The Founder Formula

Lauren Fitzpatrick Shanks - Founder of KeepWOL

• Trace3 • Episode 41

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In this episode of The Founder Formula, learn all about Lauren Fitzpatrick Shank’s journey to entrepreneurism. Lauren is the Founder and CEO of KeepWOL, a game-centric talent development platform. 

Listen in to this episode of The Founder Formula to hear directly from a Founder whose mission is to help leaders deeply understand their employees. Plus, you’ll hear about building a brand that solves a problem, the art of saying no, and developing a good business culture through understanding people.

Listen to this and all of The Founder Formula episodes through your favorite podcast platform or Trace3.com.

Intro:

The founder formula brings you in behind the curtains and inside the minds of today's brave executives at the most future leaning startups. Each interview will feature a transformative leader who's behind the wheel at a fast paced and innovative tech firm. They'll give you an insider's look at how companies are envisioned, created and scaled. We hope you're ready. Let's get into the show.

Todd Gallina:

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Founder Formula. My name is Todd Galena, and with me is Sandy Salty, the Chief Marketing Officer at Trace3.

Sandy Salty:

Hi, Todd.

Todd Gallina:

Hello, Sandy. How are

Sandy Salty:

you? I'm great. How are you?

Todd Gallina:

Doing great. Excited about today's show. We have a wonderful guest, and this guest came to us by way of you.

Sandy Salty:

Yes. Yeah, Todd. I'm super excited to have this gal on. She is the founder of a company called Keep Bull.

Todd Gallina:

Yeah.

Sandy Salty:

And And I just really believe in their mission. You know, they're out to create more conscious leadership in the world. and really sort of make headway in organizational health and building companies the right way. So it's something that I know is super near and dear to both of our hearts.

Todd Gallina:

Yeah, I'm really excited. Now, she came to us by way of your relationship to her. You are a board advisor for her company.

Sandy Salty:

Yes, I am. I have the privilege of being a board advisor for Keepful, particularly from a marketing perspective, and was recommended to her actually by an industry veteran named Guy Reams. Hi, Guy, if you're listening, who's held leadership positions in many, many tech companies over the years. So yeah, it was one of those situations where he made the introduction and I did a little bit of research on the company and completely fell in love and can't think of a better way to spend evening hours than by helping this company grow and establish a go-to market and all the things you need to do as a startup

Todd Gallina:

Yeah, and I can only imagine that if you are creating a startup, getting access to folks that can advise you on so many things that you're still learning is crucial. And I also think it's really cool for you because I think probably a lot of us say to ourselves like, hey, I could be a board advisor or I could hold a board seat. Speaking with you prior to this recording, I learned that they're two completely different things. And so maybe when we're done chatting with our guests, we We could hear a little bit more about how you became a board advisor, some of the things that you do. Sure. Okay. I think that would be great.

Sandy Salty:

Awesome.

Todd Gallina:

So why don't we get to our guest?

Sandy Salty:

Let's roll.

Todd Gallina:

Okay. Okay. Joining us is an award-winning engineer with 15 years of experience in entrepreneurship, engineering, product creation, software program management, and operations. She holds an aerospace engineering degree and an MBA in operations management. She's the recipient of the Women in Technology Rising Star Award and has won the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the AIAA, International Design Competition. In 2018, our guest founded KeepWall, a technology company that uses games to unlock the understanding of human behavior and build stronger relationships in the workplace and beyond. Welcome to the show, Lauren Fitzpatrick Shanks.

Lauren Fitzpatrick Shanks:

Hey, thank you both for having me. I'm excited to be here. It's

Sandy Salty:

good to have you, Lauren. Before we jump into KeepFull, we want to learn about you. Tell us about the different stages of your career.

Lauren Fitzpatrick Shanks:

I started out in aerospace engineering and so went to college, started there and spent 14 years like in the engineering and technology space. But my story is a little different. So I didn't know that I wanted to go into engineering and aerospace and I kind of was pushed into that direction for my family, specifically my father and my school counselor. And so I got into it. And once I got there, I very much was like, hey, this is not for me. It's not something I want to do. And when I went to the diversity coordinator at the University of Kansas, I went to her and said, hey, I'm thinking about changing my major. And she told me, yeah, that's not surprising. Freshmen change their major all the time. And I was like, okay, cool. And she goes, it's specifically not surprising because no Black woman has graduated from the aerospace engineering department here at KU. And yeah, so I'm being the competitive person I am. I'm very competitive. I was like, oh, challenge accepted. And so I continued with that program. I had internships all three years of school and had a job coming out of school immediately, like following that summer in May, started my full-time position with Boeing and And I spent eight years, I think, total in aerospace, but I jumped around, did a lot of job hopping. I actually worked at five different companies over the course of 14 years. So in that, it was growing from being a flight test engineer to then getting into system tests, to going and dabbling more into project and program management, but still around like flight systems. And then I really wanted to take a dive into more and so into the technology and software space. And so the last five years of my career really focused around that. So software program management, technical program management was really where I ended my corporate career before I jumped into entrepreneurship and building my own tech startup.

Sandy Salty:

What a neat story. This episode is not about me, but we do share a common background in that I chose the the difficult path of neuroscience in undergrad and led there by my father as well. And the difference would be that by the time I realized I didn't want to continue down that path, I was like three and a half years into it already and decided to stay simply because it was the most challenging major at the school that I went to. And I wasn't going to give up. So I graduated with that degree and then moved on to do something completely different than the tech world and somehow got wrangled back into this world. But I've loved it ever since.

Lauren Fitzpatrick Shanks:

It keeps a hold on us. Just pulls you back in. You try to leave, it pulls you right back

Todd Gallina:

in. Well, you both had dads that were active influencers and going into the kind of degree area. Lauren, you mentioned your dad kind of recommending that you go into the aeronautics program. Did he also have an influence on you potentially becoming an entrepreneur? What in your background made you think that this is something that you could do?

Lauren Fitzpatrick Shanks:

That is such a good question. And to answer your question, yes, my dad has basically manifested my entire life. I'm going to send him this episode of the podcast just so he can hear this and he can get some shine because I tell him this all the time. But I was really, really good at math. And that was something I was very interested in. I loved it. everything about it. And as I mentioned, him and the counselor basically were just like, well, what are you going to major in? And I was like, I'm going to major in math. And they were like, what are you going to do with that? Which I'm now in my older age, I'm like, there's so much that you can do with math. And y'all should have like said, here's all the different things you can do with math instead of you need to go into engineering. And so they had told me that I should go into engineering, but my mother had forced me into this aviation youth academy while I was in high school. And so the only engineering program that I knew anything about was aerospace. So it was kind of like, okay, that's going to be the one I go in because it's the only one I know kind of anything about. But as far as entrepreneurship and what guided me this direction, while I was, as I said, my dad said going into engineering and then he was like, you're going to be an inventor and you're going to invent and be a founder of a company and all this stuff. And I would consistently tell him, no, I'm not. I have zero interest in doing that. That sounds hard. Who is like everything that's against it? And it's kind of just like I happenstance into this, but maybe not really because I just feel like he says something and then it happens. And so that's why I say, I feel like my father just kind of manifests the direction of where my life will go. And there's just one, I always say, there's one thing that he kept on saying I would be a patent attorney. His whole goal for me was to go get an engineering degree and then get a law degree in patent law. And I had every intention of doing that until my senior year of college and like getting into it and finishing that up. And I was like, yep, absolutely not. I'm not doing that. And so he keeps telling me there's still time, but I'm pretty firm in that stance.

Sandy Salty:

Yeah. You're like, dad, I'll outsource that part of it.

Todd Gallina:

Yeah. So let me just say, let's hear it for dads. Yeah.

Sandy Salty:

How prophetic. That's incredible. I assume Fitzpatrick is your maiden name. Is that fair to say? That

Lauren Fitzpatrick Shanks:

is correct. Yep. Way

Sandy Salty:

to go, Mr. Fitzpatrick. Shout out

Todd Gallina:

to you. Yeah. You know, parents know their kids sometimes, right? And they have a vision. Yeah. And they have a might be good at. There's some nudging. He's still nudging, it sounds like. He's

Lauren Fitzpatrick Shanks:

still nudging. He's one of my best friends. We talk regularly, but he's still nudging. Full force. I will admit, he saw a lot of things that I just did not have the vision to see. I equate me taking the hard path because he just keeps pushing me down those paths. I always go down the challenging roads.

Sandy Salty:

That's incredible. And it sounds like your mother also influenced a little bit in the direction of your life with Keepful and what the mission of Keepful is, given her background. So let's jump into that. Tell us a bit about Keepful and what it's designed to do, why you started it.

Lauren Fitzpatrick Shanks:

So it's funny that you mentioned my mother because I know we had the previous conversation and I talked about like how my mom is so proud and stuff. And you had asked like, wait, why? Why is she proud of this like HR platform? But my mother has been in HR my entire living life. And I never even would have imagined that my interest and my background in aerospace and everything like that would lead me to creating a solution that is an HR tech. solution. Like I, you couldn't have told me that that would happen. And I believe it. So it's very interesting, but as far as people's mission. KeepWOL, first of all, it stands for Keep Wondering Out Loud, and our mission is to unlock understanding through play to build stronger relationships in the workplace and beyond. So to take a step back, just to say like, okay, cool, that's a cool mission, like unlocking understanding through play, why? So KeepWOL is an interactive engagement and retention software platform, and it emphasizes cohort-based learning amongst direct teams. So it uses this AI-enabled gamification to engage employees and accelerate their skill development and increase talent retention within organizations. It's all backed by science and it's designed to be fun while also providing actionable insights and people analytics to leaders so that they can improve the team effectiveness and culture of their organization. So that's kind of the mission and what we're building. But just to weave in my personal story with that a bit more, I mentioned that I worked at the So it was five Fortune 500 companies. It was over the span of 14 years. And just for all identification purposes, because folks cannot see me, I am a female. I identify as a female. I'm a millennial and I'm a Black woman. And it was difficult for me to relate to my colleagues at that surface level. It would take months to build trust and create mutually beneficial working relationships. And those typically only happened with a few select members. members from my team. And that minimized my feelings of loyalty towards the entire team and the organization. Because we think about it, we often have like our work besties. You hear about work besties, your work spouse. And so I did always have like one or two of those. But when it came time for me to want to leave or something wasn't feeling right, there was nothing anchoring me to that company because oftentimes my work bestie and I didn't work on the same project. We weren't on the same team. It was just someone I clicked with. So for Keep Wool, I created a solution that's efficiently connecting members of an entire team at a deeper level, as well as enabling that company-wide. So when you're looking for your next opportunity, you want to look inside the company instead of looking outside the company. So with KeepWell, we're focused on creating those human relationships because we know people have relationships with people and not the four walls of a company.

Sandy Salty:

I love what you said about efficiently connecting as well. I've had the unique experience of of actually participating in a key poll session with you, Lauren. And I have to say it is truly efficient. It's extremely, it's a very lightweight exercise. It's a simple platform, but it's an incredibly profound experience. You know, when I think about all of the different leadership models that exist in the workplace, you know, you have on one end of the spectrum, you have sort of the autocratic leadership model. On the other side, you have a democratic leadership

Todd Gallina:

model.

Sandy Salty:

Then you have servant leadership somewhere in there as well. I mean, there's probably over a dozen different types of leadership models. I think the new frontier for leadership models is conscious leadership.

Todd Gallina:

And,

Sandy Salty:

you know, one of the kind of the pillars of conscious leadership is leading with authenticity and being radically self-aware. And I truly believe that people allows you to be that kind of leader. in a very sort of efficient way as well. So kudos to you for being a part of the evolution of leadership as a whole. And

Lauren Fitzpatrick Shanks:

honestly,

Sandy Salty:

being a leader in culture building. I mean, it's a pretty incredible experience. Thank you. On the topic of culture, what do you think the keys are to developing good culture from your perspective? I mean, we hit on some of them already, but is there more?

Lauren Fitzpatrick Shanks:

Yeah, I think the keys are, it all starts with understanding. And so when we think about culture and we think about being able to create that and keep our talent, we hear all different kinds of reasons why people leave, right? It's competition, compensation, flexibility. And I feel like all of those are valid reasons, but they're typically the cherry on top or the straw that broke the camel's back on why people talent truly leaves. And when we think about the culture and the organization, and often people are leaving because they've outgrown the organization and what it can do for them, and they no longer or never felt valued. They become uninterested or no longer feel challenged, or they don't feel like they belong. And so I think developing a good culture starts with understanding. So many companies believe you can proclaim that your company's culture will be this and people will just fall in line. But guess what? People are people, which means they are complex and rarely fit into this nice and neat, formal culture messaging we all create. Like, I mean, even people, we've created our culture messaging, but the truth is the bigger the company becomes, the more challenging that is. So we have to nurture our people to build a culture based on shared values. And we have to practice those values and understand how they show up and how each person defines them. And that's consistent work. It's an iterative and continuous process, just like building software or team development or anything like that. And when someone new joins a company or a team, it completely shifts the dynamics of how the company and team function. And we try so often to shoehorn new people into the existing dynamics instead of realizing, hey, wait, We now have a new dynamic and we need to understand it and how it functions. So I think that is the whole thing on, you're going to build a good culture. That's what you have to start with, understanding and realizing that you don't just define your culture at the beginning and then that's your culture. It's

Sandy Salty:

iterative. It's a living exercise that's constantly evolving if you're doing it right. Yes,

Lauren Fitzpatrick Shanks:

100%.

Todd Gallina:

When you have a software as a service company that's focused on culture building, leadership building, I imagine it puts extra pressure on you as a leader within your own business to make sure that you're doing the same and the people that report to you. Can you talk a little bit about how having a business like this impacts how you behave day in and day out in the office, especially under stressful circumstances?

Lauren Fitzpatrick Shanks:

Oh my gosh, Todd, that is probably one of the best questions I've ever been asked because lots of people just be like, what's your leadership style and what's this? And I have to think about it as I am building a brand and a company that's focused on solving a problem that I lived day in and day out for 15 years, right? And so my whole focus is to be the type of leader that I always wish I had and And part of that was like, I wish people would take the time to understand who they're dealing with. And that knowing that when I walk and talk to Todd, that Todd is different from Sandy and I need to make sure that I understand how to best support and approach them in the way that they want and need to be supported. And so this becomes harder, especially during stressful situations, but understanding For me, I train myself to be very consciously aware. And then I'm also very transparent in moments when I'm coming. Like today, for example, there was a lot of things and chaos happening in my morning and I got on to a team call and I immediately stated, this is how I'm showing up and letting them know like anything that you hear from me or that seems out of the ordinary or something like that. here's how I've walked in. Because in a lot of cases, I think this is just a history. It's been, hey, check your baggage at the door and come in and let it all roll off. And that made sense at a time, but we're now in this evolution of the workplace where we have new generations of employees that are soon going to make up 70% of the workforce come 2025. And they're not checking baggage at the door. They're going to show up authentically who they are And we have to ask the question of like, how are you doing today? And be expecting a real answer from that. And then act accordingly based on that. Because the whole goal is to get the most out of whoever you're working with. And if they can't give you that most, it might be preferred for them to take a beat and then come back the next day because then they can give you the most. My whole thing is I want to practice what I preach. And so within KeepWool, we drink the Kool-Aid. Like Sandy said, she got to experience a session with us. We aren't the type of company that's building this solution and we don't use the solution ourselves. For our clients, we recommend KeepWool sessions on a monthly basis. KeepWool Inc. does KeepWool, as a team on a bi-weekly basis. And so that like, we really live and breathe what we're building and putting out into the world because we want to be the ones that can make that impact.

Sandy Salty:

I love that. You referred to quote unquote, the problem that you were dealing with throughout your career before you, you made the leap to be a founder and create your own business. Is that the problem? Kind of that lack of understanding, so to speak, in the workplace. Would you say that that's what triggered you to start your company? I would assume so. But like, what was that moment when you decided you needed to leave your day job to start your own company? Was there a specific moment?

Lauren Fitzpatrick Shanks:

Yes, there was a specific moment. There was an absolute there was a plan. I want to say there was a plan. I will say that George Floyd's murder really accelerated my desire to because I already had created the prototype for KeepWell. KeepWell actually started as a card game. And so that's why I said I never in my wildest dreams would have thought I'd build an HR tech company because we were a B2C company and we had started out and we built it out as a card game, always planned to make it a digital platform, but thought it would be like a mobile app. And we always thought it would be like B2C or would be something type of social app. And so the shift that we had when I went to digital It was after George Floyd's murder. And it was because all my other plans that I had for KeepWool had been shut down because of the pandemic and things like that. But then it was this whole realization of, wait, what we're doing with KeepWool would very much help companies in this instance of awakening and recognizing and having these listening sessions and all that. This is what's needed. But I didn't make that connection until I started testing out our prototype. And we had these public sessions that happened and people were coming to them. So still in this moment, I'm thinking this is still going to be B2C and that's why we're having these public sessions. But this is midst of the pandemic, August, 2020, and people come to it and they were like, This is amazing. We need to utilize this on my team back in my office or in our workplace. And I didn't even make the, I didn't make this connection. So I won't even sit there and be like, I have this aha moment. And it was just like, no, I did not make that connection. Someone said it. And I was like, oh, that's cute. I've worked in corporate. That's not happening. Like that was my thought. And then they contacted us the next week. I had three companies contact us and say, hey, someone from my team went to one of your sessions and recommend that we bring this in. And so that was like the thing that started us down this line of, oh, we could have something B2B. But then at that point, I still was working full time. So I had taken a nine month maternity leave. And so this was great because it was in the midst of the pandemic and everything else.

Todd Gallina:

Was your baby this company?

Lauren Fitzpatrick Shanks:

Yeah, yeah. This company is my third baby, but I had a son in April of 2020. So that was like, what? You had a

Todd Gallina:

busy COVID.

Lauren Fitzpatrick Shanks:

Right? Right. I like to stay busy and that helped with postpartum depression and everything else that comes with mom world. So like I was staying busy, but when I returned back to work, so I returned back in 2021 and I had this whole plan. My, my process was I had some stock that was vesting. I wanted, um, I planned on leaving in July of 2021 and there was something that happened and it was not something new. It was a thing that had been happening that I had been having the conversation with leadership about. And it was just that breaking point of you're not understanding and you, you're not understanding that this is not only a Lauren issue, but this is a bigger issue like beyond me. And it wasn't about diversity, equity, inclusion. It wasn't about any of that. It was literally about the dynamics of the team and how we were set up and what was happening. And I could talk until I was blue in the face and still talk. No solution was being had because there was just no understanding of how people are functioning, what this pandemic has done to us and flexibility. The fact that we're working three different time zones, but trying to do it all as one person located in one time zone. And it was just a lot that was going on there. And I had this instance where my leader was like, I want to put this other thing on your plate. And I literally quit in the moment. Like I put in my notice in the moment and it was March. It was March and then my plan was July and I gave them till May. I was like, I can stay. I was like, but I need you to know I am leaving. Do not put that on my plate because that's not a good idea. But it was that, that it was just like, they don't get it. My solution needs to be out there sooner rather than later.

Sandy Salty:

Wow. Wow. I mean, speaking of a lot on your plate and this is, this is not a topic that comes up very often on, on Founder Formula. Yeah. because female founders are still a minority, sadly. But this gives us an opportunity to ask the question that I think probably many people are wanting the answer to, which is, how do you lead a business? You founded the business, you're leading the business, you're very much an operator of the business, and you're managing to balance being a wife and a mother. How does that work, Lauren?

Lauren Fitzpatrick Shanks:

Yeah, I first say like, definitely, I can't do it solo. So that's one thing. So I have a great partner and husband in this relationship. But that's also hard because he has a full time job, and then not the understanding of what it looks like to be a founder. So that's a whole conversation and dynamic in itself. I have two young kids and like founded this while I only had one kid and that kid could barely speak. And so it was a lot easier then because it was like, sometimes it's early and not all the school things and stuff that I now have to do now, the school things and the activities and homework and all that. So I wouldn't say I balance well, but I am getting better with prioritization in the specific moments. Like what needs attention first? today and right now. My kids, they need attention. That doesn't go away. And I'm lucky that, like I said, I have the support system of my husband. I also have support system where his mom comes and stays with us for months at a time. And so when people say village, like 100% village, I have a therapist that I meet with every other week because my sanity needs that. And I I have learned one of my favorite books is essentialism and basically focused on the art of saying no, because I am a people pleaser. And especially when you're a founder, you say yes to every opportunity because you don't know where something might lead. And even now, like it's a practice that I'm working on regularly because I still feel like I'm at that phase. Like I need to say yes to this. I don't know what might happen for it, but I'm better at saying no to things. But that is one of the things is figuring out what can I say no to. Now I've built out a team. We are a strong team of seven, but plus I have some contractors and things like that. So being able to get things off of my plate has been nice as well. But it's definitely not something that I sit here and think like, yeah, I balance that. I am a really good juggler. I know it's science says like you can't focus on more than one thing at a time, but I'm guessing it's like just milliseconds that I switch my focus back and forth and am able to get a lot done at once. But that I think has been a skill. I have been practicing and building that muscle for a while as well. So people say, oh, you can have it all, but I do not. think that it comes at sacrifices of certain things. And so it is the prioritization of what's important and needs attention right now.

Todd Gallina:

We're big, uh, essentialism fans here, uh, to, I'm going to do a little name dropping, but, uh, Sandy and I have brought Greg McKeown in to the business. And he's a, he's a great guy. So, and by the way, essentialism is a, is a great book and a hundred percent agree with you there. Um, tell us about funding. So was this like a VC pitch? Was this going to a small group of investors, you know, getting your vision in front of people to kind of open up their wallets? Tell us a little bit about that.

Lauren Fitzpatrick Shanks:

Yeah, fundraising is not fun. They should like, I know it says fund. So fundraising, but it's not fun. You get better at it. So you can make it fun. And I like to make everything a game, but yeah, it's not fun. It took me two years to learn how to properly fundraise. I was really good at sending out cold emails, getting meetings that would not go into second meetings. And I did not understand. And it didn't matter how many books I read, how many people I talked to. It just took reps and took learning. And what I would say was the pivot point of that or the peak point of all that was I got accepted into Accelerator. And getting accepted into Accelerator, I got accepted into Techstars. And for whatever reason, it boosted my confidence because it gives some validation there. But not only that, once I got accepted into Techstars, that is when I landed, like literally, I think two weeks later, I closed my first VC check. So this wasn't even like an angel check first. It was a VC check. And a lot of, one of the things to learn was like, People are people and they like to follow what seems interesting to others. And so having some type of validation from there was one big thing. But what I learned through Techstars, but also just the two years of like taking these meetings and stuff was there's books and they'll tell you like, here's the books, but there's so much behind the curtain that is just not written down in any type of book that you have to experience. And it is true that the experience is different from person to person. It's different if you're a woman, it's different if you're a woman of color, it's different if you're an immigrant, like it's just different. And what works for one won't work for another and your product is different and things like that. So I had to learn what works for Lauren and what are my strengths that I need to lean into and what makes me authentic. And that was when fundraising, it's still hard. That's when I became comfortable with it. comfortable doing those type of meetings and regularly doing it and things like that. But we are VC-backed. We also have some angels. Pitching to VCs and pitching to angels are two totally different ballgames. And it's one of those things that you never will have the pitch perfect because just like I said, it takes understanding of each individual. And that's part of what Keep Wolves focused on. VCs, angels, they're humans too. We've got to understand them to see what appeals to their nature to make them open up those wallets. It's been hard though. Not fun, been hard, but I've at least learned how to do it and I've successfully done it.

Sandy Salty:

So congratulations. It feels like a direct path to funding would be by experiencing the platform. I mean, it's like, it doesn't take much after that, honestly.

Unknown:

Yes.

Sandy Salty:

In some ways, it's like, is that the pitch? It's like, just have them experience the platform itself. And I mentioned earlier in the conversation that it's a profound experience and a simple platform. And what I mean by simple is that it's incredibly elegant. I'm sure there's nothing simple about the development process itself, but it's incredibly user-friendly. It feels like you'd get a pretty quick close just by having them experience the platform itself.

Lauren Fitzpatrick Shanks:

Yeah, that is definitely a part of our sales process and it is what closes. So it's also, and it's also what's closed RBC. So we, we take, we do interviews through the Keepwell platform. Like we use Keepwell for interviews. We use Keepwell for closing investor pitches. We, we demo it and have those sessions with our sales prospects. Like we literally, we use our product for what it's meant to do.

Sandy Salty:

That's, that's so cool. You mentioned you have a team of seven. and growing. How did you pick your first set of hires?

Lauren Fitzpatrick Shanks:

This is a good, this is a good story. So I don't know, somebody told me like, I attract good talent. Because I will say that I didn't pick my first set of people. So I got intro to some people. And our initial people that came on board, they were like consultants, there was no paychecks, there was equity. And it was like people who are interested in wanting to work for this, like I didn't have the ability to say, Oh, I'm going to interview for this. And like, let's see if we can get you on and stuff. It was literally people who were drawn to the problem we were solving, the way we were solving it, and the impact that they wanted to leave and make. And so I literally was able to just attract these people to me, which was very nice. Once we raised money and we actually had the opportunity of hiring, we wanted to make sure that that was something that remained consistent, that people had passion around the problem that we're solving, the impact we wanna make and the legacy we wanna leave. And so we have a very, very, it's kind of long interview process. And Sandy, you actually got to be a part of some of that. It's a long interview process, but it's effective in making sure that we find the right culture ads. We don't like to say culture fit because like I said, People try to shoehorn their way into like, you be just like us. So we like to find the right culture ads, but that they're adding because they understand the problem, they want to solve the problem, and they want to provide impact. And so we've been very particular with how we go about our process and then show like... With Google, you always heard that they were like, oh, we want the Googlers. I don't know what like ours is. Do we want the Wohlers or the Wanderers? I don't know. But that's kind of how we look at it is like we want to attract the folks that care about the problem that we're solving. We want to make that impact.

Todd Gallina:

I'm using that quote, by the way. We want a culture add, not a culture fit. Yes. That's great. I've never heard that. And it makes it makes perfect sense. Do you have competitors? Did you have a competitor in mind when you started this or was it just all other team building tools? Tell us a little bit about the space you're in.

Lauren Fitzpatrick Shanks:

That's a great question. And to the question of, did I have a competitor in mind? I am one of those people that if I know who I'm competing with, and I think this is a lot of thing for founders and a lot of reasons why women and people of color and stuff aren't leaning into entrepreneurship as much because they'll have an idea, they'll Google it. And then they'll be like, oh, someone else is already doing it. And then they won't do it. And I did have a few other, like they weren't technology products, but they were other type of ideas. And I did that. And then I didn't go in And so for me, when I started with Keep Wool and my mission of the problem that I wanted to solve, I thought about, am I using something or has something come across my vision that is solving this problem? No. Have I seen something that's solving this problem in this way? No. And then I kind of kept my head down to not be too focused on competitors that are out there. And this is even with the card game. So when we released the card game, yeah, of course we saw like, different competitors trying to do the same thing, but it was still a different methodology. When we convert it over to the software platform and became this B2B solution and it became this HR tech engagement retention solution, we did have to dive into competitors and take a look. And we have quite a few indirect competitors because there's a specific status quo of how things are currently being done. And that status quo is very disjointed. So one is like employee experience platforms. So those deploy those surveys that we all love to get on an annual or biannual basis. And they focus on collecting data, but they fail to capture like that important contextual nuanced information because it's siloed. It is So that's one is those employee experience platforms. There's the team building solutions that emphasize interaction, but not behavioral change. And then there's also another component is live training, which is typically focusing on developing managers. And so it doesn't really lean into those frontline workers and their needs. And so all those current solutions, number one, like I said, they're disjointed. Those are all three separate type of solutions that have their own competitors within each of them, but all of these are very disjointed and still make leaders have to make a connection between, okay, what's the data and information and how do we go about actioning it? And so how can they possibly maximize the potential of each person, understand them, and then retain their highest performers? It's hard. And that's why we've seen so much of a drastic turnover rate for these organizations. So with KeepWolve, we're doing this all in one platform. And frankly, right now we're not not too concerned about competitors, but of course we know competition is healthy and it's why our platform is focused on gameplay. And we like when competitors enter the market because it means there's that problem to be solved. Like we're doing the right thing.

Sandy Salty:

It's almost like you're not selling a product, you're selling a movement. You're selling something that in theory, every organization could benefit from and should be focused on. It's like, In some ways, it's the more quote unquote competition, the better, because you want as many people selling this movement as possible to lift the overall dynamic in the workplace, you know? And so, okay, if our audience is intrigued and wants to do more in this capacity, wants to get started with KeepWall, how does someone do that?

Lauren Fitzpatrick Shanks:

There's lots of ways. Like I said, Keep Well stands for keep wondering out loud. So we love to wonder out loud with people conversations. We like to talk to folks. So we provide monthly informational sessions. We also provide complimentary game sessions and exploratory calls to learn more about our platform and how it works and the value it provides. So we also have a Keep Well facilitation certification program that we invite anyone that defines themselves as being outgoing, a natural conversation An active listener, great at asking questions, humorous, funny, and committed to enabling authentic connections and fostering a sense of belonging. If you have any of those qualities, we invite you to come to one of our informational sessions and learn and see if you'd like to become a KeepWolf facilitator. These people are typically already facilitators. They might be consultants, instructors, trainers, teachers, coaches, change agents within their organization. We invite people to that. Our next next informational session is friday may 12th and it's at noon pacific time 3 p.m eastern and our next facilitation certification workshop so the actual certification training is may 24th and 25th these are all live sessions and we'll get y'all the links to share it with this podcast but yeah we have those happening every month

Todd Gallina:

and we'll put those in the show notes that's great this has been great so do you have any um what's your long-term plan Lauren, give it to us straight. Is this the company you've built and you plan on running for the next 30 years? Do you think that entrepreneur bug is going to strike you and you might have another idea you want to go after? The

Lauren Fitzpatrick Shanks:

latter question, no. Like I said, I was saying years ago, I would never be an entrepreneur. I'm not going to be an inventor and here we are now. In my current state, I often have this conversation with other fellow founders because I do know a lot of people that are born with that entrepreneurial spirit. Like they go looking for a problem to solve and something to create. And I don't think that that's me, but I stumbled into this. It's fun. Like I'm loving the journey so far now. It's hard, but it's one of those good challenges that I literally learn something every single day. And I can't say that that was the case in my corporate job, which probably was why I hopped a lot because the challenges just weren't there in the way I needed them to be. But But as far as long-term plans, I foresee seeing people... all the way through to whatever ends up happening. So if we get acquired, if we go public, if we branch back out into B2C after we've conquered that B2B world, like I'm game for anything from all of those perspectives. And I just foresee if when we successfully exit from this in one way or another, I envision myself still focusing on making an impact. So definitely like to do a lot of volunteer work and things like that. So philanthropy definitely runs through my veins. But I also have an interest in like film and production and stuff. So maybe I'll explore that. But yeah. Long term plan, though, is to see this all the way through to the finish line, whatever that

Sandy Salty:

is. And then Lauren for president. No. Nope. Not signing on for that either. Lauren, is there anything we didn't cover that you'd like to share?

Lauren Fitzpatrick Shanks:

No, I think we hit a lot of it. I mean, our whole focus here is to bring everyone together for that deeper understanding. And so like I said, I invite everyone, everyone who's listening, listening out there, even if this is like three months down the line, we have those informational sessions monthly. So pop in, learn a bit more about us. We'd love to meet you, talk to you, learn more about you.

Sandy Salty:

Well, you are incredibly inspiring and impressive and your mission is equally inspiring and impressive. And we thank you for joining us today, Lauren.

Lauren Fitzpatrick Shanks:

Thank you so much for having me, Sandy and Todd. This has been fun. It was a pleasure.

Sandy Salty:

Thanks,

Outro:

Lauren. Trace3 is hyper-focused on helping IT leaders deliver business outcomes by providing a wide variety of data center solutions and consulting services. If you're looking for emerging technology to solve tried and true business problems, Trace3 is here to help. We believe all possibilities live in technology. You've been

Intro:

listening to The Founder Formula, the podcast for all things startup from Silicon Valley to innovators across the country. If you want to know what it takes to lead tomorrow's tech companies, subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts. Until next time.