What we achieved at Culture Amp in 2018
2018 was an incredible year at Culture Amp.
We've now collected over 100 million pieces of feedback and our data scientists are ecstatically happy about the dataset that we have to do research on.
On the product front, this year has also been transformative. Learning faster through feedback is one of our company values, and having the ability to learn from our customers is paramount. We've put key pieces of product infrastructure in place. These have underpinned a substantial shift from Culture Amp as a listening platform to an action platform that drives organizational change. This means we’re helping people to collect, understand and most importantly, act on employee feedback.
Collective intelligence and the action framework
There are two parts to this achievement. First, we delivered new capability in our tool that is built around our collective intelligence framework. Our inspiration engine pulls content from the 1,800 companies that use our platform and a range of thought leaders and consultants that are developing material in this space. It then brings all of this information to bear so our customers can use it. If they’re looking at something they need to improve, the tool will show them things that other people have done in that area that have actually made a difference.
The action framework also looks at how to take people on the journey. It doesn’t just say they should focus on something, it guides them through the process. What we've delivered so far is great, but what we will be delivering in the future is even more exciting. We're seeing a shift towards behavior architecture. We want to help people become better versions of themselves and lift the capability of everyone in the organization. So we're putting a lot of work into our product to help organizations do this.
Better 360 reviews for all
In 2018 we also extended the opportunity for people to use the Culture Amp platform to collect and act on individual employee feedback. We're now running 360-degree reviews for people in thousands of companies around the world and that's powering change at the individual level, not just at the organizational level. This is setting us up for the future. We’ll be focusing on bringing all that data together so users can see the whole employee life cycle end to end.
Welcoming new customers and celebrating those already with us
We also added many new customers this year, and more importantly, we had extraordinarily high retention amongst existing customers. We started 2018 with about 1,000 customers and ended with over 1,800 of all shapes and sizes. It's fantastic to see all of these organizations use the Culture Amp platform to implement an employee feedback strategy, collect data and use that to make changes to improve their organizations. Just hearing the stories of what our customers do is part of the joy for me as CEO.
Our inaugural Culture First conference was a success
We grew our People Geek community this year by holding our first Culture First event in June. Almost 1,000 people turned up to learn about what it means to be Culture First. One of our board members came up to me at the event and said it was fascinating not just to hear speakers like Patty McCord, Lindsay McGregor, Tatiana Mamut, and Susan Cain, but also to hear the conversations happening outside the sessions. This event was the highlight of the year for me and set Culture Amp up for the year ahead. A big thanks to Brad, Nina, and the team that ran this incredible event.
Series D funding sets us up for continued growth
Finally, we were very happy to close our Series D and raise another US$40 million. Our existing investors drove the round, a huge vote of confidence in what we're doing. But as I say to people at Culture Amp, you shouldn't celebrate raising the money, you should celebrate what you do with it. So, we’re using that money to continue building the company and the product we want to deliver.
Welcoming more Campers than ever before
Over the course of the year, we grew to 280 people, and by the time you're finished reading this, it’ll probably be almost 300. Our people work across four offices - San Francisco, New York, London, and Melbourne with remote employees across the globe. Over the last year, we've been fortunate to hire amazing senior leaders and executives across all company areas. We’ve also been able to invest in some amazing researchers, which is a capability we haven’t had full-time before. As we grow, there are opportunities for many of our people to step up and take new roles. But it also means we can access great new talent because we’re more attractive to people that have the skills and capabilities that we need.
From now on, we’re only going to accelerate. We're investing heavily in data science, machine learning, design, go-to-market, sales, and marketing. We’re attracting some of the brightest and best people to come and join our mission. If you want to join a fast-growing company that is making the world of work better for everyone, we’d love to hear from you.
