Despite an increasing reliance on technology, the workforce has never been more human-centric than ever before. Organizations must nurture and maximize employee potential to put teams in a position to grow and for companies to succeed. Employee coaching has become a modern centerpiece of continuous performance management. But for far too long, coaching has been available only to senior-level personnel. Bravely is an on-demand workplace coaching platform that makes professional coaching available to every employee, regardless of position or tenure. With Bravely, employees are empowered to work on their professional development while employers are able to ensure that they have built an engaged workforce in an era where competition for employees has intensified. Access to the platform is provided in return for a flat annual fee that provides unlimited company-wide coaching and content. The platform, launched in 2017, is in use in companies like Yelp, Zillow, Harry’s, Pinterest, and Better Mortgage.
AlleyWatch caught up with Bravely Founder and CEO Toby Hervey to learn more about the company’s origin, the shift that transformation that the pandemic has caused in workforces, strategic plans, recent round of funding, which brings the total funding raised to $18M, and much, much more.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
We raised a $15M Series A, led by Telescope Partners with participation from our prior investors Primary Venture Partners, Bling Capital, RiverPark Ventures, and Tuesday Fund, as well as new investment from SemperVirens Venture Capital, which specializes in early-stage HR tech investing.
Tell us about the product or service that Bravely offers.
Bravely’s platform connects people to on-demand, confidential coaching in the moments they need support at work. We have a wide network of vetted professional coaches who are there when employees need them to help them develop new skills, create action plans, and lower their stress levels.
What inspired the start of Bravely?
Like many startups, the idea was sparked by personal experience. We both had moments at work where we didn’t feel like we had the support we needed to move forward or create action. We spend the majority of our lives at work, and it was clear to us that there was a huge gap in the existing employee support model that traditional coaching, training, and benefits did not fill. This led us to founding Bravely and to build a platform that scales coaching to employees at every level of an organization.
How is Bravely different?
We are redefining the traditional model of coaching, which historically has been heavily invested in senior-level executives and, more recently, manager-level employees. Coaching for these leaders and for “high-potential employees” has only widened the gaps and inequalities in the workplace. We set out from the very beginning to provide population-wide access. Not only are we reaching a more diverse population of employees, but we’re empowering people at every level to perform their best and become more engaged than ever at work.
What market does Bravely target and how big is it?
There are 270M knowledge workers across the globe, and 80M of them are based in the US. Those knowledge workers represent the target market for Bravely today.
What’s your business model?
We charge companies a simple flat annual rate for every employee at the company, which affords unlimited access to coaching and content on the Bravely platform. This simple fee structure empowers our partners on the People team to encourage that every employee takes advantage of this powerful development opportunity.
How has COVID-19 impacted the business?
COVID-19 has expanded our business tremendously. Faced with an overnight transformation in how we work, companies like Better Mortgage, Yelp, and Twilio felt new urgency around providing individualized support for growth and well-being. In many ways, employees’ needs haven’t changed. What’s changed is the way companies are thinking about how to serve those needs. With the Great Resignation underway, this conversation about employee support isn’t slowing down any time soon.
COVID-19 has expanded our business tremendously. Faced with an overnight transformation in how we work, companies like Better Mortgage, Yelp, and Twilio felt new urgency around providing individualized support for growth and well-being. In many ways, employees’ needs haven’t changed. What’s changed is the way companies are thinking about how to serve those needs. With the Great Resignation underway, this conversation about employee support isn’t slowing down any time soon.
What was the funding process like?
Our funding process was reasonably straightforward and quick, given prior relationships we had built, and the unquestionable momentum of the business. We have some unique aspects to our business, and when you’re creating a new category there’s always some extra elbow grease required, but we went into the process eyes wide open thanks to strong support from existing investors at Primary Venture Partners and Bling Capital.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
Given the hot funding market for other adjacent leadership coaching and employer-focused mental health platforms, we spent a lot of time unpacking our competitive differentiation in the market, and our vision for what that looks like over the long term.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
Both Telescope Partners and SemperVirens have a very customer-centric diligence process. They spoke to literally dozens of our current and would-be customers about our history and potential impact. The verdict came in loud and clear after all of those conversations.
Both Telescope Partners and SemperVirens have a very customer-centric diligence process. They spoke to literally dozens of our current and would-be customers about our history and potential impact. The verdict came in loud and clear after all of those conversations.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
We plan to continue expanding our global reach — we currently serve employees in 68 different countries, with coaching available in 33 languages. We’re also investing in our data capabilities for personalization and automation, driving even greater utilization and impact.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
Pick the one metric that absolutely matters more than the others, throw every resource you have at it, and get comfortable living with other areas of the business being under-developed. Being decently good at a bunch of things isn’t going to work as well as being great at the one mission-critical thing that’s important for your stage of the business.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
We’ll be expanding our global reach and developing powerful new data capabilities to understand and serve more diverse individual employee needs. We are also excited to continue to build and improve our own culture and employee experience here at Bravely. A big part of this next chapter is walking the walk at home on the ethos we bring into our relationships with our customers and their people.
