As founder and CEO of Phoenix-based startup KeepWOL, Lauren Fitzpatrick Shanks is aiming to change how companies engage and retain their workforce.
KeepWOL created an AI-powered software platform that promotes interaction, communication and relationship-building among employees via interactive games.
“We're focused on enhancing team collaboration, and we do that by making sure that we facilitate real-time complex conversations, but in a positive and enjoyable way,” Fitzpatrick Shanks said. “We are very much focusing on diagnosing growth opportunities and optimizing teams to be their best, rather than the traditional approach of just an individual's performance review.”
KeepWOL has raised more than $1.2 million in a combination of grant funding and venture capital with backing from NuFund Venture Group, Bright Ventures, Techstars and 369 Growth Partners, according to the company’s website.
The company will likely begin raising capital for its seed round in early 2024, Fitzpatrick Shanks said.
KeepWOL, which has 12 employees, recently launched the newest iteration of its software for commercial clients and plans to scale internationally in the future.
“We're looking at not only having a national presence but a global presence because we know that every organization has teams, and how well those teams work together results in how great organizations will be,” Fitzpatrick Shanks said. “So that's our whole goal.”
The company's platform has gained traction among a variety of enterprise-level clients in banking, technology and health care, including Bayer and the Mayo Clinic.
In addition, KeepWOL was a finalist at this year's Venture Madness by Invest Southwest, the state's longest running venture capital and pitch competition. The company recently completed the Arizona Commerce Authority’s Venture Ready Accelerator program.
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The platform's digital library of live multiplayer games with curated content is designed to build tight-knit, inclusive teams, leading to increased retention and a positive impact to a company's profitability. Employers have the ability to measure impact of each session via data collected within the platform.
“Our platform is able to take any type of subject, topic or content and convert it into a conversation-based storytelling game,” Fitzpatrick Shanks said. “We have a reflection assessment that collects metrics in six key areas. We use the session outcomes in the reflection assessment to deliver just-in-time curated content to help companies meet their personal goals and an action plan for the team to help them in meeting the team goals.”
Fostering mutual understanding
As a millennial and the first Black woman to graduate from the University of Kansas’ aerospace engineering program, Fitzpatrick Shanks’ idea for KeepWOL was born out of a desire to be understood among her peers.
She felt a lack of support from teachers and students who didn’t understand her perspective or life experiences.
“It was my first hint that the way that we communicate and collaboration is important not only in our work output, but also our self-esteem and how we show up in the environments that we're in,” Fitzpatrick Shanks said.
When she entered corporate America as an aerospace engineer, not much had changed, she said.
Fitzpatrick Shanks worked for five Fortune 500 companies over 14 years, witnessing employees growing complacent at work, losing motivation or quitting altogether due to a lack of leadership support and training in managing, leading and communicating with workers from all walks of life.
She saw the need for a solution to build a connection between employees and their employers by fostering mutual understanding and creating an environment where workers felt understood and appreciated for their perspective.
“It's really letting you understand them as a human, building that connectivity, but then also helping them, to ensure that you are making the most productive team,” Fitzpatrick Shanks said, referring to KeepWOL's platform. “ We're all about unlocking understanding, going past those roadblocks of communication, and elevating and enhancing collaboration.”
From card game to software platform
Fitzpatrick-Shanks initially founded KeepWOL in 2018 as a physical card game to test out an idea that structured conversation with gaming elements could prompt people to connect at a deeper level compared with asking opened-ended questions.
The company sold thousands of card games worldwide in the first six months of operation, Fitzpatrick Shanks said.
Fitzpatrick Shanks moved from Maryland to Arizona that same year and continued testing KeepWOL’s card game with people she met. When the pandemic hit in 2020, she pivoted the company’s direction to a virtual platform.
“We built out a prototype and we started having game nights for anyone to come to," she said. "We had people from all different countries, states and time zones."
The company’s game nights generated positive feedback from participants, some of whom suggested the platform be used in the workplace to spur connection among employees.
From there, KeepWOL facilitated team building sessions for companies, which inquired about a subscription-based platform and the ability to measure impacts of each session.
“Working with our customers and people interested in seeing the evolution of what this could be helped us build this out,” Fitzpatrick Shanks said.
