It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything about Prince Harry’s position as Chief Impact Officer with BetterUp, the life-coaching app. It was widely assumed that Harry has been on paternity leave with BetterUp for a few months, but he started working there last fall, and obviously, his position with the company gave BetterUp millions of dollars in free publicity. Not only that, BetterUp has been growing by leaps and bounds in 2021 – they’re now expanding into Germany and the UK.
BetterUp, a virtual coaching platform that promises to democratise professional coaching across an entire business enterprise, is heading for Europe as it announced an expansion into London and Munich. The firm, which was co-founded by Alexi Robichaux in 2013 and where Prince Harry is the Chief Impact Officer, has gone from strength-to-strength this year.
The European investment follows a year of rising demand for the firms services: UK membership has grown by 210 per cent year-on-year, while revenue has also doubled, reaching $100m in annual recurring revenue. In addition to an impressive expansion in the UK, the company also expanded its entire customer base by 80 per cent, which follows its February valuation of $1.73b.
The demand follows a pattern of increased demand amongst firms for well-being services for their employees as the stresses of the pandemic and working from home persist. A recent study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research suggested that AI-enabled coaching was able to improve psychological well-being while also mitigating the risks of mental health.
BetterUp has said that following the full reopening of the economy in England on 19 July, it is well poised to invest significantly and support the country’s economic recovery. It is expected that its European headcount reaches 150 by the end of the year.
Alexi Robichaux, CEO and co-founder of BetterUp, said: “This is the beginning of the next chapter of growth for BetterUp, and it comes at a time when the UK is on the threshold of significant change in how businesses engage with their vast talent base, following a year of turmoil. Although we have had an international presence since 2013, we are committing to a new level of investment in our customers, coaches and communities by establishing these two new offices in London and Munich.”
Robichaux also told the Times of London that “demand is pulling us into these markets,” and Prince Harry “provided some helpful insights and tips” when it came to BetterUp’s UK expansion. The Times also said that BP (British Petroleum) has signed up for BetterUp’s services for their employees. Not only that, I would be willing to bet that a huge chunk of their new capital is directly related to the enormous amount of free publicity they got from hiring Harry. It’s still so impressive to me how brilliant this partnership was for both Harry and BetterUp. I wonder if there are other companies looking at BetterUp and thinking about getting Harry to come in for some kind of part-time position too.
Photos courtesy of WENN and Avalon Red.
BetterUp was obviously successful before Harry got involved, but Harry’s involvement is why the CEO was on the today show, why many people (including myself, lol) now follow Better Up on social media, etc. I’m sure he is actually involved and its more than just his name being attached, but even the latter seems to have paid off big-time for Better Up at this point, and I’m sure other companies are taking note.
I wonder if other members of the royal family like Eugenie and Beatrice are using the service. It looks like the service helped Harry figure out his post royal life game plan. With family members not in the direct line of succession about to be cut off when Charles ascends the throne, they would be wise to get their shit together.
This is the real marketing coup. A friend of mine is an executive coach – she works with companies who have toxic executives and also with executives who are looking to get “unstuck” and move in another direction. The process involves evaluating all parts of an executive’s life – professional and personal. And there is no larger and more famous example than Prince Harry breaking away from a lifetime in the monarchy in order to craft a new life of personal control.
Apparently Harry was using Betterup and he got everybody at Archewell to do the same before he joined the company.
Good for Harry ! what ever happened to heads together? is that still going?
Without Harry there to manage everything, organize fundraising, come up with promotional ideas, heads together is now defunct imo. A couple of months ago will and Kate did a video message for a mental health charity that was shutting down in a few days. I think Kate was wearing a black turtleneck. Heads together was clearly Harry’s entire idea because Kate and will have never mentioned it again. Like at all.
^^
@Lili, Heads-Together was an idea Harry had when he was single and a working royal. He was helped through mental counseling. He undertook more serious counseling therapy soon after meeting Meghan. He put forward the idea, under the Royal Foundation umbrella, to help spread better awareness of the importance of taking care of our individual mental health.
W&K piggybacked onto the initiative. And Harry, gracious as always, gave credit to Kate for coming up with the name, Heads Together, which launched around 2016 or 2017. The firm forced Harry to leave the military in 2015, and in typical fashion Harry upped his work ethic by helping organize The Queen’s Commonwealth Trust in 2016, and Heads Together soon after. This, in addition to further developing the Invictus Games, and continuing fundraising for Sentebale. He also created HeadFit for the U.K. military.
In sharing his own journey in 2017, with The Telegraph reporter, Byrony Gordon, Harry helped reduce the stigma surrounding mental health issues.
Heads Together is probably dormant at the moment, since Harry was the chief architect behind the project, which remained under the Royal Foundation when he left the Salty Isle. Plus, as we know, W&K are rather petty, useless, and lazy.
i don’t think harry (or meghan, for that matter) is on full-time leave – meaning, i don’t think they’re just lounging around montecito doing nothing all day. they’re probably actually quietly working, having meetings, pitching things, and hiring people.
we just won’t be seeing them for a little while, but they’re always working.
betterup was actually doing very well pre-harry. they have some real big name clients and have been raising money pretty easily for years – $1bn+ valuation is not too shabby. but yeah, harry’s addition is super smart, not just for the publicity but also for the fact that the company’s mission is so pertinent and harry himself’s not just some insta influencer-style hire for publicity – he actually knows what he’s talking about when it comes to mental health, etc.
take note, welfare royals: *this* is how you actually make a difference in the world. do REAL WORK and collect your own bag…
Yeah, I don’t think their doing nothing either. I’m sure they will make themselves available if necessary, but I still think most of the time they are focusing on the kids.
Good for BetterUp, and good for Harry.
It was so obnoxious to me when his position there was first publicly announced (after he’d been there for months privately), that all these british news outlets, even reputable outfits like the bbc, couldn’t help but imbue this sort of snide, condescending contempt into their questioning when the CEO was making the rounds, of what Harry’s qualifications and responsibilities would be as a “Chief Impact Officer” (airquotes implied in their questions like it’s a totally made up title invented just for Harry and not something that absolutely has been an actual thing in the tech industry).
It was wild to me because, yes of course his connections and reputation as a prince and attendant global celebrity make a difference, but they wouldn’t just grab someone like William or Edward or whatever and give them a top executive position on their multibillion dollar tech company. Harry genuinely does have a career history of creating and heading up successful, socially impactful charities and organizations that are independent of the royal family. He’s done the work. He was qualified for the job, but it just hit me so much when I was watching legit british news personalities be so openly mocking about the very idea that Harry could be well-suited and qualified for a legit executive position in silicon valley, just how pervasive is must be in british society that the royals are all utterly useless for anything other than being the royals, that the tabloid narrative of harry as a dunce and an irreverent party boy is so fixed in their minds that they’re completely blind to the reality of the last 10 years that he’s literally the only smart one and the only one who could possibly find success in the corporate world.
Well, they better stay blind to that reality, otherwise they’ll have to start wondering why the other royals aren’t as effective. Better to imagine that Harry is some kind of mutant.
^^ LOL @Eurydice. This! +1
At the same time they continue seeing and perpetuating the false narrative of Harry as a dumb, impulsive party boy, they have kept whining about him needing to come back. This is because deep down they absolutely know Harry is the better brother, the true leader, and the fascinating star of the royal family.
Fortunately, Harry has broken the stifling chains, and he’s thriving on his own with a beautiful family beyond his wildest dreams. Harry and Better-up are a great match-up!
It’s a really good partnership. For some reason, I keep wondering if Harry and family get their health insurance through Better Up. Like that would be my priority lol.
I hope the BM report about the Better Up in uk daily.
Bad publicity is the best publicity, i herd when you read BM, believe the opposite what they wrote.
IMO. Much more was made of the paternal leave by the media than by the Sussexes. A simple statement they’re on paternal leave was translated/interpreted into they wouldn’t be working at all which they didn’t say. And the time frame of 5 months was reported because that is what Archewell offers their employees but the Sussexes didn’t say they would be taking that much time off. The goal of paternal leave is not necessarily a set amount of time of no work. The goal is to give parents the flexibility to manage their time in a way that works best for them. For some that is complete time off. For others it’s working part time. For others it’s a shifting of job responsibilities. The Sussexes are their own bosses so they already have control over their schedules that most parents don’t have so their parental leave probably won’t look like other people. Remember in 2019, after Archie was born, Meghan guest edited Vogue and created the Smart Set. Harry continued to have public engagements until August was working on the Oprah doc and was planning Invictus which was supposed to take place in spring 2020. And they were planning the South Africa tour. So the Sussexes version of leave is not most people’s. Also. This new expansion/partnership was probably established before LiliDiana was born and is just being announced now. Harry’s employment with the company wasn’t announced until months later and they already have the partnership with PeakState on Australia up and running.
See Willy, if only you had a personality and the ability to connect to people and a work ethic, you too could make an impact. Too bad you only have incandescent diarrhea . Always proud of Harry.
This shows why the BRF and the rest of The Firm is running around like chickens. Harry is literally creating a blueprint for less dependency on the monarchy and should be inspirational, not to mention aligned to Charles long term plans but that was too easy. So here we are.
^^ Yeah, it’s just incredible, @Rai and everyone, how much the British monarchy lost when they all carelessly refused to listen to Harry’s pleas for support. While, of course, at the same time KP and salty courtiers in other palaces aided the media in a smear campaign against Harry’s smart, lovely wife and soulmate. The fact the culprits thought they could break-up the Sussexes with the tabloid pile-on and gaslighting abuse is despicable and beyond stupid and disgusting.
Karma payback needs to take its course upon the guilty. And perhaps, one day, the innocent (i.e., the Cambridge and Wessex kids, and the recently born/ conceived York offspring) will become the beneficiaries of their rad relative Harry’s badass Sussexit example: Have something unique to offer; reject the game-playing with the BM; create your own bag; break the chains with courage and a leap of faith; decide to survive AND thrive, instead of going along to get along at detriment to your self-esteem and mental health.
The Sussexes will continue to set an example, not just for the royals, but for all of us whose eyes and hearts are open.