Ali Sales Roach '03 Among 'New Women of Tech'

August 9, 2009

August 9, 2009, Greencastle, Ind. — The Governor Bob Orr Indiana Entrepreneurial Fellowship "is starting to change the local tech landscape" by helping young women land jobs at historically male-dominated "high-flying technology firms," notes Indianapolis Business Journal. Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp writes, "A case in point is Alison Sales Roach, an Orr fellow from 2003 to 2005. She majored in English at DePauw University and was not very attracted to technology."

"I was more interested in marketing and figured good writing skills couldn't hurt any position," Roach, a 2003 graduate of DePauw, tells the weekly publication.

But her Orr Fellowship landed Roach at ExactTarget, an e-mail marketing software company. She later moved on to RCI, where she headed the firm's online marketing efforts, and the search engine company Cha-Cha.

IBJ notes, "In 2007, the entrepreneurial spirit struck. She and [ExactTarget co-founder Chris] Baggott co-founded Compendium Blogware, which specializes in blog software and search engine optimization. Named to IBJ's 40 Under 40 list this year, she is president of the company, which has 35 employees, offices in Circle Tower and 40 angel investors."

According to Roach, "Getting technology to solve problems is easy when you have lived them firsthand. You are always in the shoes of your users. So I never really aspired to create technology, but technology was the inevitable solution to the problem of customer acquisition. And the broad exposure I was able to get at ExactTarget as an early employee and part of the Orr fellowship gave me a good sense of how you build a technology company from a business perspective."

Read the complete story -- "New women of tech: Recipients of Orr fellowship are finding opportunity in male-dominated industry" -- by clicking here.

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