Welcome to Transform’s Founder Spotlight Series, an exciting journey into the minds of innovative leaders who are disrupting the now and next of work.
In each Q&A-style article, we’ll introduce you to founders like Dr. Bobbi Wegner, Founder of Groops, who are redefining the boundaries of their industries with forward-thinking ideas and transformative approaches.
About
Dr. Bobbi Wegner is a psychologist, lecturer at Harvard in the Industrial-Organizational Psychology Program, and the Founder & CEO of Groops.
Dr. Wegner has spent her career helping teams and leaders feel and function their best by improving their working relationships. She was in private practice for 13 years and saw a huge need in the market – a solution to solve for disconnection and lack of cohesion on teams.
Eight in 10 people feel disconnected and this shows up as low retention, disengagement, and poor productivity. Because social relationships mediate all outcomes – business and even health – Dr. Wegner knew psychologists were best positioned to help teams.
So, she left her practice and built a platform called Groops. She made it her mission to bring experts in organizational psychology to the virtual/hybrid office on an affordable subscription basis so all teams (not just executives) can feel and function their best. Groops uses AI to provide ongoing insights and recommendations grounded in organizational psychology.
They are building towards being the global hub of workplace connection with an evidence-based content library, assessment, and the ability to jump into Groops across organizations.
Aside from leading Groops and continuing to teach one class a semester, Dr. Wegner also wrote a parenting book and is on the board of USA for IOM (The US Arm of the United Nations Migration Agency). She lives outside Boston with her family.
About Groops
Groops brings experts in organizational psychology to the virtual/hybrid office on an ongoing, affordable subscription basis to help teams feel and function their best. We use AI to provide ongoing insights and recommendations.
Let’s dive into Dr. Bobbi’s founder story and learn firsthand about his inspirations, challenges, and breakthroughs that marked her path to success.
Startup Journey:
Transform: What gave you the idea to start Groops?
Dr. Bobbi: I saw a huge need in leaders and organizations needing help building connection and cohesion through psychology-based coaching. As a culture, we were already moving in that direction with younger generations entering the workforce, but COVID accelerated the need for new ways of engaging with teams and people as people were leaving jobs at record numbers due to disconnection (Great Resignation, Quiet Quitting, etc.).
At that time, I was in private practice, had my own consultancy for 13 years, working with individuals, leaders, and organizations, and taught group counseling at Harvard at the same time. Harvard then built an industrial organizational psychology program (which focuses on scientifically based solutions to human problems in work and other organizational settings) in their continuing education and executive development program. I was invited to teach a core class there.
My first class had 250 global leaders and has ranged from 190-250 ever since. I saw the need and scalability of the work I was doing with leaders and organizations. I built out three more classes to help leaders across the globe learn psychology-based skills and build stronger working relationships, as highly cohesive teams are 21% more profitable and have 59% less turnover.
I knew the need was there, and we had to use tech to scale. Instead of teaching these leaders, who do not have the time nor the skillset, we knew we could help by bringing experts in group and organizational psychology to the virtual/hybrid office on an affordable, ongoing basis and providing regular feedback derived from surveys and notes from our psychologists.
Transform: What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in the early stages?
Dr. Bobbi: We initially launched as a D2C wellness app scaling support groups for subclinical issues (i.e., we brought strangers together online to talk about shared concerns) but pivoted to bringing experts in organizational psychology to the office instead based on some early signals we saw through testing. But pivoting was hard. We ended up throwing away our platform and curriculum, and I renegotiated with a cofounder – all of which required me to put my big girl pants on and do what was right for the business. At the end of the day, it was definitely the best decision, but it felt super hard at the time. HERE is a piece I just wrote about it in our newsletter.
Product Development:
Transform: Who Benefits from Groops?
Dr. Bobbi: Disconnection and lack of cohesion on teams is a universal problem, but we target enterprise clients (with globally distributed teams) and scaling companies – as both are vulnerable to disconnection and, therefore, team dysfunction.
Transform: Why is it important?
Dr. Bobbi: Humans are social by nature and need connection, just as we need air and water. We are hardwired for it (and tribal by nature), yet the modernization of life has left us feeling more disconnected than ever, which has become a business problem (not just an emotional problem). Disconnected teams have poor performance and higher rates of dysfunction. Virtual teams are particularly vulnerable. Creating space for teams to come together to focus on building strong team dynamics and helping people have regular, open conversations increases cohesion and performance on teams – plus, it just feels better, too.
Transform: What are some examples of companies leveraging Groops?
Dr. Bobbi: HERE are case studies and names of our partners.
Transform: What have you learned from your Groops users and customers so far?
Dr. Bobbi: Because we do ongoing surveying, we know. HERE are testimonials embedded in the case studies.
Here is feedback from some recent insights reports from a company we just reported to:
“Being in a group and working through things together.”
“Being able to explore new ways to communicate with each other.”
“Building relationships through an avenue to have all three leaders in one spot at one time, and talking about the things that are hard to talk about.”
“Creating understanding with the others and hearing their perspective.”
“The limits that were pushed in trying to be honest with each other.”
“Psychological education.”
“Able to slow down and catch up with each other.”
“Really great experience. Having the time and guidance to discuss this program with my co-workers has been a wonderful experience.”
Scaling and Growth
Transform: How do you build a strong company culture while scaling the business?
Dr. Bobbi: Culture is everything to us. We practice what we preach and have a clear mission/vision/values that ground everything, and we make time for our team on an ongoing basis. We have what we call “Super Groop” every other week, during which our team comes together and runs through our own Groops program. Not only does this help us build our own relationships (people end up sharing a lot), but it also acts as an ongoing learning and training space for us to discuss what is working and what is not. Super Groop is a core element of who we are and why people join us.
Fundraising
Transform: How do you maintain strong relationships with your Groops investors and optimize their contributions?
Dr. Bobbi: We have been lucky enough to have investors who are available and just a phone call away. Because relationships are everything to us (and relationship building is our core offering), we stay closely connected to our investors through regular calls, texts, and emails. Thankfully, we have a small group of committed investors so it is not difficult to track. Because we are post-revenue and have some wonderful investors, we have been able to keep our cap table small so far, but maintaining close relationships with investors when we raise again will be top priority. We will be raising in the fall.
Transform: What advice do you give similarly situated founders as they begin fundraising?
Dr. Bobbi: Build relationships and get to know people. When I first started, I did it all wrong. Find a way to get to know people. I travel a lot for work, and I always reach out to investors and chief people officers / chief learning officers and ask if they would be up for coffee. My intention is not to sell but to truly build a relationship. That approach has worked for us in terms of both fundraising and sales. Also, it takes time, so start now, even if you are not yet fundraising.
Team Building & Leadership
Transform: What are your strategies for attracting and retaining talent?
Dr. Bobbi: We have been blown away by the caliber of people who apply to work with us, which is incredibly humbling. Smart, caring people like being around smart, caring people, so we are very protective of who we hire. Quite honestly, people often reach out to us to work here. We have a list of people who reached out to us, and we will go back to the list when we hire again. So, the attracting part has not been a problem.
We retain people by giving them lots of choice and flexibility regarding who they want to work with (what companies) and when they work. One of the classes I teach is how to build intrinsic motivation, and we focus on all three drivers: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. We give people autonomy when we can (regarding time, team, and task). We try to do all three. People are always learning new skills here (mastery) as we are also upskilling clinicians in evolving workplace psychology. And purpose is a no-brainer. This is probably the biggest driver for people who spend time with us. Our Groop Guides (and the whole team) are incredibly purpose drivers and really want to help people feel and function their best at work. That is our superpower.
We also are focused on building cohesion and culture through Super Groop. People are connected here and care for each other. We want to be together and build something cool. We also pay fairly. However, this is a balance because our core offering is delivering affordable organizational psychology across companies (so the price has to be kept low).
Transform: What leadership skills are critical in the current environment?
Dr. Bobbi: I know how to build highly cohesive, people-focused teams. Leaders are lacking here, and that is why we built Groops for Leaders (our train-the-trainer program).
Marketing & Branding
Transform: How does Groops differentiate from competitors?
Dr. Bobbi: We land between L&D and coaching. Regarding L&D, we are practice-based, live (virtual/hybrid), and experienced in personalized learning. In terms of coaching, everything we do is evidence-based, grounded in psychology, led by experts in psychology (everyone has a Masters or Doctorate), and affordable. We are democratizing high-quality psychology-based team coaching as that is how strong cultures and organizations are built.
Challenges & Lessons Learned
Transform: Can you share any specific lessons or mistakes you made during the startup journey and how you overcame them?
Dr. Bobbi: Building a platform / the tech before we had proof the service side of our offering worked. We literally threw away a platform we spent like $200k on. It was painful – the right decision – but painful. Build a MVP, test and learn, and build.
When we pivoted, we decided not to do that again. We built out the curriculum and the hiring/training model and tested to see if there was an interest from companies. Then, we started building tech alongside us using a low-code platform that we could customize. This allows us to test, learn, and flex easily. We have a wonderful subcontracted development team but are looking for an amazing full-stack engineer to join our team.
Transform: What advice do you have for other founders?
Dr. Bobbi: Get in a community. Founding a company is a wild ride and tests you in so many unexpected ways. Many of the things that feel unique, other founders have experienced too.
Industry and Market Insights
Transform: What is one significant trend or prediction that will drive the transformation of work?
Dr. Bobbi: This is a boring response – so sorry – but the integration of humans and AI. Psychology is grounded in human relationships and human problems are best solved by humans. But, there is a huge opportunity to scale much of this work and provide better, more accessible insights using AI (like what we are doing). We could not do what we are doing without AI as we track themes across teams and organizations over time, and that is just the beginning. We are building out a tool that allows teams to upload videos and get a quick snapshot of the level of cohesion/dynamics on their team with high-level insights.
Company Vision
Transform: What’s next for you and Groops?
Dr. Bobbi: We are building the hub of workplace connection. We launched the service – which we will always have (all investors are rolling their eyes here) – and productizing around the Groop. Currently, we are working on a tool to assess team cohesion through video upload and then will build out a content library, more surveys, a discussion board, a flexible learning environment, and the ability to join Groops across organizations.
Transform: What would you like to say to People leaders who are thinking of using Groops?
Dr. Bobbi: Do it. The hardest part is understanding what we are because it is new and novel. But people love it. We have a NP score of 82 with participants and people almost always report feeling more connected to their teams/work groups after. People need this more than ever, and we have made it super affordable and easy to integrate.
About You
Transform: Describe your perfect day when you aren’t working.
Dr. Bobbi: Well, right now, I am on vacation in the South of France as I type this, and I must say, this is pretty utopic. My ideal day includes going to an open market to get food for the day, a long walk while I listen to a book/podcast (most likely on the psychology of business), dinner with friends and family, and a good night’s sleep. That is pretty dreamy.
Transform: What is your personal mantra?
Dr. Bobbi: My Mom passed away this March, and she always used to say, “When there is a will, there is a way.” I believe that wholeheartedly and always find myself thinking and saying that.
Check out other inspiring Founder Spotlights on the Transform blog.