Trying something new:
Startup tech company shifts product
Pittsburgh Business Times - by Jennifer Curry
Friday, March 31, 2006

LearningPoint, a Strip District-based company focused on the e-learning market, was founded last August and already has offered consulting work to a number of big-name companies such as Deloitte & Touche LLP, General Motors and Procter & Gamble.

Yet, the company, which has two employees and a handful of contractors, has struggled to grow because it hasn't been able to attract the angel funding it needs to take off.

"People aren't interested in talking to you until you have an established business," president and CEO Kevin Orzechowski said. "It's a catch-22."

So, after earning enough money from its consulting services to get off the ground, the company is shifting directions by tapping into an emerging market: rapid e-learning. Legend Financial is its first customer of this new product.

With rapid e-learning, LearningPoint has created software that allows Legend to develop its own lessons using equipment such as video cameras or software that records movement on a computer screen. Legend can use the system to train its 16 interns in tasks ranging from how to set up a conference room for a client meeting to how to put earned income or charitable contributions into a software program.

"Every time a new intern comes in, it takes away from staff time to bring them up to speed on various techniques we want them to be using," said Diane Pearson, director of financial planning at McCandless-based Legend Financial. "This is going to be phenomenal, as far as productivity, because our staff won't have to break away from what we may be doing."

The big advantage of using this method, rather than having LearningPoint develop each individual lesson, is cost, Orzechowski said. Where it typically costs companies anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000 per instructional hour for the traditional e-learning services, LearningPoint is selling its new system for $750 a month.

The fast-growing e-learning market is projected to reach $23.7 billion in 2005.

"It is an emerging market," said Joe Krolczyk, strategy and operations senior manager with Deloitte Consulting in Pittsburgh. "We are at the front end of this space."

jcurry@bizjournals.com | (412) 481-6397 x235