manager-development
(4)
Leadr
Leadr is a Texas-based B2B SaaS company that builds continuous-performance software to help managers develop the people who report to them. Positioned as an operating system for managers, the platform brings 1-on-1 meetings, goal setting, feedback, engagement surveys, reviews and AI meeting tools into one place. Founded in 2019 by veterans of the church-tech unicorn Pushpay, Leadr raised a $10M Series A led by Bedrock and works toward a stated mission of developing one million leaders. Its customers span businesses, hospitals, nonprofits, churches and educational institutions.
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.
Alexei Dunaway
Alexei Dunaway is the founder and CEO of Pinnacle, a New York and Palo Alto based startup building Pascal, an AI performance and career coach that lives inside Slack, Teams, and Zoom. A Stanford GSB graduate and Fulbright Scholar, he spent five years building an entrepreneur accelerator in Kenya before running an executive coaching practice for venture-backed founders. He now wants to give every worker the kind of coaching that used to be reserved for the C-suite. Pinnacle raised a $2.5M seed round in March 2025 led by eLab Ventures.
Torch
Torch is a San Francisco-based people development platform that combines executive coaching, mentoring, and collaborative learning to help enterprises grow leaders at scale. Founded in 2017 by two psychologists, Cameron Yarbrough and Keegan Walden, Torch pairs human coaches with software, data, and (increasingly) AI to make leadership development measurable for companies like Reddit, Zendesk, Twitch, and FICO.