ֿDomain: HR Tech
Status reached: Sketches of solution, interest from a design partner, three investment offers that we needed to turn down…
When: Jan 2021-Feb 2022
Team skillset: Business and operations background in tech executive rules.
Thesis/Idea
Platform for companies to support employees through life events
- Born of personal experience, the idea was to create a platform that allows companies to help employees during life changing events – a death in the family, illness, divorce etc. – both from a feel good/employee relations perspective, but also as a business case.
- While employees can’t give 100% during life events, the cost and disruption to the organization of finding and training new employees makes investments in existing employees worthwhile.
- The idea was a Human Experience Platform that would: 1) make benefits relevant for the employee’s specific case easy to identify and use 2) give managers and HR the ‘soft’ tools needed (for example, a reminder at a one year anniversary of a difficult situation and suggesting an action, such as sending a note or offering a day off) 3) ensure business continuity while the employee is out (out of office email, change/move meetings) and 4) ensure that the employee’s return is smooth (their desk is available, etc).
- There were three investment offers that I needed to turn down, but served as important validation.
Why it didn’t progress
- Lack of clear ROI: The problem is intuitive and HR/benefits people grasped it immediately. But it was difficult to quantify the cost to companies of employees going through life events, both in reduced productivity while at work and in departures that might have been avoided had the employee had a better experience. Wasn’t able to quantify the savings in adopting a platform that would help employees during this time.
- Co-Founder/CTO: As a founder that isn’t from a classic tech background (8200, 81, etc), I didn’t have the ideal network to find a co-founder and CTO and spent a lot of time looking for ‘the one.’
Key Insights:
HR Tech is a very crowded market, and it’s better to think of a platform that is more foundational/critical, like HiBob, and stay away from anything that might be perceived as ‘fluff.’ If you do something that might be perceived as ‘fluff,’ then ensure a very clear and quantifiable business case.
Research:
Conversations with over 30 HR and benefits people in Israel and in the US.