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Carmel-based software firm Max Minds LLC, which has operated on a bootstrapped basis since its 2019 launch, is now working to raise its first-ever venture investment funding.
Max Minds does business as Alleo, which is the name of the company’s core product: an online collaboration platform that allows users not just to hold virtual meetings but also to share content and collaborate in real time.
Alleo, for instance, can serve as a digital whiteboard that allows all participants to add documents, images or other information in real time during a work session. The platform is also capable of displaying real-time information from multiple outside sources on a single screen—perhaps a live camera feed, weather map and data feeds—creating a common operating picture that military leaders or emergency responders can use to make real-time decisions.
Alleo’s founder and CEO, serial entrepreneur Brandon Fischer, said the company has taken a “slow and careful and steady” approach to growth so far. Its workforce is small, with only eight full-time employees and another 10 people who work for the company on a contract basis.
But based on the success it has had to date, Fischer said Alleo has determined that now is the time to seek outside funding so the company can begin to scale up.
Fischer said Alleo aims to raise between $3 million and $5 million, is currently talking with potential investors and is optimistic that the funding round will close by the end of the year.
“There is enough validation [of product demand] here. We’ve got something,” Fischer said. “We need to grow to match the demand there is for our platform.”
Fischer declined to identify specific users, but said Alleo has dozens of customers, from a variety of industries, including aerospace, defense and consulting. The company landed its first paying customer within a year of its launch and is operating profitably, Fischer said.
(Over the summer, Fischer’s company reached a confidential settlement with a former business partner, Ashland, Virginia-based Triangle Experience Group Inc. The parties had previously signed a joint venture agreement to sell Alleo to government customers and share revenue. That deal later soured and in 2023 and 2024 the parties filed suit against each other, each accusing the other of violating that agreement.)
‘Living lab’ in Carmel
The company also recently opened a dedicated space at its office called The Grid—a room that is part showroom, part demo and test space for the Alleo platform and the technologies that work with it.
“It’s like a living lab,” Fischer said of the space, which officially opened over the summer. The Grid is adjacent to Alleo’s office in the Carmel City Center development on South Rangeline Road.
The Grid is a 1,000-square-foot room equipped with wall-mounted screens, cameras, voice-recognition capabilities and other technology that allows users to test out the Alleo platform.
The room, which is available to rent for outside groups, serves multiple purposes, Fischer said.
Groups can use the room for meetings, during which they can try out the Alleo platform—perhaps later deciding to become Alleo customers.
Existing customers from around the U.S. can come to The Grid for training sessions, as an alternative to having Alleo staffers visit their workplace.
The Grid also gives Alleo a chance to observe how people use the platform in a real-life setting—potentially revealing aspects of the technology that users find confusing, or highlighting features the company might want to add or change in the future.
Alleo has also used The Grid to test out specific pieces of technology from various vendors—touch screens, speaker systems or camera systems, for instance—to make sure that the technology works well with the Alleo platform. Customers have found this useful, Fischer said, because the real-world testing gives them assurance before they make their own hardware investments.
“There’s no question that it’s been a success for us,” Fischer said of The Grid.
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