The startup: Your Care Collective is a platform offering virtual wellbeing events, coaching and communities for remote and independent workers and companies.
Founded: 2020
Home base: Philadelphia
Founder: Joelle Tolifero, a New Jersey native and West Chester University graduate.
Tolifero previously worked with students in residential housing and study abroad programs — most recently for Diversity Abroad, an organization focused on diversifying study abroad programs. While it felt like the “perfect job,” Tolifero suffered from extreme burnout and tension headaches that lasted four to six days each week. She tried self-care techniques and went to therapy, but found that the most effective solution for her burnout was engaging with different communities.
“I really wanted to create a space and opportunity for employees to find the resources that they need to dig themselves out of burnout and still feel like they can show up to work and be their best selves and contribute to their work environment in a positive way,” she said.
The product: Your Care Collective is a community chat platform that uses conversation prompts and events to connect users.
The startup currently operates on workplace messaging platform Slack, and is in the midst of developing its own web-based platform, Tolifero said. Your Care Collective will be subscription-based with memberships for individuals and enterprise organizations. Details of the pricing are still being determined.
For enterprise clients’ employees, Your Care Collective offers private resources, weekly wellbeing challenges and time with wellbeing experts including therapists and clinicians.
“Our vision is that everyone has a community where they feel cared for and capable of doing their best work,” Tolifero said.
Tolifero's goal is to increase awareness about wellbeing concerns, such as identifying retention risk factors, and to boost employee engagement with an organization. The startup will also provide employers data points on how their workers are feeling.
Your Care Collective plans to launch another feature that assigns users to “peer accountability groups,” called Wellbeing Collectives, where users can connect with each other and with Your Care Collective’s clinicians and coaches to build a sense of community. The Wellbeing Collectives will match people with other users so they can participate in group conversations however they feel comfortable, Tolifero said.
Users are matched based on a questionnaire asking about emotions, level of productivity, how they’re feeling at work and their wellbeing goals.
“That's really the special sauce of what we offer, where we're not just putting people out into the world and saying, ‘Self care is important. You should do that. Be well.’ We're also giving them a community of people who also care about their wellbeing,” Tolifero said.
Funding: Your Care Collective has received grant funding from Philly Startup Leaders. The startup is preparing to launch a friends and family round in April. Tolifero is determining how much the startup will raise.
The goal: Your Care Collective continues to recruit remote workers to its platform, which had about 30 members in January.
The startup is working with a beta group of users to get feedback to develop its platform, which is on track to launch in April.
