When it comes to navigating the job market, companies have teams of people and technology services to efficiently build their workforce: HR teams, external recruiters, legal counsel, applicant tracking systems, and so much more.
But what do job seekers have to navigate the complex, often excruciating, process of finding a job?
Usually just a spreadsheet and Google. Maybe occasional advice from family and friends.
When I first had the idea for Teal, I saw that people need the infrastructure and tooling that companies have, but for their own careers. By bringing together technology efficiencies and smart processes together in one platform, we can help people grow their careers faster and with more confidence.
Since I started Teal in 2019, we’ve seen an acceleration in the rise of what I call the Age of Agency: a new era of modern professionals who have lived through a pandemic and want to grow their careers on their own terms. Last year alone, 47 million people quit their jobs, looking for something that would be a better fit for their needs, whether that meant better work life balance, better compensation, better teams, or better learning opportunities.
To date, Teal has helped 65,000 job seekers on their path to finding their own version of something better. Users have bookmarked hundreds of thousands of jobs and landed roles at companies like Google, Apple, TikTok, Bumble, and Spotify.
Today, we are more committed than ever to building the first personal career growth platform for people—not companies—that gives them the tools, skills, and recommendations they need to accelerate their career, starting with the job search.
To that end, I am thrilled to share that Teal has raised a $6.3 million seed financing round.
The round was led by City Light Capital’s partner Jeff Rinehart (former CMO at 2U), Rethink Education, Flybridge, Lerer Hippeau, Human Ventures, Gaingels, Oceans Ventures, Basecamp Fund, Zelkova Ventures, Pareto Ventures, the WeWork Alumni Fund, and Flamingo Capital joined this round, as did angel investors like Tom Willerer (former CPO at Opendoor and Coursera), Jonathan Wasserstrum, Megan O’Connor (Head of Strategic Partnerships at Chegg Skills and former Head of Growth at Human Ventures).
This new funding will enable us to make key hires and develop more products and experiences that support people not just in the job search, but throughout their careers.
I'm particularly excited about the work we're doing to build a recommendation engine that will help people find and learn the right skills to grow in a career they love. Teal will analyze the skills gap between a user's resume and their desired roles in order to recommend targeted courses on platforms like Coursera, General Assembly, Udemy, and PluralSight.
We believe this is a business model that’s well aligned to our mission so when Teal members grow, Teal grows—which leads me to another announcement.
I’m thrilled to introduce two new hires: Yowana Wamala, our Head of Growth, who has a wealth of experience in affiliate-based, organically grown business models from his time at NerdWallet, Credit Karma, and LendingTree; and Lauren Kerwell, our Head of Product Design, who joins the Teal team from Red Ventures, where she has a track record of designing thoughtful consumer marketplace experiences.
To everyone who’s been on this journey with us so far – thank you. We are grateful for the overwhelming support as we work to build new tools and experiences that accelerate the Age of Agency for the modern professional.
