CEO: Tech Secret is Out in Indiana

The chief executive officer of marketing software startup DemandJump LLC says Indiana is no longer "a diamond in the rough" when it comes to the technology sector. The company is planning to invest more than $1.2 million to grow in Carmel, and add more than 80 jobs by 2018. Christopher Day tells Inside INdiana Business he and fellow tech sector veteran and co-founder Shawn Schwegman considered locations outside of Hamilton County, including Austin and San Francisco.

The company's client list already includes Roche Diagnostics and a division of Sally Beauty Holdings Inc. (NYSE: SBH). Day says DemandJump wants to partner with retail, health care and financial services companies looking to use information gleaned from big data to grow their based of new customers through its Actionable Intelligence Marketing Platform.

Day's resume includes developing technology for broadband cable and water utility industries that was later sold to big players like Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA), Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC) and Motorola Solutions Inc. (NYSE: MSI). His most recent endeavor involved investment banking that dealt with mergers and acquisitions in the tech sector. He divested himself from that business and helped launch DemandJump this year.

Shawn Schwegman is also a big name in the state's tech ecosystem, previously serving as an Overstock.com Inc. (Nasdaq: OSTK) and ChaCha Inc. executive. He also served as chief executive officer of Indianapolis-based Sendgine LLC and MaxTradeIn.

The company has been offered more than $1.8 million in conditional tax and training support from the Indiana Economic Development Corp. Day says DemandJump is "not only about big data – it's about understanding how to transform that data into specific, insight-rich actions to show marketers strategically what to do next and why."

Last month, Eleven Fifty Academy Inc. and Eleven Fifty Consulting, also based in Carmel, detailed plans to invest nearly $1 million and add a combined 92 jobs.