Today we’d like to introduce you to Yuchun Lee and Mark Magnacca.
Allego was founded by Mark and Yuchun back in 2013. Mark has had a long-standing career as a successful professional sales coach and trainer within the financial services world. Throughout his training, he began incorporating iPads and iPhones to capture and share video to improve product knowledge competency and consistency. However, existing mobile and video technology was clunky and didn’t allow for easy sharing. Mark approached Yuchun to address the challenges he was facing and asked him to consult on that problem. Yuchun said to Mark, “Are you sure you don’t want to build a software company?” Mark replied, “I don’t know anything about software.” Yuchun, on the other hand did. As a well-respected leader in technology and marketing, he has successfully built companies from initial idea to IPO and acquisition. From there, the Allego concept was born.
They operated in stealth mode for two years while they grew their customer base and fine-tuned the product. In 2015, they officially launched with 50 customers and 10,000 users. Today, they’ve demonstrated 5401% three year growth, which landed them as #62 on the Inc. 500 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies.
They’re also #4 in Boston (and MA) as well as #5 among other software companies on the Inc. 500 list — an accomplishment they’re very proud of. They owe much of their success to their customers – 50,000 global users – across industries including financial services, medical device, high tech and pharmaceuticals.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Like any journey, there have been a series of ups and downs as we have traveled this road together. We’ve certainly taken 2 steps forward and then 1 backward as we’ve done the very difficult work of helping to change the mindset about what the future will look like with people who could not quite see that vision yet. We were helped in this process by the innovative thinking of our early customers who were willing to test ideas, push boundaries and ask the question, “is there a better way for adults to learn than what we are doing currently?”
Another major challenge has been user adoption. It’s very easy for people to keep doing what they already know how to do even if it doesn’t work very well, especially when they are very busy with their existing work.
MM: For example, I travel the same route to work for four years thinking it was the best way to go. I downloaded the app Waze and on my first day it showed me how to save 15 minutes in my commute. What this reminds me of is that even if you have great technology, it is critical to help people understand how they will benefit it before they will actually try it and remember to answer the “So What?” question.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Allego story. Tell us more about the business.
Allego is a mobile video sales learning platform that is changing the way organizations train and enable their sales teams. Harnessing the ubiquity of mobile and the power of video, Allego helps sales organizations consistently deliver on-message, rapidly capture and distribute expert knowledge and best practices, ramp new hires more quickly, successfully launch new products with greater message consistency, reinforce training, skills and knowledge in the field and provide easy access to critical information at the moment of need.
While the marketplace is currently comprised of video distribution, learning management systems and video practice/coaching tools, Allego is the only platform that supports the full spectrum of sales training – curriculum learning, reinforcement learning and just-in-time learning – helping sales reps to not only acquire new knowledge, but also drive it into long-term memory and be able to quickly grab high-impact refreshers at the exact time and place of need.
Our crucial differentiator is a patented video compression algorithm that allows videos to be quickly and easily shared across an organization using mobile devices.
Recently, we ranked #62 on the Inc. 500 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies – marked by 5401% three-year growth – a great source of pride for us! Our growth and success have been driven in a large part by the relationships we’ve built with our customers. Our award-winning Customer Success team takes great care getting to know our customers, their businesses, culture, training needs and challenges, and works with them to create a customized plan for their Allego roll-out. In an industry where 65 percent to 70 percent of all IT implementation projects fail to produce the benefits expected, we’re proud to say that our customer success team truly demonstrates a level of commitment that goes above and beyond the industry norm. A comprehensive plan and superior implementation methodology are critical to increased productivity for a customer. However, true success, as Allego defines it, can only be achieved through attention to detail and trusted partnerships that our team is dedicated to forging.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
MM: I am a huge believer that you make your own “luck.” I don’t believe that success or failure is a function of random chance on any one point in time. I have a different definition of luck which is actually a mindset based on the power of positive expectation. What I’ve learned is that when you expect to win you notice opportunity that the person who doesn’t expect to win misses and therefore you have a major competitive advantage. It also provides a powerful resilience to not accepting “no” as an answer, especially from someone who doesn’t have the power to say yes.
I also have experienced on many occasions what I consider to be messages in the form of coincidences that help direct my behavior to take one path versus another. Telling my co-founder, Yuchun, about the idea for Allego at a meeting I set up with a long-time group of entrepreneurial friends, was an example of having a positive expectation that something good would happen or that I would be directed in a specific way as a result of the meeting. After we discussed it, he said he was interested to chat further because he felt that mobile video was going to be an important part of the future of learning.
That said, I met my wife as a result of her putting an invitation to a party in my door. I went to the party, we met and were married two years later. In that case, I definitely feel I got lucky.
Contact Info:
- Address: 117 Kendrick Street
Suite 800
Needham, MA 02494 - Website: www.allego.com
- Phone: 781.400.5671
- Email: salesinquiry@allego.com
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