Thrive Creates Free Product to Help Those Losing Jobs
October 16, 2020
Portfolio company Thrive has developed a software platform that enables enterprises to provide a range of career transition and management services to individuals departing from their organization. As COVID set in, the team realized there was about to be a significant upheaval in the workforce. And many of the jobs being eliminated in late March and early April were with companies (e.g., restaurants, hospitality services, etc.) not in a position to offer the sort of career transition services Thrive enables. These companies were preoccupied with trying to manage the overwhelming impacts now hitting their businesses. This motivated the Thrive team to look for new ways to make their software available to support those many individuals who were about to become job seekers. In no time the team was busy creating a new version of their application and launching it free of charge to impacted job seekers.
The new ‘freemium’ offering produced immediate results for the company. Importantly, thousands of job seekers discovered the offer, accessed the platform and used the software to build resumes, access learning content and start planning the next phase of their careers in whatever the ‘new normal’ was going to look like. In turn, this raised the Thrive corporate profile significantly, both with users of the tool and also among a broader range of corporate employers. Companies across Canada began reaching out to Thrive to state how impressed they were with the effort and speed that was applied to help individuals get career transition assistance in these tough times.
In some cases, the outreach was about partnering to offer their own services at no charge through the platform. In other cases, the contact was a new business lead for Thrive, discovering the platform as a preferred means of investing in career transition services for their own firm moving forward. It is worth noting as well, some of the new job-seekers using the free services on the platform were formally employed with technology companies which were not in a position to offer these services directly. Several of those former employees liked the platform enough to apply for a job at Thrive, and some of those have now been hired into the company to support its ongoing growth. A win on all fronts.
Q2 2020 was a Quarter to be remembered indeed. The ability for Thrive to respond with new ideas, rapid product releases and a user-focused attitude allowed the company to continue growing, raising its profile and confronting turbulent times head-on. Trademarks of a company with a strong future … thrivemycareer.com