New York City-based GoCoach, a nearly two-year-old startup that trains employees in hard and soft workforce skills, will scale its business in Philadelphia, setting up shop here in early 2020.
The app works to train or reskill employees, companies or individuals to make them more marketable to hiring mangers, or to keep current employees up to date.
Scranton native Kristy McCann Flynn launched the company in 2018 to offer a SaaS and customer-facing solution to the professional development market. The app relies on a network of customers and career coaches who work together to bring folks up to speed on current workforce trends and skills. It tracks KPIs, has behavioral assessments and brings in a range of “coaches” for various industries.
A few months after it launched, GoCoach doubled its initial sales and now has 150 coaches on 300 assignments, McCann Flynn said.
“The real problem is that it became normal to rehire people annually instead of investing in them which is a waste of money, time, people, culture, engagement and more,” McCann Flynn said. “We are here to break that norm and make it abnormal … by providing continuous personalized education at scale with our coach marketplace and learning platform.”
While she launched the startup in NYC, it was time to grow the company elsewhere, the Saint Joseph’s University grad said. In 2020, the company is focusing expansion efforts on both coasts, here in Philadelphia and on the West Coast in California.
McCann Flynn left Philly in 2001 because at the time, job growth and the tech community weren’t thriving here.
“In the past 20 years, Philadelphia has changed so much in jobs, technology, real estate and more,” she said. McCann Flynn and her husband moved back recently to take advantage of the now-growing industry and thousands of area college grads who need preparation for the workforce.
The team is currently mostly remote, but is looking at adding a Philly office in 2020. It just brought on a fellow St. Joe’s grad as an account executive, and McCann Flynn said the company will be hiring a sales and support team for the Philadelphia office next year.
“We want to be part of the growth and innovation in Philadelphia and give back to the community with our education platform,” she said.
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