INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
While companies might pay for a CEO coach, lower level employees often get stuck with lame skill-building worksheets or no mentorship at all
Not only does that limit their potential productivity, but it also makes them feel stagnated and undervalued, leading them to jump
Building a business is hard
But the best thing you can do is be vulnerable and seek help.Torch emerged from stealth last year with $18 million in funding to teach
empathy to founders and C-suite execs
Since 2013, Everwise has raised $26 million from Sequoia and others for its peer-to-peer mentorship marketplace that makes workplace
guidance accessible to rank-and-file staffers
human beings, we face huge existential challenges in the form of pandemics, climate change, the threats coming down the pipe from automation
conducting extensive 360-interviews with an executive as well as their reports, employees, and peers to assess their empathy, communication,
vision, conflict resolution, and collaboration
They learn about setting healthy workplace boundaries, staying calm amidst arguments, motivating staff without seeming preachy, and managing
But the one-on-one sessions are typically too expensive to buy for all levels of employees
provide more affordable personal guidance or group sessions with 10 employees all learning from each other
It also provides a mentorship platform where bigger companies can let their more senior staffers teach junior employees exactly what it
Everwise lets them stay mentored, even at early stages of their professional life
materials are engaging enough to not become just another employee handbook buried on an HR site that no one ever reads
Otherwise, it could just feel like bloat tacked onto Torch
Meanwhile, scaling up to bigger clients pits Torch against long-standing pillars of the executive coaching industry like Aon and Korn Ferry
that have been around for decades and have billions in revenue
Meanwhile, new mental health and coaching platforms are emerging like BetterUp and Sounding Board.But the market is massive since so few
people get great coaching right now
When Yarbrough was his coach, the Torch CEO taught the investor that while many startup employees might think they thrive on flexibility,
mixed with a prod in the direction of fulfilling their destiny.
