TechPoint adopts new tech tool to advance workforce goals

As it continues to push forward on an ambitious tech workforce growth initiative, Indianapolis-based TechPoint is adopting a new tool that it hopes will accelerate its progress towards this goal.

TechPoint is one year into its Mission 41K initiative, which launched in September 2022 with the goal of adding 41,000 people to Indiana’s tech workforce by 2030. The effort has attracted about 125 partner companies and organizations so far, and TechPoint plans to connect all these partners via a tech platform from Indianapolis-based MetaImpact, a startup co-founded by long-time tech entrepreneur Scott McCorkle.

MetaImpact, which is rebranding itself and formerly did business as MetaCX, offers a platform on which customers can build a network of collaborators to achieve shared goals.

The company launched out of Indianapolis-based venture studio High Alpha in December 2018, emerging from “stealth mode” in mid-2020 when it launched its platform for widespread commercial availability. McCorkle, a former president of ExactTarget and former CEO of Salesforce Marketing Cloud, serves as MetaImpact’s CEO.

MetaImpact is working to close on its latest round of venture funding which will bring total outside investment to $38.5 million, up from $33.6 million a year ago. McCorkle told IBJ several days ago that the round could close as early as this week.

McCorkle said MetaImpact is in the process of building 20 different networks that involve a combined 400 or so participants—a number that continues to grow and evolve over time.

MetaImpact currently has 42 employees, 16 of whom live in the Indianapolis area, and more than 20 paying customers, including the Sagamore Institute, JP Morgan Chase & Co. and the Georgia-based Wellstar Health System.

Dennis Trinkle, TechPoint’s senior vice president of talent, strategy and partnerships, said TechPoint had originally built its own platform to manage and track Mission 41K’s initiatives, but later decided to sign on with MetaImpact. “We think it will be a lot more scalable and allow us to see relationships and gaps a lot better, just because it’s an enterprise-quality platform and it’s built for this kind of thing.”

As an example, Trinkle said, MetaImpact will allow Mission 41K’s partners to share information on the professional certifications and other non-degree credentials they’re awarding, potentially providing statewide data on a metric that no entity is currently tracking.

“So tracking that will help us see: Are we doing a pretty good job training tech-related talent through these non-degree programs?” Trinkle said. “Or is it just a drop in the bucket, and we need to be doing far more than we are?”

Trinkle said the platform could also shed light on redundancies or gaps in training programs around the state. It could also help partners learn from each other about what’s working and what isn’t working when it comes to things like building a more diverse workforce. “I think this will help us to get to those proven, clearly successful, scalable solutions that we could all be using rather than just being all over the board.”

The Mission 41K project is a good example of how MetaImpact’s focus has shifted since its founding.

Initially, McCorkle said he’d thought that MetaImpact would be most useful for customers pursuing commercial goals such as strategic planning. Customers are using the platform in this way, he said, but they’re also using it for social impact work including sustainability, diversity and mental health efforts.

“In the world of social impact, solving these big, wicked problems is a systems-change situation,” McCorkle said. “We need to think of the entire system, and how do we create collective impact for many individual organizations that are focusing on these problems? And our platform, it’s been just so exciting, rewarding and fulfilling to see it applied to these really important causes.”

Trinkle said TechPoint and MetaImpact are working to get all of Mission 41K’s partners enrolled on the platform by the end of the year.