From Bricks & Mortar to Clicks & Mentor
continuous innovation and design behind one of Iowa's technology successes
Well, that didn’t age well!
I reported in last week’s Rugged by Design story that a 2x recognition by Inc 500 is hard to do and a hattricks elusive. We meet a company today who hit that hattrick AND followed it for three consecutive years on the Inc 5000 list in a spirited conversation with Frank Russell, a serial and successful entrepreneur. The story upholds the original hypothesis of founders creating companies, finding successes, and reinvesting through diaspora that continues to impact Iowa technology.
The Changing Face of Learning
Increasing complexities of work, new technology, interpersonal skills, regulation, compliance, legal, and cross-border interactions altered the practice of continuous education in the workplace. Apprenticeships, technical schools, sales training, job instruction and onboarding brought us from the Middle Ages to the post-World War II expansion, but the modern era is punctuated by a practice organized under the human resource umbrella.
This industry of collecting, consolidating and imparting knowledge began integrating (then) current technology of overhead projectors, transparencies, round-table discussions and entered rapid change as innovative educators introduced just-in-time training with bite-sized learning modules and simulations, board games and consultative approaches to exploring new ideas.
As the industry embraced technologies, entrepreneurs were inspired by innovations at the edges. The centuries old practice of human-led education was about to be disrupted by the humble video cassette recorders (VCRs), satellite and, ultimately, the Internet.
Meet Frank
The son of George Russell II, Chancellor and President of the University of Missouri system, Frank Russell was just completing his Masters degree in 1977 at the University of Illinois when he found a role to train others on a system called Plato at the Center for Advanced Computation. This job introduced him to Control Data Corporation of Minneapolis until he was convinced to move again to Des Moines. Joe Batten, author of the best-selling book “Tough Minded Management” and CEO of Batten, Batten, Hudson, and Swab convinced him to leave CDC for this prescient move. The whirlwind early career had Frank traveling Monday-Thursday to client sites, barely returning home to see his family. An opportunity presented itself in 1980 for him to create the Iowa management training system for the State of Iowa in Governor Robert Ray’s administration, one that would create a cascade of creative experiences.
Two years of public service led to the North American Chief Learning Officer opportunity at Massey Ferguson (those of the red tractors) followed by the Chief Operating Officer role at American Media. By 1986, Frank had seen nearly a decade of various client sites, industries, technologies and training modalities. It was time for something of his own. His COO role had exposed him to raising money for the company, the newly honed skill critical to his next step in the journey.
He sought early investment from an angel, Terry Mealy, and launched Excellence in Training Corporation in 1986. The company leveraged the state’s tax advantages available to limited liability companies investing in specific lines of products such as those matching Frank’s skillset - training films. The company produced its videos on VCR tapes and shipped them to customers.
Unlike the business of a trainer present in front of their students, thus limited by their own time for growth, the ease of use and ubiquity of VCRs provided the company the means to scale. Growth followed in the next decade, and the company became attractive for its reach and intellectual property. It was acquired by Westcott Corporation of Dallas in 1997 with Frank and team joining the company as employee operators. Carl Westcott, an investor and innovator himself, continued to invest in his acquisition’s growth, and writing was on the wall that operations would ultimately end up in Texas. He believed in this scaled approach to learning but hadn’t quite embraced a different means of delivery beyond tapes and DVDs on the horizon.
It was time for a new chapter.
Retire or Reboot
Although Carl had found inspiration about training via satellite and grew that part of the business organically and inorganically via acquisitions, he found the prospect of training via the Internet unlikely. Frank, on the other hand, was ready to make the jump into this next medium. He redeployed proceeds from selling Excellence in Training to launch his new company, GeoLearning in 1997. Having previously providing a return to his angel investor, he was able to convince Terry to come alongside as an investor in this new venture as well.
GeoLearning’s first product became Geo3, a hybrid DVD and Internet based training product for leadership development. This proof of concept worked. In the meantime, they had acquired a NY company whose training product was instructional design booklets that guided students to “jump” to sections in the booklet based upon their answers. This manual hyperlinking lent itself perfectly to branching online training and the next iteration of Geo3 was born with the acquired company’s 20ish booklets.
GeoLearning continued to innovate and listen to customers and prospects at conferences. The voice of the customer at the first online learning show told him of the growing presence of Learning Management Systems (LMS), suites of products that not only delivered instruction but also tracked employee progress through training pathways and allowed employees to jump between static resources and dynamic training. Before he would jump into developing his own LMS, however, Frank came across Frank Berry of the UK who happened to offer a solution. They landed upon a joint-venture model that allowed both to grow with creatively investing in each other’s successes.
From Bricks and Mortar to Clicks and Mortar
This growing industry in 2000/2001 was dominated by large corporations who developed and sold product suites to deep pocketed buyers. The corporate buyers had established vendor relationships with the global brands and trusted them “behind the firewall”, operating within the corporate buyer’s network. GeoLearning neither had the deep pockets to develop the entire suite of products nor established relationships to reach inside the corporate networks.
However, they were convinced their strategic direction to deliver their intellectual property over the Internet via the browser was the future. They also knew the incumbents’ adoption of staid user experience wasn’t likely to excite the future buyer. They chose a new playbook, learned from a teen-dating site and adopted an early version of skeuomorphism from the site’s Canadian developer.
Much like some video games based in familiar structures such as homes or offices or the original iPad’s Books app that resembled a bookcase filled with book, this approach introduced a virtual office environment at launch. The user could choose “elevator buttons” to move to the library or training rooms. This interface that virtualized the training center and began marketing themselves to HR professionals instead of technology buyers. They avoided the bloody battle over price or company size and successfully licensed their products.
Critical Junctures
A strength for the company was the relationship between Frank and Terry as CEO and angel, respectively. Terry represented patient capital at work, guiding and securing additional capital as and when necessary. Unlike the first venture, Excellence in Training, where extended family’s assets were deployed alongside Frank and Linda Russell’s, GeoLearning deployed the couple’s capital alongside Terry’s before securing private equity and venture capital. The initial growth through nearly $22M in personal and patient angel capital allowed the team to make mistakes before $32M in professional capital was raised from Fidelity Investments (Volition Capital). A new growth stage was at hand.
As with many serial entrepreneurs, it was clear throughout the interview that Frank’s purpose came from the constant innovation. Maintaining close connection to his closest confidants was a catalyst in the creation of GeoLearning after Excellence in Training, his CFO on the entrepreneurial journey for almost as long has his cofounder wife, Linda.
Signals of Growth
Their trajectory of growth mimics the J-curve sought by startups everywhere. The product suite improved from the Geo360 in 2000 to add prerequisite training, dynamic reporting, skills and competencies, learning analytics, certifications, workflows, single-sign-on, dashboards, widgets, universal search and dozens of additional features. The decade between 2000 and 2010 also saw numerous awards and accolades from local and national entities.
The first Inc 500 recognition arrived in 2004, followed by two others in quick succession. Inc magazine soon began recognizing America’s top 5000 companies and GeoLearning was inducted into the prestigious list for three more years. The Technology Association of Iowa recognized GeoLearning as the Software Company of the year in 2010, Technology company of the year in 2006, and Frank as CEO of the year in 2009.
Diaspora
The GeoLearning team also comprised at least three notable technologists - Brad Rasmussen, Brandon Carlson, and Matthew Edwards. These members of the company’s diaspora impact Iowa technology via their own service and education.
Brad now serves as one of the longest serving members of the board of directors of the Technology Association of Iowa and was recently honored as the CIO/CTO of 2025 by the association. He is the CIO for Merchants Bonding company.
Brandon created and leads LEAN Techniques, a consultative training practice which brings modern product management practices to small and large enterprises through embedded education, consultative strategy and culture development, software development and delivery and online publication.
Matthew created and leads Trility Consulting, a 2x Inc 5000 inductee itself, and a provider of professional technology services in data engineering, AI, cloud engineering and DevOps. Trility was also recognized as Technology Association of Iowa’s Technology Company of the Year in 2024.
Revenue, Key Metrics and Exit
GeoLearning grew through a global team of 240 full-time employees with headquarters in Des Moines. Revenue approached nearly $38M in 2010 and was projected for $49M and $65M in the upcoming two years. The customer list of nearly 700 companies boasted prominent names such as Google, Dell, Wells Fargo, PayPal, Time Warner, Crate & Barrel and Kaiser Permanente.
Something we continue to struggle with as an entrepreneurial community in Iowa is corporate support for homegrown companies. As I reviewed the list of customers in company decks, I was disappointed to not locate any prominent Iowa companies.
2011 represented the ultimate pivot for Frank and the company. The Des Moines Business Record reported on Jan 6, 2011 that SumTotal Systems, Inc had acquired GeoLearning Systems Inc. SumTotal, a Florida-based company reportedly the largest LMS provider at the time was continuing in its strategy of rolling up successful providers in the LMS space.
The 2011 acquisition represented a rare exit greater than $100M of an Iowa technology company. Sadly, Terry, the angel who saw Frank’s vision and guided him along the way passed away a month later in February 2011.
Rest, Reboot, Restart
Once again, the serial entrepreneur didn’t rest long. Although life and circumstance had afforded Frank a comfortable future and Linda fully expected Frank to retire, he had ideas brewing for another professional life beyond GeoLearning. As Frank couldn’t simply relaunch another GeoLearning post-acquisition, he wondered if his previous employees were likely to be displaced by the acquirer and if those facing a layoff afforded outplacement services. Hearing “no”, he sought and received the acquirer’s permission to provide such services for free.
Prositions, Inc. was born as a non-competing entity to deliver outplacement services to employees facing a layoff from an employer. Although it has since been rebranded as Outplacement Pro, it continues to provide those envisioned services.
Frank also branched new companies, RobinHood HR, fractional HR services for fast-growth companies. He has written a remarkable eBook, “Fast-Growth Playbook, a Practical Playbook for Founders of Rapid Growth Companies”, one I was able to preview in its pre-release version. It is a concise guide for founders building high-growth companies and provides bite-sized lessons on employee experience, intentionally building and living a culture, building people-focused systems, leadership planning, customer focus, and evolution. I was moved by how art (below) influenced a chapter in the company’s life and will leave the readers to discover the meaning in Frank’s eBook.
I have permission from Frank to share the eBook with Founders and leaders who have read this far and are interested in learning from a serial entrepreneur with several decades of successful builds, exits, and incessant passion for technology entrepreneurship.
I am grateful for the incredible Iowa Writers Collaborative community which inspires me through its vastness of expertise. Find your inspiration here.
The parallell between Frank's journey through VCRs, satellite, and Internet delivery really captures how technology entrepreneurship requires constant adaption. What stands out is how GeoLearning avoided competing head-to-head with established players by targeting HR professionals instead of IT buyers with that skeuomorphic interface. That strategic positioning, combined with patient capital from Terry Mealy, seemd to make all the differenc in achieving that rare $100M+ exit.
Fascinating. Why do we not have support for the companies’ growth trajectories?