How this Utah company went from basement offices to becoming a big e-learning business

Estimated learn time: 3-4 minutes

AMERICAN FORK — There are occasions when tragedy can delivery triumph, and for Andrew Scivally, the loss of life of his sister-in-law was a second that did precisely that.

Following her loss of life, Scivally’s brother, a father of three, moved to Utah from Ohio. There, an concept was born from a dialog the 2 had whereas sitting on a bench exterior of a movie show.

“I am like, ‘Man, what if we began our personal firm?’” Scivally recalled.

On the time, Scivally had been operating coaching and growth for Zions Financial institution whereas his brother ran on-line studying for Wendy’s.

As quickly as the 2 got here to the conclusion that they each had a shared background in creating on-line studying, the choice was simple and eLearning Brothers was born in 2009.

“I used to be working in my basement in my home there in Saratoga Springs (and) my brother was in his basement,” Scivally mentioned.

Over time, the brothers’ firm expanded from a small-scale basement operation the place they constructed templates for studying — assume PowerPoint templates that they bought to companies for e-learning — to increasing to the purpose the place they discovered a personal fairness group to assist them purchase different corporations.

“Anybody that needed e-learning templates, like, we have been the corporate — eLearning Brothers owned that market,” Scivally mentioned. “My brother exited about 4 or 5 years in the past and I stayed with the enterprise and I actually needed to take it to the subsequent stage.”

That was in 2020, and there was just one downside that stood in the best way of Scivally taking his firm to the massive leagues: the pandemic.

Initially, Scivally thought that the pandemic would derail his enlargement plans.

“We shortly realized (that) in the course of the pandemic, on-line studying bought an enormous enhance,” Scivally mentioned. “Gross sales began coming in. We had an outstanding March of 2020. … Our traders have been like, ‘Oh, wait a minute, this could be an excellent funding.’”

We’re about six occasions larger than we have been in early 2020 and it is going nicely, it is working.

–Andrew Scivally, ELB Studying co-founder and CEO

After that, Scivally mentioned it was “off to the races.”

By the tip of this 12 months, the corporate could have acquired 9 different corporations and reached greater than $100 million in non-public fairness and debt funding and $70 million in income, he mentioned.

“We’re about six occasions larger than we have been in early 2020 and it is going nicely, it is working,” Scivally mentioned.

With the newfound progress, he thought that it was time for a rebrand. Thus, eLearning Brothers turned ELB Studying in early Might.

“It is not simply eLearning Brothers anymore, it is a lot larger, it is extra broad, we have acquired six corporations,” Scivally mentioned. “It is actually in regards to the future and the place we’re taking this. We’re a studying enterprise, we’re not simply an e-learning enterprise. So it is actually a model that might be larger and take us into the longer term and in addition one that might form of welcome within the new corporations and never be all in regards to the previous.”

In positioning the corporate for the longer term, Scivally mentioned that he nonetheless needed to pay respects to the model that bought him to the place he is at at the moment. The brand new brand has an infinity image in it as a result of Scivally mentioned ELB Studying believes in “steady studying.”

Together with steady studying, ELB Studying is targeted on steady acquisition and progress.

“We’re persevering with to push the boundaries on varieties of studying, whether or not it’s the VR (digital actuality) immersive area, whether or not it is within the gaming competitors area of leaderboards and all these, you recognize, form of in-depth video games,” Scivally mentioned. “The long run is actually vivid.”

Occasion by ELB Studying’s enlargement — its studying and growth merchandise now help over 90% of Fortune 500 corporations — Scivally mentioned he feels lucky to have began his enterprise within the Beehive State.

“That is the place we have been to high school and select to lift our households,” Scivally mentioned. “We love Utah to loss of life and that is the place we have chosen to maintain our headquarters. We’re seeing lots of progress in Utah, we love what’s occurring right here and simply the enterprise facet of the state.

“It is a great place to be.”