no other articles link to it . please introduce links to this page from related articles ; try the find link tool for suggestions . february 2015 outstart lnc . type private industry software headquarters boston massachusetts united states key people massood zarrabian president and ceo john alonso cto and co founder owner kenexa number of employees 120 2008 website outstart.com outstart inc. is a provider of social business software and learning systems . outstart s social business software and learning systems automate the development maintenance and delivery of modular and personalized training . according to the company its social software technologies enable the capture of a historical knowledge base of insights experiences ideas and content accessible by anyone at any time . john alonso michelle bruce and scott edwards founded outstart in 1999 ; the company was incorporated in july 1999 . 1 in 2012 kenexa a publicly listed business solutions provider acquired outstart for an undisclosed amount . 2 contents 1 history 2 mergers and acquisitions 3 references 4 external links history edit alonso and edwards met in the mid 1990s while working at powersoft corporation which was acquired by sybase in 1994 . 3 while at powersoft and later sybase s education division alonso held a number of roles over several years including as an instructor for the powerbuilder product ; building computer and video based training ; and eventually creating content . edwards served as both a programmer and consultant alongside alonso . as a trainer at sybase alonso says he noticed that most customers rarely availed themselves of all the instructor led training made available by sybase . alonso proposed to his managers that they offer training curriculum online which he called next generation learning . company executives liked the idea and gave alonso the directive to proceed with his plan of developing an internally used learning content management system lcms . according to alonso the software was among the first lcms developed for either an internal or external audience of learners . other lcms on the market and in use at the time elsewhere included software sold by generation21 and peer3 respectively . in 1998 sybase hired michelle bruce as an instructor for the southeast u.s. she had a background in education and soon became part of alonso s team . eventually alonso left sybase followed by edwards and bruce . after leaving sybase alonso bruce and edwards teamed up to found outstart . 4 initially the company s headquarters was near orlando florida . according to its founders outstart s name sprung from the desire to help companies outsource their training and in so doing jump start their programs . the company has been positioned by gartner inc. in the visionaries quadrant of the 2008 and 2009 corporate learning systems magic quadrant . 5 in february 2012 outstart was acquired by kenexa a human resources and talent management company . kenexa bought the company for an undisclosed amount to integrate outstart s saas based social and mobile learning solutions with its talent management services . 6 later that year in april 2012 ibm acquired kenexa for 1.3 billion . 7 mergers and acquisitions edit in july 2002 outstart acquired concentric visions inc. a developer of enterprise class content management software . in october 2002 outstart acquired trainersoft.com corp a maker of e learning tools . in november 2004 outstart acquired chicago based participate systems inc. a maker of social business software . 8 in july 2008 outstart merged with eedo knowledgeware corporation a provider of learning and knowledge management software . 9 in june 2009 outstart merged with the world s leader in mobile learning software solutions hot lava software a company with applications for reaching mobile cellular subscribers . 10 references edit outstart expands across australia asia and pacific press release . outstart . 2009 08 20 . retrieved 2014 04 13 . wauters robin february 6 2012 . kenexa acquires e learning solutions company outstart . techcrunch . retrieved september 25 2015 . glenn rifkin 1994 11 15 . sybase to acquire powersoft . the new york times . p. d1 . retrieved 2014 04 13 . biography for john alonso . crunchbase . retrieved 2014 04 13 . rozwell gartner 2009 09 10 . magic quadrant for corporate learning systems . gartner . retrieved 2014 04 13 . subscription required help . kenexa agrees to acquire outstart a leading provider of next generation e learning solutions . reuters . february 6 2012 . retrieved september 25 2015 . bersin josh . why ibm acquired kenexa . forbes . retrieved september 25 2015 . article . call center magazine . november 23 2004 . retrieved 2014 04 13 . dead link outstart eedo knowledgeware to merge . boston business journal . 2008 07 22 . retrieved 2014 04 13 . outstart merges with mobile software firm hot lava . mass high tech . 2009 06 08 . retrieved 2014 04 13 . external links edit outstart s web site retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title outstart inc. & oldid 682731401 categories software companies of the united stateshidden categories pages containing links to subscription only contentall articles with dead external linksarticles with dead external links from april 2014orphaned articles from february 2015all orphaned articlespages using infobox company with unsupported parameters navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 25 september 2015 at 17 03 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view