RICHMOND, Va -- Growth Street Partners today announced a minority growth equity investment in goHappy, the leading provider of frontline employee communication and engagement software. goHappy will use the investment to expand its platform and extend its leadership position in this increasingly important category.
goHappy was founded by Shawn Boyer, the Founder and former CEO of Snagajob. The company’s SaaS platform is currently used by mid-market to enterprise organizations, across a number of verticals including restaurants, hotels, senior living communities, manufacturing facilities, retail, logistics, as well as organizations in other verticals that employ frontline workers. The platform allows the corporate offices and frontline leaders of these organizations to communicate directly with their frontline workforce, more effectively capture their feedback, and then take action on that feedback to drive improved business results. Using the platform, customers have experienced as high as a 20%+ reduction in employee turnover and double digit increases in desired organizational behaviors such as 40%+ increased participation in open enrollment.
goHappy is on a mission to help organizations build better work environments and cultures for all their employees, and especially their frontline workers who are too often overlooked. According to a Microsoft Work Trend Index Special Report, 62% of frontline workers say leadership does not prioritize culture building or communication, and 51% of frontline workers in non-management positions do not feel valued as employees. Furthermore, 69% of frontline managers say corporate is not effectively communicating with them, and 63% of frontline workers say messages from leadership do not make it to them. A recent global Boston Consulting Group survey also found that 37% of frontline workers are at risk of leaving their current jobs in the next six months.
"Organizations that employ frontline workers are starting to make significant investments in engaging and retaining these workers, and goHappy is at the center of this movement. Partnering with Growth Street positions us to double down on our commitment to helping these organizations engage their frontline workforce, and in doing so, drive better business outcomes and bottom line results,” explained Shawn Boyer, the Founder and CEO of goHappy.
“Growth Street is excited to partner with Shawn and the rapidly growing goHappy team," said Nate Grossman and Steve Wolfe, the Co-Founders of Growth Street Partners. “The frontline workforce has too often been left behind by HR technology, and no one is better positioned than Shawn and goHappy to solve this challenge and to help better engage and retain these workers."
In conjunction with the minority growth investment, Growth Street Partners will join the Board of Directors.
About goHappy
goHappy revolutionizes how employers communicate and engage with their frontline workers by providing the most inclusive and simple app-free technology ever created. Key to goHappy’s success is enabling employers to reach 100% of their deskless employees where they already are - in their text messages. Founded by Shawn Boyer who also founded Snagajob - the nation’s largest marketplace for hourly work - and a team that brings over 100 years of combined frontline employee engagement experience, goHappy’s mission is to help ALL frontline workers feel more valued and connected so they can reach their full potential. In turn, employers not only improve communication to maximize engagement and happiness within their frontline employees, but also benefit from the bottom line impact that those improvements deliver. For more information visit: www.gohappyhub.com.
Growth Street Partners
Growth Street Partners provides early growth capital to rapidly growing SaaS and technology-enabled services companies addressing underserved markets. The firm partners with founders who have personally lived through the problems their businesses solve. The firm has raised two funds and has over $200 million of assets under management. Recent investments include Pear Deck, ChildCareCRM, Visual Lease, Hotel Effectiveness, Suralink, HR Acuity, Govenda, PikMyKid, Public Input, and uConnect. Recent investment realizations include the majority sales of Hotel Effectiveness and Pear Deck, the majority recapitalization of Suralink, and the minority recapitalizations of Visual Lease and HR Acuity. If you are a founder from industry looking to scale your business without losing control or are simply interested in more information, please visit www.growthstreetpartners.com.