CoTweet, Inc / ExactTarget
CoTweet, Inc / ExactTarget is a company.
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Key people at CoTweet, Inc / ExactTarget.
CoTweet, Inc / ExactTarget is a company.
Key people at CoTweet, Inc / ExactTarget.
CoTweet, Inc. was a San Francisco-based startup founded in 2008 that developed a browser-based collaboration platform for managing multiple Twitter accounts from a single dashboard, enabling teams to assign roles, track conversations, and create follow-up tasks.[1][3][6] It served high-profile enterprise clients like Whole Foods, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Ford, Dell, and Pepsi, solving the problem of coordinated social media management for corporate Twitter accounts.[1] ExactTarget, an Indianapolis-based cloud marketing platform founded in 2000, acquired CoTweet in March 2010 to expand into social media, integrating it as a business unit and "social media lab" while ExactTarget focused on data-driven digital marketing across email, mobile, and other channels for over 6,000 companies including Coca-Cola, Gap, and Nike.[1][2][3][4]
CoTweet raised just over $1 million in seed funding from investors like SV Angel, Founders Fund, Baseline Ventures, First Round Capital, Maples Investments, and Freestyle Capital before the acquisition, after which it operated under ExactTarget.[1] ExactTarget itself grew rapidly, achieving $114 million in annual contracted revenue by 2009, going public in 2012 with a $161.5 million IPO, and being acquired by Salesforce for $2.5 billion in 2013, eventually rebranded as Salesforce Marketing Cloud.[2][3][4]
CoTweet was founded in 2008 by Jesse Engle (co-founder and CEO) and an unnamed co-founder, emerging as an early solution for collaborative Twitter management amid the platform's rapid enterprise adoption.[1][3] The idea addressed the need for multiple users to handle corporate Twitter accounts efficiently, gaining quick traction with major brands and seed funding from top Silicon Valley VCs, leading to its acquisition by ExactTarget just two years later.[1]
ExactTarget originated in December 2000 when first-time entrepreneurs Scott Dorsey (Northwestern MBA graduate focused on internet business models), brother-in-law Chris Baggott (with database marketing ideas), and Peter McCormick launched it in Indianapolis to pioneer targeted email marketing.[4][5] Early growth involved validating demand through partners, international expansion via acquisitions like Keymail Marketing (2009), and raising significant VC including $70 million in 2009 and $75 million later that year after pulling an IPO filing.[3][4][5] Pivotal moments included the 2010 CoTweet acquisition for social expansion, 2012 purchases of Pardot and iGoDigital, its NYSE IPO, and the 2013 Salesforce deal.[3][4]
CoTweet stood out in the nascent Twitter ecosystem with:
ExactTarget differentiated as a multi-channel marketing leader through:
CoTweet rode the 2008-2010 Twitter boom, validating sustainable businesses in the social ecosystem as noted by Twitter COO Dick Costolo, and bridged email marketing (ExactTarget's strength) to social channels amid rising multi-platform demands.[1][5] ExactTarget capitalized on the shift from single-channel to data-integrated digital marketing, expanding from email to omnichannel solutions during cloud CRM's ascent.[2][3][5] Market forces like enterprise social adoption, international growth needs, and Salesforce's gaps in B2C marketing favored them—ExactTarget filled Salesforce's portfolio post its own social acquisitions, influencing Indianapolis as a tech hub via jobs, capital unlock, and spinouts.[4][5][7]
Their integrations advanced CRM evolution, powering customer engagement for thousands of firms and setting precedents for acquisitive scaling in martech.[2][3]
Post-2010 acquisition, CoTweet's tech fueled ExactTarget's social pivot, absorbed into Salesforce Marketing Cloud after the 2013 $2.5B deal, where it enhanced multi-channel CRM amid ongoing martech consolidation.[2][3] Salesforce continues leveraging this for AI-driven personalization and unified customer data platforms.
Trends like generative AI for content, privacy regulations (e.g., GDPR evolutions), and zero-party data will shape its path, amplifying Marketing Cloud's role in hyper-personalized, cross-channel experiences. CoTweet's legacy endures in enterprise social tools, evolving ExactTarget's influence from indie innovator to Salesforce cornerstone, sustaining Indiana's tech momentum.[7][8]
Key people at CoTweet, Inc / ExactTarget.
