PHL Inno's weekly "Startup Spotlight" feature highlights founders and new businesses cropping up in the region.
The startup: BuildEd is a digital workshop platform providing career advancement and workforce development training.
Founded: 2016
Home base: Philadelphia
Founders: Mark Greenberg and Nigel Gregson.
Greenberg has been a serial founder since the 1990s when he created proSOURCE, a procurement firm focused on the health care, financial services and publishing sectors. He later had stints in the real estate industry, particularly in development and later a brokerage, and then an alarm company.
When Greenberg had a “midlife crisis," he helped start the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at the Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, and later got his master’s degree in education and entrepreneurship from the University of Pennsylvania.
Fellow parents, he and Gregson met through Springside Chestnut Hill Academy. With a background in entrepreneurship, accounting and the pharmaceutical industry, Gregson was an ideal partner, Greenberg said.
BuildEd launched to be the “great equalizer” for workforce inequities, Greenberg said, noting he sought to reduce the gaps in career outcomes for people, regardless of what schools they attended.
“We want to arm these people to thrive in the modern economy,” he said.
The product: BuildEd developed an online platform
The program is integrated to supplement training for hard and soft skills in particular careers, rather than replacing other workforce training altogether.
BuildEd has partnered with workforce boards and providers across 22 states, as well as with corporations. While career development may sound like it’s preparing employees to leave their current roles, Greenberg found that BuildEd’s top outcomes are better employee performance and retention.
“Because we help build a sense of ownership, we now work with employers that see that money isn't going to solve the employment issue,” Greenberg said. “You can't pay them if you don't provide an environment that invests in them and their future. That’s when they’re most likely to leave.”
BuildEd’s curriculum takes an “incremental growth strategy” approach to mitigate risk for participants, such as not making rash decisions like quitting a job.
“You need to treat your career like it's a business, and you need to have a plan, because if you don't have a plan, you're part of everybody else’s,” Greenberg said.
Funding: BuildEd has raised over $1 million through a $250,000 angel round in 2016 and an $800,000 pre-seed round in 2018, Greenberg said. The startup is preparing to raise a seed round in 2022.
The goal: BuildEd plans to expand to a total of 40 states in 2022, with goals to reach 5,000 workers by the end of the year, Greenberg said. The company currently operates in Pennsylvania as part of its existing 22-state footprint, and New Jersey and Delaware are likely expansions for this year as the startup expands, he said.
BuildEd is also nearly doubling its team of eight to 15 by the end of the second quarter, adding staffers who will handle government contracts, grants and client experience.
