3 Hot Takes On Brand In Work Tech

TSC launched its 2025 Work Tech Brandscapes this week. Two questions you might have:?

1. Why these categories? We’ve been tracking Work Tech investment pretty closely since 2017. The 11 categories we chose to focus on are the ones where the money has flowed consistently over that time.?
2. Why now? Heading into 2025, the entire Work Tech industry is on the precipice of an upturn. Gartner projects enterprise cloud spending to increase by 24% , and the anticipated Work Tech IPO window officially opened with ServiceTitan filing its S-1 . If you haven’t already, it’s time to get your act together on brand.

With a projected 40,000 Work Tech brands active globally, these Brandscapes are only snapshots of a much larger known universe. It’s impossible to be comprehensive. However, the brands mentioned are the ones at the forefront of the industry conversation. Your brand is what people say about you when you aren’t in the room. We’re just trying to pull back the curtain a little bit on what they are saying.

A few hot takes that didn’t make it into the Brandscapes:

1. Much of Work Tech is a mature market. That may not be a good thing for you. Private equity is swooping in to invest in big brands, while VC is gravitating toward the AI gold rush. You know you’ve hit market maturing when PE make most of the investment. If you want a clear-eyed view of where your brand and category are, follow the money. If PE is putting money into brands like yours, you had better have a good idea about your transition strategy for the AI world.??
2. This is only the leading edge of Work Tech brand disruption. The brands at the upper right of the brandscapes probably won’t be there in five years. They will have moved to the left or have blinked out of existence. If you are evolving your brand, you had better have a good idea of where your category is going and skate toward where the puck will be.
3. AI isn’t a differentiating position on its own. Put your brand to work on standing out. As it is with the early days of any new market cycle, the essential value is not the choice factor. Buyers may be shopping for AI, but how are you different than all of those other solutions that look just like you. Look at the Cloud Era for examples. Salesforce won by betting on brand. SuccessFactors won on brand. How do you think you are going to win in this market cycle?

We hope this offers you some focus at a critical moment when our industry is emerging from chaos. Good luck setting the course for 2025. And if you need help, let us know.

What else is going on this week?

Funding and Acquisitions

• 11x raises $50 million Series B. The San Francisco startup is developing AI-powered digital workers services for revenue teams. Will this be the replacement for BDR teams? We would bet on yes. (FinSMEs )
• minu raises $30 million Series B. The Mexico City startup offers corporate benefits, focusing on improving the financial, physical, and mental well-being of employees. (CB Insights)
• bswift acquires Evive | goevive.com . The Chicago-based employee benefits technology and administration company acquired another Chicago firm that specializes in driving outcomes for employees, employers, and health plans. Deal terms were not disclosed. (FinSMEs )
• JobGet acquires Snagajob . The Boston app-first job platform is acquiring the acquired the hourly employment solution. Deal terms were not disclosed. (FinSMEs )
• Apideck raises $7.5 million Series A. The Antwerp, Belgium- and San Francisco-based startup is developing real-time Unified APIs for enterprise use cases. (FinSMEs )
• juna.ai raises $7.5 million seed round. The Berlin-based startup is developing solutions for AI-enabled facilities. (FinSMEs )
• Bluespine raises $7.2 million seed round. The NYC-based startup is developing an AI-driven claims cost reduction platform for self-insured employers. (FinSMEs )
• Serenity raises $5.5 million Series A. The San Diego startup is developing AI-powered Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) software solutions. (FinSMEs )
• SurePath AI raises $5.2 million seed round. The Denver-based startup is developing generative AI for the enterprise. (FinSMEs )
• Socium raises $5 million seed round. The Dakar, Senegal, startup develops solutions for recruiting, performance, payroll, document handling, and workflow automation. (CB Insights)
• IncludeHealth raises $5 million Series C. The Columbus, Ohio, company offers online solutions for employers and health entities to deliver remote care, monitor patient progress, and collect health outcomes. (CB Insights)
• Team-GPT raises $4.5 million seed round. The Sofia, Bulgaria-based startup is developing an AI-driven collaborative workspace for the enterprise. (FinSMEs )
• Taito.ai raises $2.7 million seed round. The Helsinki, Finland-based startup is developing AI-powered performance and growth solutions that integrate into existing workflows and communications tools, including Google Calendar, HiBob, Jira, Linear, Slack, and Workday. (FinSMEs )
• Oneteam raises $2.6 million seed round. The Singapore startup offers an exit strategy for retiring business owners and supports employee ownership through stock incentives and profit sharing. (CB Insights)
• Needi raises $1.7 million seed round. The UK startup provides a gift-matching service for employers that focuses on employee appreciation, client retention, and well-being events. (CB Insights)
• Point C raises seed funding. The Chicago startup is a third-party administrator for self-insured healthcare plans. Deal terms were not disclosed. (CB Insights)
• Ciphr acquires Avantus . The UK-based HR systems solution is acquiring the UK employee benefits platform. Deal terms were not disclosed. (FinSMEs )

Who Did It Better? A Brand vs. Brand FACEOFF with The TSC Squad

TSC’s Matt Tatum , Lance Haun , Nancy (Pummill) Crabb , and Noah Johnson bring you a new micro podcast where our team compares the ads of two head-to-head competitors and debates who did it better! WATCH NOW!

Here are the matchups from Ep 01:

• ?? Asana vs monday.com
• ?? Dovetail vs Maze
• ?? Instant vs DailyPay, Inc.

Industry Notes?

• ADP ’s COO John C. Ayala is stepping down. The company also announced that Joseph DeSilva Jr. , presently President, Global Sales, will become Executive Vice President, North America and Chief of Operations, effective January 1, 2025. (Seeking Alpha )
• One Model is named a Workday innovation partner. (Press Release )
• Wilson announces its new rebrand. (WilsonHR.com )?
• Fiserv and ADP team up to empower small business success. (Press Release )
• Meta hires Salesforce ’s CEO of AI Clara Shih to lead new business group. (TechCrunch )
• H, the AI startup that raised $220 million, launches its first product: Runner H for ‘agentic’ applications. (TechCrunch )
• Digital Trusted Identity Services (DTIS), an FBI-approved channeler specializing in collecting and processing biometric and biographical data, announces Maurine Fanguy as CEO. DTIS is a joint venture between HireRight and the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE). (Press Release )
• FTC reportedly investigating Microsoft’s cloud business practices. (MSN )
• How to get started with AI agents and do it right. (VentureBeat )

TSC Chats: Talking Go-To-Market Strategy for 2025

Check out TSC’s new micropod with CEO Ashley Bernard and VPs Racheal Bates and JJ La Pata . I join my squadmates to talk GTM trends for 2025.??

WATCH NOW

ICYMI: Last Week’s Top 3 Reads

The Three Most Clicked Links from Last Week’s Work Tech Weekly.

1. Stocks for U.S. enterprise software brands have been up in anticipation of increased federal spending on technology and more AI growth.?
2. VC Tomasz Tunguz expects a more open IPO market for companies “with growth rates greater than 30%. Today, there are no publics growing more than that.”
3. CIOs tell the Wall Street Journal that tariffs could drive up hardware costs, but a lighter government touch on AI and a more robust M&A environment are also in the offing.?

Around The Shop

Stuff we’re finding interesting right now at TSC.

• Led by AI tech companies, demand for office space is on the rise. (Wall Street Journal )
• How R.E.M. created alternative music. (The New Yorker )
• “It tastes a little like sucking dandelion juice through a straw made of car tires.” Can Mal?rt – Chicago’s unofficial liquor – keep it real as it goes nationwide? (The New York Times )

That’s it for this week!

We’re off next week for the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S. See you in December!

Everybody love everybody,

Steve

P.S. Let’s meet. Are you a #WorkTech or #EnterpriseSoftware company with more than $10 million in revenue or funding that wants to accelerate your growth? Book a meeting with us to discuss how we can improve your go-to-market strategy and execution.

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