Eloqua's software watched which emails a prospect opened and which web pages they read, then scored how ready they were to buy. Marketers had long been judged by how many leads they produced. Eloqua wanted them judged by revenue. The company called this Revenue Performance Management. It started in Toronto and later based itself in Vienna, Virginia. When it went public in August 2012, cloud marketing software was booming and big software companies were shopping for it.

From Toronto, a Lead Score

Steven Woods, a former Bain & Company strategist, co-founded Eloqua in 2000 and served as its chief technology officer. The bet was that business-to-business selling was moving online. Buyers did their own research long before they called a salesperson. Eloqua gave marketers tools to send campaigns, track every response and nurture prospects until they were ready to talk. It ran its engineering in Toronto and its sales and headquarters near Washington, D.C.

Six Months on Nasdaq

Eloqua priced its shares at $11.50 in August 2012 and listed on Nasdaq as ELOQ. Its stay was short. In December 2012 Oracle agreed to buy the company for about $871 million, as Oracle and Salesforce raced to build marketing clouds. The deal closed in February 2013, about six months after the offering. Eloqua became Oracle Eloqua, the center of Oracle's marketing software.

Cover: Roman Orator in Toga, Artist unknown. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for an orator (eloquence).