30 Startups Reinveinting Work in 2024

Hello and welcome to this week’s edition! 👋🏻

Since it’s been a while I haven’t talked about specific tools, I wanted to do a quick roundup of what I’ve been looking at, grouping them together in areas.

This will be a more shorter post, as each area deserves its own deep dive in the coming weeks. Also, would be great to know if you’ve been using any of these, or have any areas to suggest!

Let’s dive in 🤿

Employee Engagement and Team Building

Remote is still marginal, but hybrid is here to stay. Employee engagement is critical the new work setting, where 85% of employees are not engaged or actively disengaged at work, according to Gallup. This disconnection can lead to decreased productivity and higher turnover - tenure is at all time lows. Startups focusing on enhancing team-building and engagement through innovative, personalized experiences are crucial for fostering a positive work culture and maintaining a connected workforce. Here’s some:

• Teamraderie (https://www.teamraderie.com/): Leverages AI and data to create personalized learning paths and suggest evidence-backed team-building experiences.

  

• WorkLeap (https://workleap.com/officevibe/): Helps HR leaders drive engagement, recognition, and performance using integrated tools.

  

• Moodbit (https://mymoodbit.com/): Similar to Teamraderie, this platform employs AI to recommend targeted team-building experiences and tackle workplace challenges.

• Kumospace (https://www.kumospace.com/): Built virtual offices where teammates can move around a digital space to recreate the water-cooler conversations common to physical offices.

• Cafè (https://at.cafe/): Connects teams across the organization through real-life interactions - integrated into Slack, Teams and more.

  

• Remotion (https://www.remotion.com/): Focuses on ‘side-by-side’ collaboration for software engineers in a less invasive/light-weight approach.

  

• Candidate.fyi (https://www.candidate.fyi/): All-in-one hiring experience platform to schedule interviews, collect candidate feedback, & deliver personalized experiences

Skill Mapping & Upskilling

The World Economic Forum reports that 42% of core skills required for existing jobs will change in the next few years. This rapid evolution demands effective skill mapping and upskilling tools to bridge the gap between current employee capabilities and the skills needed for the future - something companies don’t do much of. Strategic upskilling not only enhances competitiveness but also plays a crucial role in employee retention and satisfaction.

• Adept (https://www.adept-id.com/): Specializes in HR skill mapping for strategic talent assessments.

• TechWolf (https://techwolf.com/): Focuses particularly on technical proficiencies in skill mapping.

  

• Beamery (https://beamery.com/): Talent management solutions for enterprises, with skill mapping and more.

• EduMe (https://www.edume.com/): Focuses on upskilling frontline workers.

• Kaizo (https://kaizo.com/): Another frontline-centric training platform, with a focus on gamification.

• Future State University (https://www.futurestateuniversity.com/): Interesting idea for a virtual university that emphasizes the development of soft and social skills.

• Skyhive (https://www.skyhive.ai/products/skill-passport): Offers skill passports to replace traditional CVs, allowing for verified tracking of proficiencies.

• PitchMe (https://pitchme.co/): Allows candidates to take skill assessments and choose their job opportunities, with companies pitching to them.

Productivity, Collaboration, and Communication

The holy grail. All three are strictly connected (something often forgotten - we think we can be more productive if we haven’t improved communication, and so on).

AI Agents & Co-Pilots deserve their own spotlight, given that they're all the hype right now, but we're going to see all of the broader 'productivity' areas.

• 11x (https://11x.ai/): An AI-powered sales development automation tool; it helps with lead generation and outreach on autopilot.

  

• People.ai (https://www.people.ai/): Analyzes sales activity data to guide sales teams during negotiations.

• Nimo (https://www.nimoplanet.com/): Focuses on 'screen productivity' to reduce mouse/keyboard usage and increase digital work efficiency.

• OpenInterpreter (https://www.openinterpreter.com/): Physical device that can voice control your computer and get things done. Pretty cool.

• Cognitive Labs (https://www.cognition-labs.com/): Building 'Devin', an AI software engineer. Quick demo below, which seems really impressive

• Magic.dev (https://magic.dev/): Building an AI software engineer, on top of a proprietary (?) model.

• nPlan (https://www.nplan.io/solutions/transportation): Predicts errors and bottlenecks in transportation projects based on historical data.

• Glean (https://www.glean.com/): Makes project information easily searchable and accessible across a company.

• Happeo (https://www.happeo.com/): Reimagines the traditional intranet to enhance connectivity and collaboration.

• Lemon.io (https://lemon.io/): Specializes in developer-focused hiring and managing on-demand workforces, essential for remote and hybrid environments.

Mental Wellbeing

The cost of mental health issues in the workplace is immense, with the World Health Organization estimating a global economic loss of $1 trillion per year due to depression and anxiety, and it keeps on getting worse. Proactive mental health solutions that integrate seamlessly into the workplace can significantly reduce absenteeism and improve overall employee health and productivity.

• Unmind (https://www.unmind.com/): Provides a platform focused on mental health support directly organized by the company. It offers assessments, proactive tools, and resources designed to foster a culture of well-being within the workplace.

  

• Bonda.ai (https://www.bonda.ai/) Focuses on team building through activities designed to strengthen workplace culture and relationships.

• WinningTemp (https://www.winningtemp.com/) and Moone (https://moonehq.com/): Offer tools for employers to check in with their employees' 'temperature' and rethink surveys.

• Nilo-Health (https://nilohealth.com/): Provides a platform for psychological courses and mental health tracking and counseling for companies.