Sounding Board began as a marketplace connecting leaders to coaches and has launched a software platform that lets users connect with coaches and track goals on an ongoing basis. The company shifted toward a SaaS approach during the pandemic to move coaching beyond a services-only model. Leadership says Sounding Board focuses on capability-building for executives rather than mental-health–focused coaching and currently has no plans to add mental-health services. Sounding Board reports sequential growth for seven quarters, revenue in the “multimillions” historically, and annual bookings that increased more than 350% year over year. The company also reports net revenue retention of over 200%, indicating strong customer stickiness. Sounding Board serves about 100 customers, including Plaid, Chime and Bill.com. Sounding Board operates a marketplace that matches first-time managers through C-suite executives with professional coaches, letting users schedule sessions, receive resources, complete assigned tasks and track progress. The company is developing a broader platform to serve as a hub and roadmap where participants and coaches can track insights, progress and behaviors and measure goals in an OKR-like way. That product will also enable more asynchronous coaching interactions and help scale services beyond synchronous calls. Sounding Board says revenue has doubled or tripled every year since 2016 and now hovers in the “multi-millions”; quarterly bookings rose 3.4x from Q2 2020 and monthly revenue doubled in the last five months. Customers include VMware, Uber, Plaid, Chime and Dropbox. User composition is about 60% first-time managers, 30% middle-tier and 10% C-suite, and the founders see demand broadening beyond traditional C-suite coaching. Sounding Board is a two-year-old, San Francisco-based marketplace that connects corporate clients with leadership and executive coaches. Co-founded by Christine Tao and Lori Mazan, the company combines professional coaches with a scalable tech platform to deliver outcome-oriented coaching. Programs are typically six-month cohort engagements delivered via video, phone and asynchronous channels such as Slack and email, and the startup personalizes coaching across 12 developmental areas. Sounding Board uses a network of roughly 30 executive coaches who work as contractors and maintains eight full-time employees who also receive coaching. It positions its pricing at about one-tenth the cost of traditional Bay Area executive coaching, offering a more cost-effective alternative for both high-growth startups and large enterprises. Clients cited include Rakuten and Quantcast, and the company adapts coaching to roles and contexts across engineering, sales and other functions. Financially, the startup has raised $1 million in seed funding led by Bloomberg Beta, with participation from Precursor Ventures and numerous angel investors.

Total raised

$44M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Series B

Latest activity

Dec 2021