ChartHop is Empowering Scale Through Better Access to People Data

Only about fifty percent of small businesses make it to their fifth year in business, and 70% of those failures happen because leaders are unsure of how or when to scale their teams. 

When it comes to HR technology, there are plenty of services to streamline the hiring process, facilitate payroll deposits, and even identify reasons for high turnover, but there is very limited technology that does all of the above — and predict potential problem areas too. 

Ian White, the founder of New York City-based startup ChartHop, is working to fill the gaps surrounding hiring, turnover, payroll, and other HR functions that hinder a young company’s ability to scale. Frustrated by the fact that there were great tools for every aspect of the business, except building and growing a great team, White set out to build the tool he wished he’d had when scaling his last company. 

“New York City is truly unique—its incredible cultural energy brings talent and opportunity together like nowhere else.”

Ian White, founder and CEO, charthop

“Unlike legacy people analytics solutions, ChartHop is designed to be used by the whole organization,” White told BrainStation Magazine. “This helps companies improve organizational health, drive alignment and accountability, and save time and money.”  

Building a business on “people data”

ChartHop became commercially available just three weeks before the pandemic hit, and White notes that since then, the business has grown 1300%. He hypothesizes that, especially with teams going remote then returning to the office and responding to the ongoing stressors in the news, companies realized the need for an “integrated, unified system of People Analytics” — a system that includes “access to data to help their companies make the right decisions that impact their people.” 

ChartHop works by bringing together all of an organization’s “people data,” a term that encompasses everything from payroll and demographic metrics to overall performance and engagement. Then, by using visualizations that anyone can use and understand, users from all levels of the organization can make the right people-related decisions. 

“We all know that people don’t leave companies, they leave managers. And unfortunately, managers have been historically neglected when it comes to tools to make them better managers. ChartHop empowers managers to have information at their fingertips that they need on a daily basis, [so they can] be more proactive about addressing potential issues and ensure they foster retention in their teams.”

According to White, ChartHop saved one of their top clients, Invision, the equivalent of $2.5M in lost productivity across the organization.

“Because companies can now use ChartHop as their people analytics command center, CEOs can leave planning in the capable hands of their management team,” explains White.

“[With another client Starbust], an exercise that would have cost the company tens of thousands of dollars before is now more efficiently routed through the management team. Plus, ChartHop’s ability to quickly tabulate headcount budgets based on proposed plans ultimately reduced Starbursts’ needs for a large finance team, saving them hundreds of thousands in annual headcount costs.”

ChartHop’s recent growth 

Earlier this month, ChartHop announced it has successfully raised $35 million in Series B funding. The new funding came shortly after ChartHop first raised $14 million in Series A funding last year. 

While the company does not release recent exact revenue numbers, White shares that in the past year, ChartHop has grown from 10 employees to over 70, increasing revenue by 500%, nearly quadrupling customer count, and has seen 17% month-over-month growth for the past 12 months. 

ChartHop has also engaged in a number of exciting partnerships. 

Sequoia, one of the leaders in HR technology, will integrate ChartHop into its service offerings. The popular internal chat software Slack will also integrate with ChartHop to support organizations in streamlining communication, as well as G Suite, ensuring team members have easy access to the resources they need. 

“We believe that when employees have context, they can do their jobs so much more effectively,” explains White. “And much of the context they need is centered around other people in the organization, knowing who to reach out to, how to work with them best, and what their roles are. This [data] not only gives employees the knowledge they need to do their jobs, but it creates stronger connections between employees so they feel part of something bigger.”

Building a better workplace

Recently recognized as part of Wing Venture Capital’s 2021 Enterprise Tech 30 List as an “Enterprise Tech Leader”, ChartHop is also taking the time to give back.

The HR revolutionaries recently released their first annual Charting Better Workplaces report, which “analyzes real-time salary and equity data from more than 16,000 employees across the technology industry.” The report reviews salary and other factors like gender and race in order to help leaders address wage inequality in their companies.

“We believe [ChartHop’s] visualizations make data accessible and easy to understand, regardless of someone’s analytical expertise,” says White. “People who work in HR generally started in that role because they value the human experience. By making people data really easy to consume, ChartHop frees them up to focus on the human element.” 

According to White, ChartHop plans to grow its team to roughly 120 people by the end of the year, and New York City is the perfect place to do it.

“I’ve been living and working in New York City for sixteen years,” says White. “Over that time I’ve seen the city’s tech industry go from a small community to becoming the beating pulse of the city. New York is truly unique—its incredible cultural energy brings talent and opportunity together like nowhere else. It’s a great place to live and a great place to build a company, and I’m proud to be a part of it.”