Nishika De Rosairo, founder and CEO of HumanQ, has a vision for employee training that doesn’t align with the largest and most valuable startups. Venture-backed companies like BetterUp and Sounding Board, which offer employees and managers instead of one-on-one coaching, want to make group coaching an effective alternative.
“We believe that the growth of organizations and individuals is not about the individual’s agenda and what they need – it is about the organization’s agenda that they need to work together as a team,” she said.
Betting on groupthink has landed HumanQ in a $2 million seed round led by Kindred Ventures, with angel investors including Toast CFO Elena Gomez, Natu Medical CHRO Lisa Paul and Google head of engineering Dinesh Chahlia. Rosario declined to give the company’s estimate, but said it was “very good and fair” in the end. This is the company’s first round of capital after more than three years of development.
Just two years ago, career coaching wasn’t necessarily a hot field, but the rise of remote work, the great layoff, and the great reboot all create a perfect storm of employees looking for direction (and employers looking to retain). It wouldn’t be surprising to see another game in space.
The biggest argument in favor of one-on-one coaching is personalization. If your employer can provide you with a coach that focuses solely on how to best support and develop your career, it can be a powerful support mechanism that boosts energy—and a smart retention tool. The time commitment in any contract ranges from 6 to 36 hours over a year.
“Even though coaching companies are popping up like mushrooms, all of them [do] Same thing: one-on-one coaching and organizational needs in a way that doesn’t respond to the way we do it,” Rosario said.
She argues that a company’s bet on the team can help build mindsets, break down functional and geographic silos, and create water-cooler conversations—all of which help foster teamwork, inclusion, and innovation. The startup claims that 94% of participants in their programs are more engaged as a result. HumanQ reported 280% growth from 2020 to 2021 and delivered over 16,000 hours of training to over 2,000 users.
HunanQ is a structured marketplace, which means employers pay coaches after they sponsor clients. “The focus is on putting funds into R&D,” he said when asked about profitability, though he said the startup has been generating cash flow since launch.
The challenge for HumanQ is the same as any team-oriented work: How do you create a safe space that balances vulnerability with buy-in and professionalism? Rosairo said the company is very different in how it hires coaches, explores personalities, creates psychological safety and supports confidentiality.
Especially when working, you want to balance the needs of the individual with the group and look for possible tension points. [that can get] “Hot and strong” is a tough balance to strike, but one that the startup feels confident about scaling. Right now, all coaches work with HumanQ on a contract basis – great for flexibility, but challenging when you consider the historical transition to employment.
While 95% of the trainers on the platform have some sort of certification, Rosairo said they don’t need certification to join Human Kin. Instead, she says, they should make sure they have workplace and industry experience in a variety of situations to consider. The company is testing direct-to-consumer products this year, but it started selling directly to businesses because that’s where it noticed a lot of gaps.
The pitch is big enough to earn the trust of companies like Microsoft, VMware, Chobani, Accenture and Gojek, all of HumanQ’s customers.
