator in Marion County’s Washington Township school district, introduced a program that helped teachers integrate technology in the classroom. It's been a huge hit, EdScoop reported, and he's getting a national award later this month.

Employee Benefits News named Rod Reasen, CEO of the Indianapolis-based health-analytics firm Springbuk, one of 21 innovators transforming benefits technology.

High Alpha partner Kristian Andersen recently visited Minneapolis and dropped a few nuggets with the enterprise tech community there. Here's a video, courtesy of Tech.mn

NATIONAL SCENE

Here's a short story that might concern universities. Fast Company ran a piece titled: "Why more tech companies are hiring people without degrees," and it highlights a few corporate efforts to tap into labor pools with little or no post-secondary education. In it, one IBM official said, "We've been very successful in hiring from [coding] bootcamps,"

Detroit has its gas pedal to the floor when it comes to developing self-driving cars, leaving Silicon Valley in the dust, Wired reported. Ford's in first place, and General Motors is a close second.

CALENDAR

Purdue Innovation Summit 
Presented by Purdue Polytechnic Institute 
8 a.m.-5 p.m., April 11-12, Buchanan Club at Ross-Ade Stadium, 850 Steven Beering Drive, West Lafayette 
Cost: free