Five years ago this week, we launched Thrive Global with the mission to end the global epidemic of stress and burnout. When the pandemic hit, the themes at the heart of our mission suddenly became among the most urgent issues of our time. In our new hybrid world, offering well-being as a perk is no longer enough. Mental health days aren’t enough. Companies now realize that well-being is an essential strategy for success that must be embedded into the workflow itself. That’s why, on our fifth anniversary, I’m excited to announce Thrive Global’s new 5×5 product suite. It’s a comprehensive set of five distinctive products available across five platforms: web, mobile, chat, conference and call centers. Thrive is meeting the moment by meeting employees where they are and providing solutions in real time when they need them most. That’s the fulfillment of our vision.
And we have the wind at our backs. In July, Thrive raised an $80 million Series C round co-led by Kleiner Perkins and Owl Ventures. The new funding gave us the resources to accelerate our product growth, and bring our enterprise SaaS platform to more and more companies around the world.
It has also made it possible for us to bring even more top talent to Thrive as we pursue our ambitious goals. One of our new hires is our visionary Chief Product Officer Christopher O’Donnell, who joined Thrive after spending over 10 years at HubSpot, most recently as Chief Product Officer, and is leading the buildout of our 5×5 product suite. We’ve spent five years cracking the code on habit formation and behavior change, delivering our solutions to customers on a best-in-class platform made up of science-backed Microsteps, real-time stress interventions, storytelling and community. We’ve deployed this continuous, real-time behavior change experience across our customer base, helping employees at over 125 organizations in more than 140 countries improve well-being, mental resilience and productivity.
And now, under Christopher’s leadership, we’ll be offering our products on the web; on mobile through the Thrive app; in chat and messaging by integrating tools like Thrive Reset into an increasing number of workplace communications software, including Slack and Microsoft Teams; in video conferencing, with our continued integration into Zoom, Cisco Webex and Teams; and in call centers, by incorporating our products into call center software.
The five distinctive products featured across these five platforms are:
Thrive Today
Thrive Today, in the Thrive app and soon available across all platforms, helps users build healthy habits through six Journeys: Recharge, Food, Move, Focus, Money and Connect — because sleep, nutrition, movement, gratitude and other key aspects of our overall well-being are all interconnected. Throughout the experience, users can commit to and track Microsteps — small, science-backed steps to help build healthy habits — and get motivation from storytelling and inspiring role models that appeal to the heart, not just the mind.
Thrive Learn
Thrive Learn is the next iteration of our learning platform, featuring our growing suite of world-class learning programs — delivered by experts including our Chief Training Officer Joey Hubbard, our Chief Medical Officer Dr. Aaliya Yaqub, our Nutrition Director Tess Bredesen and our team of expert facilitators. And now we’re building Thrive Learn as a learning management system with short, targeted videos, expert advice, the latest science and actionable Microsteps that are too small to fail.
In addition to Thrive’s existing learning experiences, including Thriving Performance, Thriving Mind, Thriving Parenthood, Thriving Families, Thriving Across Our Differences, and Thriving Together, Thrive has also launched new experiences that meet the moment by addressing some of the biggest challenges companies and their people are facing today, including:
- The Great Re-evaluation, helping companies re-energize and re-engage their people as record numbers of employees quit their jobs in what has been called “the Great Resignation.”
- Thriving Onboarding, instilling a culture of continuous well-being, belonging and resilience from day one, especially as hybrid work becomes a new norm.
- Thriving Kids, equipping parents with tools to help their children navigate unprecedented challenges in mental health.
- Nourish Your Body and Mind, building eating habits that sharpen focus, reduce stress and anxiety and prevent cognitive decline while at the same time helping users lose weight and improve overall health.
- Thriving in Distracted Times, finding focus in a world of “pandemic brain” and techno-overload.
- Thriving Connection, strengthening our relationship with ourselves, our families, our co-workers and our communities.
Thrive Reset
One of my favorite pieces of science is how we can course-correct from stress in as little as a 60 to 90 seconds. And the tool we’ve built for just that purpose is Thrive Reset, which allows users to reduce stress and reset in just 60 seconds. With over 100 Resets to choose from on themes like gratitude, movement and reframing problems, each Reset includes a guided breathing bubble that helps users inhale, exhale and bring themselves back to center. Users can also create their own personalized 60-second Resets by selecting pictures of their family, pets, landscapes, along with quotes and music that bring them calm and joy.
At Thrive, we’ve brought Reset into our meetings, beginning each of our company-wide All Hands with a different member of our team sharing their Reset. Instead of launching straight into updates and announcements, we get an intimate glimpse of our colleagues by being brought into their world — the people, the music and the quotes they love — all the more important when we’re not physically together. And anyone can get a feel for Thrive Reset now that our integrations in Zoom and Webex are live — a great example of how we’re embedding well-being into the workflow and workflow software.
Thrive Challenges
Thrive Challenges add a new layer of motivation and incentive, inspiring people to build healthy habits by committing to Microsteps in the areas that matter most to them. Each Challenge — for example, Setting the Scene for Sleep, Disconnecting From Your Devices, Strengthening Your Growth Mindset and Building Better Money Habits — is connected to a Thrive journey and includes relevant Microsteps over a set period of time — for example, 21 days. For additional motivation and a sense of community, users can see how many others are participating in their Challenge. Having access to a peer network of support within an organization results in a much more effective and more meaningful behavior change journey.
Thrive Pulse
Right now, every company leader is trying to figure out how not to be on the losing side of the Great Resignation. Thrive Pulse is a mental resilience dashboard that will give leaders unprecedented real-time insights into employee well-being, stress and burnout — all anonymized and aggregated. It integrates directly into the daily workflow — for example, in Microsoft Teams and Slack — creating a seamless, frictionless experience that meets employees where they are. And because the insights will be in real time, Thrive Pulse will empower leaders to make timely interventions and help people course-correct to ensure they’re thriving and reaching their highest potential.
It’s been incredibly rewarding seeing the impact our solutions have had for our customers — including Accenture, Cisco, Hilton, Levi Strauss, Microsoft, Pfizer, Salesforce, ViacomCBS and Walmart — and their people over a challenging year. Here’s what some of our partners had to say:
- “We have been honored to be a partner of Thrive Global since its launch and to collaborate on the design of Thriving Together, Thrive Resets and Thriving Mind. These science-based tools, which bring conversations about mental well-being to the forefront, have been completed by more than 180,000 Accenture people, helping them be their best in all aspects of their lives,” said Ellyn Shook, Chief Leadership & Human Resources Officer of Accenture.
- “Cisco’s partnership with Thrive directly contributes to building a culture of empathy and mindfulness,” said Fran Katsoudas, EVP and Chief People, Policy & Purpose Officer of Cisco. “From Thrive Reset as part of Webex to Leadership Journeys for over 11,000 global leaders, our work together is embedding well-being and resilience practices throughout the organization.”
- “We launched our partnership with Thrive Global nearly five years ago because we knew the importance of prioritizing the mental and physical well-being of our Team Members around the world. When the pandemic hit last year, our Team Members benefited from the strong foundation of Thrive resources and Microsteps that we’d created together well before the pandemic,” said Laura Fuentes, Chief Human Resources Officer of Hilton. “With the help of our long and productive relationship, we’ve been able to provide our Team Members with dedicated guides and access to Thrive Global’s app-based experience, and to meet them where they are on their wellness journeys.”
- “Pfizer’s partnership with Thrive Global has been a great support in our ongoing efforts to provide the tools and resources to help all of our colleagues take care of their physical and mental health,” said Payal Sahni, Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer of Pfizer. “We look forward to working with Thrive to support our colleagues through the new Thriving Kids program, which is aimed at giving parents necessary strategies to help children with pandemic-related anxiety. The more knowledge and tools we have, the better able we are to achieve our purpose: breakthroughs that change patients’ lives.”
- “We were thrilled to bring the Thrive Global behavior change platform and app to all of our global employees and take 250 employees on Leadership Journeys,” said Nancy Phillips, Executive Vice President, Chief People Officer of ViacomCBS. It’s also a way to help make taking care of ourselves part of our everyday culture and conversations so that we can all operate at our best.”
It’s an exciting time at Thrive Global. Our goal from day one has been to reshape the employee experience. And now we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to accelerate our mission and redefine the future of work. Our 5×5 product suite will be the foundation of that effort, and I’m excited about the impact it can have on the lives of millions of employees around the world. As we say at Thrive, onward, upward and inward!
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