Myself and Michal Wisniewski who is the brains behind Your FLOCK our team engagement platform had both worked in teams and companies. Companies that had cultures and teams that were nothing like what we had been led to believe.
I am sure many other people have had this experience too. And if not, they will have worked in a place where the management was lacking in ability. Or even in toxic environments. Places that didn’t have their happiness in mind. I can think of more than a few…
I am also very lucky as I tried to build something like Your FLOCK some 7 years before meeting Michal. And funnily enough, I couldn’t build it as I couldn’t get the right team together. And so I invested in Your FLOCK, then called Macawly, to scratch my own itch. To be the solution to a problem I had. A problem which causes many scale-ups to fail. Not being able to get the right team together and keep their best talent.
Tell me about the business?
Our mission is to help a million people be happier at work. Your FLOCK is a software as a service which uses employee engagement surveys. And machine learning based on individual values. And feedback each fortnight to help managers become better team leaders. To help teams stay together for longer. And to decrease the employee turnover in our clients’ companies.
We work with teams and small firms in professional services like law firms in the legal sector. Those with less than 200 people. Those companies that are growing and feeling the pain point of new hybrid working.
We work in many different sectors including technology. As the problem of keeping your teams together is not just in the professional services. However, the legal sector in the UK has a lot of employee churn and we need to change this for lawyers to be happier at work.
How has the business evolved since its launch? When was this?
Your FLOCK is now a team engagement platform. Powered by machine learning. That uses employee surveys and values to help teams stay together for longer. As well as using activities inside our software. To help train people for their learning and development. When the company launched 5 years ago – we weren’t even a software company. We were a consultancy. Which helped people map their company culture. Which was a long and complex process.
When we first started we had an idea. That we could transform the new thinking coming from Stanford and Google. And finished off by Michal at Manchester Uni. Into a digital product. And that we could make this into a SAAS product. To help the world of work. And help a million people be happier.
Due to COVID our potential marketplace grew 10 times almost overnight. As we were linked to remote work and now hybrid working. As Your FLOCK helps teams stay together for longer, by knowing each other more. This is especially important for team members that don’t see each other face to face as much.
Our technology decreases employee turnover by up to 27%. Saving companies tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands of pounds) by being a map on their team and company culture. And an early warning system. So team leaders can take direct action with the right data to make those decisions. As well as map their own evolving team and company culture over time.
How are you funded?
We have had some amazing funders go with us on our journey so far. From a variety of different industries. As well as funding from Innovate UK for some of our more DeepTech features. And even funding from European accelerators.
As well as high net worth and influential thinkers. And even partners that have used Your FLOCK and liked it so much they have invested in future rounds.
What has been your biggest challenge so far and how have you overcome this?
One of our biggest challenges is in product/market fit. Due to the solution being for every business. But also being for outliers in each industry. It’s been great to work with so many different companies and organisations.
But from a marketing POV, as a small tech startup we don’t have unlimited resources. So we have had to focus down on those that need the help the most.
How does Your FLOCK answer an unmet need?
Your FLOCK as a team engagement platform answers the age old question of:
“How can we help create a team and company where people want to stay?”
This is a profound question. Intensified in the post-COVID world. For everyone in the future of work. And the solution to it is multifaceted. At Your FLOCK we provide the values based data that team leaders would never normally have. It is this employee engagement data. That is so powerful for the next generation of post covid leadership.
What’s in store for the future?
At Your FLOCK we have many plans for the future. Our main mission is to help a million people be happier at work. And so to do this we will need to evolve our product offering so it can become viral and sought after.
To do so we must be mobile first and bring in elements of gamification to help on board our new users. So can we help their team leaders make the right decisions based on the values of the team. And not just the values of the company’s leadership.
What one piece of advice would you give other founders or future founders?
To get as much talent around you as possible. We have been lucky at Your FLOCK. To bring together a great team of investors and advisors for this part of our journey. Our advice would be to do the same.
And, of course, to think about using employee engagement surveys. And other technologies like Your FLOCK as you grow your team. To help keep your best talent together for longer. As losing key team members before you scale is a killer blow for most startups.
In the end, your company, even with technology, is the people that you keep with you. If you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far – pick the right team.
Dan Sodergren is cofounder of Your Flock.
English