New Year's resolutions are more than just wishful thinking. They provide just the right amount of purpose and motivation to get started on the small habits that eventually add up to bigger changes.
As we look to what 2023 has in store for Human Enablement, we at Roble Ventures feel more optimistic than ever about the work that our portfolio companies are doing to bring about the future of work and learning. We asked some of our EdTech and HR Tech founders about what they’re looking to achieve in the year ahead, as well as to reflect on a high moment from 2022.
Dragonboat
Dragonboat enables your teams to connect objectives with initiatives, prioritize with data, and adjust allocation based on results — all in one outcome-focused product portfolio platform.
“There are so many things to be proud of from the past year," says Becky Flint, Dragonboat's CEO. "We achieved five times the booked revenue growth from 2021, with only 40% of our budgeted headcount growth. We’re also helping some of the world’s biggest companies make better product decisions."
Their goal for 2023 is to become the go-to choice of platform for outcome-focused product companies. “We’re aiming for sustained growth — triple revenue — as we stay true to our motto of outcome-focused portfolio practice.”
FlowEQ
With the flood of layoffs, 2022 was a challenging year for the tech sector — but FlowEQ soared. Their no-code workflow solution embeds within existing automated enterprise workflows, enabling teams to accelerate important work such as customer support, operations, and member services.
“I’m really proud of how I grew my team,” the company’s CEO, Brittani Dunlap, told us. “In 2023, I want to be able to embrace constant change, both on a personal and professional level!”
Slang
Diego Villegas, the CEO of the professional English learning solution, is extremely optimistic about its impact. During 2022, he says, “our efforts have pushed things to an inflection point where I feel — for the very first time — that professional and specialized English is taking over. Slang has been a trendsetter in this regard, as professional English becomes the default way to go in the Latam corporate L&D market.”
The Common European Framework of Reference for languages (CEFR) is no longer the only solution for a life-long professional career for ESL speakers.
Slang’s New Year’s resolution is to open up their platform so that content creators can participate in and contribute to their professional English offerings. With that wealth of knowledge, Diego says, “we’ll empower our customers to create the ultimate personalized learning experience for all of their job titles and roles.”
UBITS
In 2013, Julián Melo launched UBITS to make it easy for people to get skills-based credentials that can help them land new jobs. Since then, he's seen tremendous growth in the corporate learning platform's user base, which serves 570 customers representing over 160,000 users worldwide.
This past year alone has been especially successful for Julián and his team at UBITS: they tripled their catalog and launched their premium subscription tier called UBITS Max, which provides access to more than 3,000 courses with partners like TED, AWS, Google, and Microsoft.
"I'm extremely proud of our successful launch of UBITS Max," says Julián. “In the year to come, I’d really like for us to continue our expansion and hit 1,000 customers.”
Rising Team
Jennifer Dulski is the CEO of Rising Team, a platform that helps organizations increase employee connection and engagement by equipping managers to run team development sessions, remotely or in-person, without an outside facilitator. Their interactive kits center around science-backed themes of leadership and connection such as psychological safety, feedback culture, and learning agility.
Jen is an empathetic leader who makes a point of practicing gratitude on a regular basis. “In 2023, my goal is to tell at least one person a month who has had a positive impact in my life at any point how grateful I am for them.”
2022 was a great year for Rising Team. “I am immensely proud of our growth, which has allowed us to serve six times more teams around the world, and helped them to become more connected and successful.”
About the author
Roble Ventures is a future-of-work focused fund investing in technologies that enable people, teams, and organizations to achieve their most ambitious work.
