Seeking Talent, Levementum Plans Indy Expansion to The Union
In 2005, Arizona-based digital marketing firm Levementum was conceived over drinks in Paris. The company officially launched the following year, and today, it announced plans to continue its growth trajectory in Indiana one year after opening an office in Indianapolis.
At an event with Gov. Eric Holcomb and Indianapolis mayor Joe Hogsett this afternoon, Levementum executives laid out the company’s plans: its 12-person Indiana office will at least double in size by the end of the year as it moves into a 5,000-square-foot space at The Union, a co-working hub downtown. Levementum’s goal is to hire as many as 175 people by 2021; the company currently has a total of 47 employees at locations in Indianapolis; El Paso, TX; and Chandler, AZ.
Pending approval from the Indiana Economic Development Corporation’s board of directors, the state will offer the company up to $3.3 million in performance-based tax credits and up to $200,000 in training grants based on the company’s job creation plans. The city of Indianapolis will provide additional incentives in partnership with its economic development entity, Develop Indy.
Levementum is a consulting firm that helps businesses implement enterprise software, such as Salesforce and SugarCRM, and is focused on marketing automation, predictive intelligence, and the Internet of Things. Doug Guilbeau, Levementum’s CEO, says the company’s competitive advantage lies in its ability to be proactive and empathetic: it helps clients create customer engagement strategies, and then teaches them to use the software needed to achieve their goals.
“With most companies that help implement Salesforce, there’s a process around asking the customer, ‘What do you want us to do?’” he explains. “But we think our partners are more proactive in their suggestions and establishing a baseline for achieving business goals. We combine our methodology with the smartest, most experienced implementers who have built tools to get value faster—they’ve built things even Salesforce didn’t know you could do.”
Access to top digital marketing talent is one reason Levementum decided to grow in Indiana, says senior vice president Michael Burton, an ExactTarget alum based in Indianapolis. “Salesforce is driving a lot of our business, and Indianapolis is the center of the Salesforce Marketing Cloud product lines,” Burton says. “Salesforce’s R&D is based here, along with a pool of experienced workers. We need a talent pipeline we can teach to implement these tools.”
Guilbeau also likes Indianapolis’s proximity to East Coast and Midwest customers, as well as its “fantastic” airport.
At the end of next week, Levementum will begin moving into The Union and will be one of the building’s inaugural tenants. Guilbeau is excited about that, too. “Never in my 30-year career have I found a space so ideally tailored to needs like ours,” he says, pointing to The Union’s amenities, location, and technical offerings. “There’s nothing like it in Arizona. As soon as I heard about it, I wanted in quickly.”
As for what the future holds, Burton says Levementum is concentrating on keeping up with the new technologies being acquired by Salesforce, which has spent the past couple of years snapping up smaller digital marketing startups to add to its capabilities. “Our focus is to continue to grow the team in Indiana and across the U.S.,” he adds.
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