Building a People Analytics Startup

Ok, I’ll admit it – changing the people analytics industry has been harder than expected.

We set out to build in this space because we were frustrated with the solutions that existed.

As people analytics practitioners at WeWork with over 15,000 employees at its peak, we faced a problem: the existing platforms didn’t meet our needs. The solutions available were either outdated or overpriced, leaving us with the frustrating realization that we needed something better.?

So, we decided to build it ourselves.?

Great in theory, right??

After all, the best products are often built by those who’ve experienced the pain points firsthand. This belief got us admitted into YCombinator and onto a mission to change the people analytics industry. We set out to create something that solved our problems.

But here’s the flaw in that thinking: we assumed everyone was like us—early adopters, eager to challenge the status quo, even within large enterprises like WeWork. It turns out, that’s not always the case. Additionally, as people analytics practitioners, we ended up speaking to many other people analytics professionals at large companies and all were frustrated with their current solutions.?

Does that make them an early adopter? Likely not.

The Reality of the Market

We quickly discovered that most people analytics teams, especially in large companies, aren’t made up of early adopters. These teams aren’t searching for the next groundbreaking solution. They’re driven by a culture of risk aversion, dominated by “status buyers” who stick to legacy platforms because, frankly, no one gets fired for buying from the incumbents.?

The frustration is clear when you talk to people analytics professionals today. They want change, but the industry has been stagnant. The same players who were leading the space 15 years ago are still at the top, with all their baggage—and yet, nothing new is happening.

It’s not the same in other industries such as marketing and sales where Hubspot, Salesforce, and other incumbents are constantly being disrupted. Which just adds to the frustration for people analytics teams since they see other markets changing much faster.?

You’ve heard the line that “HR is like 5 years behind” right??

Why…? Because the market is reluctant to flip from status buyers to early adopters.

The Status Quo Problem

In HR, startups don’t just need to build innovative products—they need early adopters to challenge their company’s standard practices. Unfortunately, the majority of early adopters reside in smaller companies, typically those with fewer than 3,000 employees. These companies are eager for solutions but can often are ok with less than ideal existing tools—Excel, Tableau, Workday. Their HR budgets are smaller, so they can’t always justify the spend on enterprise SaaS products, no matter how groundbreaking.

Larger enterprises, meanwhile, are dominated by “status buyers.” The kind of decision-makers who cling to the adage: “No one gets fired for buying IBM.” They’d rather pour 5x the money into an established, legacy product than take a risk on something new—no matter how much better or more innovative the new product might be.

If you’re ever in a vendor evaluation and they question your company-size — that’s a sign that this company is a status buyer. It’s ok and normal to be fair.

We often don’t question whether people are status buyers since this is the status quo. They know nothing else.

The Future

For every status buyer, there’s a trailblazer—someone who values innovation over the size of a company’s team or its years of experience. These trailblazers exist even in large enterprises. They take calculated risks because they understand the game-changing potential of a new-age product like eqtble. And yes, while there are risks (the startup might face hurdles or even disappear), the rewards can be immense.?

We have had the pleasure of meeting and working with plenty of these folks in the past 3.5 years. They are true trail blazers and it’s not even close.?

They want to make their company better and at the same time are willing to do something different to enable that.

Measuring Success

For startups like ours, the journey is about more than just getting a sale. We’ve learned to understand a key indicator of progress is who we’re being compared to. In the early days, we were compared to other startups. Today, we’re being compared to enterprise SaaS products—the IBMs of the world. That shift is a positive sign. It means that we’ve made enough noise and created enough value that we’re being measured against the established giants of the industry.?

Our Journey

At eqtble, we’ve been on this journey for 3.5 years. And as we now find ourselves being compared to legacy products with decades of experience, we’re left asking an open-ended question: has the frustration with existing tools boiled over so much that even the status buyers in big enterprises are turning into early adopters of new tools?