employee-development
(4)
Tacala, LLC
Tacala built one Alabama Taco Bell into a 380-plus-store operating system. Its harder trick is making education, hardship relief and local giving work at drive-through scale.
Nestor
Nestor is an AI-powered, skills-based talent management platform - a self-described People Intelligence Platform - that helps HR leaders, managers, and employees map, activate, and deploy the skills inside an organization. Built around a market library of 20,000+ skills and an AI companion, Nestor connects performance management, employee engagement, and career development so companies can spot skill gaps, run an internal talent marketplace, and make workforce decisions based on capability rather than job titles.
Pinnacle - AI Coaching
Pinnacle is a New York-based HR-tech startup building scalable AI coaching that lives inside the tools employees already use. Its AI coach, Pascal, embeds in Slack, Microsoft Teams, and video meetings to give managers and employees personalized, real-time guidance drawn from their actual work context - performance reviews, 360 feedback, company competency frameworks, and day-to-day communication patterns. Founded by former accelerator CEO and executive coach Alexei Dunaway, Pinnacle raised a $2.5M seed round in March 2025 to bring executive-grade coaching to every employee, not just the C-suite.
Sayge
Sayge is a New York-based coaching platform that gives everyday employees - not just executives - ongoing 1:1 access to vetted, ICF-certified professional coaches. Founded in 2017 by Jamie Bryan and Katie Stricker under the banner 'Coaching for the Rest of Us,' the company pairs employees with a personal coach, runs biweekly virtual sessions, and hands employers dashboards that track progress and impact. After raising $1.75M in seed funding, Sayge was acquired by employee-benefits platform Bennie in October 2023 and now operates as part of Bennie's benefits suite.