This female-founded startup wants to build better managers – and raised $6.8 million in Seed funding to do it

Two women who founded a startup on opposite sides of the world to help people be better managers has just raised $6.8 million in Seed funding.

Lauren Humphrey and Melissa Miller spent more than a decade developing managers in senior roles at US unicorn startups Gusto and Brightwheel, before launching The Mintable from Sydney and Denver last year to solve what they see to be one of the most critical problems facing organisations – a lack of relevant development content to help managers address their day-to-day problems in a practical way.

Some of Australia’s fastest growing companies, including Eucalyptus, Sonder, Dovetail, and Heaps Normal, are already using The Mintable’s platform.

The Mintable is a community-based learning and growth platform that gives managers the training, community, and tools to succeed.

The round was led by Blackbird, with participation from Treble Capital, Startmate, Black Nova, Flying Fox Ventures, Saniel Ventures, The Sypkes Group, and Global Founders Capital. The business previously raised $1.3. million in pre-seed funding from Treble Capital, Blackbird, Black Nova, Startmate, and angel investors.

Humphrey, The Mintable’s CEO, said they’d “been in the trenches as first-time managers” and then spent a decade developing managers at fast-growing unicorn startups, but it finding advice that addressed the day-to-day challenges of managers in a practical way “always drove us crazy” so they decided to tackle the problem.

“No one is solving directly for people managers and combining learning with doing,” she said.

“The Mintable has been developed through a mixture of science, research, and most importantly, real-life experience and gives managers battle-tested content that they can use from day one.”

Her co-founder and COO, Melissa Miller, said they interviewed more than 230 managers to “understand what’s really broken” before  launch.

“The findings were consistent – in addition to practical help, managers are desperate for connection with other managers to talk through their experiences, problem-solve, and exchange ideas” she said.

“That’s why we’re delivering this experience as a platform both for companies looking to support their people, and for managers who want to invest in themselves. We’re creating a community where managers belong to support them over the long-haul.”

Having launched last year, the startup’s virtual learning accelerator, Manager Foundations, has already trained more than 600 managers from some of the world’s fastest growing companies with its four-week program.

The company is now expanding its offering with membership packages available to both individual managers and in the second half of 2022, plans to launch an AI-powered solution to help managers improve their one-on-one meetings with direct reports