Fond
What they do: Develop employee engagement products.
Problem they solve: In a tight labor market, how a business finds, recruits, retains, and rewards employees is a key part of overall employee satisfaction. After all, unhappy employees are not only less productive than happy ones, but are also more likely to look for and accept other opportunities. Considering that it costs approximately 2X as much to find and train a new employee as to retain an existing one, businesses must find better ways to keep their best employees happy and productive.
Moreover, the #MeToo era is shining a spotlight on toxic workplaces, which can easily metastasize into something much worse than just a trigger for high turnover. Toxic environments could be a sign that the company is exposed to serious legal and regulatory risks. However, most businesses have few good ways to identify and correct these issues before they spiral out of control and harm the entire business.
Backed by $25M in VC funding, #Big50-2017 #startup Fond makes it easy for employers to reward, engage, and retain top employees. Share on XHow they solve it: Fond’s goal is to help “companies build places where employees love to work.” Fond’s Perks and Rewards platform gives companies a tool that helps them “increase employee engagement and happiness, reduce voluntary employee turnover, build a stronger internal culture, and attract top talent.”
For example, Fond makes it easy for manager/employers to show employee appreciation spontaneously. According to Fond customer Becky Masters, Director, Compensation, Benefits and HR Technology, Delta Dental, “We recognize there is a lot of value in being able to celebrate wins along the way. . . it is important to reward employees throughout the year — not just at their annual review.”
Another Fond feature is EngagementIQ, a survey tool that helps companies measure how employees feel about their workplace.
Headquarters: San Francisco, CA
CEO: Taro Fukuyama, who was the first Japanese entrepreneur to graduate from Y-Combinator.
Year Founded: 2012
Funding: Fond is backed by $25 million in funding. The startup raised $11.5 million in its most recent round, a Series A-1, which closed on July 1, 2016. This brought the company’s total Series A funding to $20 million. DCM Ventures, Nissay Capital, CyberAgent, Itochu Technology Ventures, GMO Venture Partners, and several others participated.
Competitors include: Incumbents such as Achievers, OC Tanner, and Globoforce, as well as such startups as YouEarnedIt, Bonusly, and Kudos.
Customers include: Delta Dental, Dogeared, Greenhouse, Zendesk, Weebly, GrubHub, Virgin America, cpap.com, nWay, and United Auto Credit.
Why they’re in the Big 50-2017: Fond did well in all three phases of the Big50-2017 competition. The startup aced the Big50 online voting challenge, has exceptional fundamentals (funding, market opp, on-the-record customers, leadership), and they also turned in a solid effort in the Big50 content challenge.
Moreover, Fond is positioned in a high-upside but confusing market segment that’s ripe for disruption. Analyst predictions for this space are all over the map, but while employee happiness may not be a tangible asset that appears on the balance sheet, its effects are very real.
Study after study has shown that healthy organizations where employees feel valued and enjoy coming to work outperform companies where employees feel disengaged and undervalued.
For instance, in a recent Willis Towers Watson Global Workforce Study, only 35% of the 32,000 full-time employees surveyed were engaged. This poses a risk for employers given the significant implications of declining engagement on productivity and performance combined with the potential loss of great employees.
A 2016 estimate by Willis Towers Watson estimated the financial cost of losing and replacing an employee is typically at least half of the position’s annual compensation and nearly 80 percent in the case of senior positions.
Finally, a 2013 report by USA Today found that the publicly traded companies that have appeared on Fortune Magazine’s list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For since 1998 had posted average gains of 11 percent over 10 years (vs. 7.9% for the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index). These companies also experienced average employee turnover rates that were less than half that of their industry peers.
