LifeGuides Announces $1M Follow-on Funding from North Shore Venture Partners as Financing Exceeds $5.5M (to date)
Fueling Growth of Breakthrough to address Employee Life Challenges & Presenteeism Loss
Sep 30, 2019, 23:59 ET
TEMPE, Ariz., Sept. 30, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- LifeGuides helps enterprises increase retention and recruiting, while reducing presenteeism loss, and enhancing a Culture of Caring. The Company provides a human-to-human network, of trained and experienced Guides, to help employee families through an expanding array of over one hundred Life Challenges.
North Shore Venture Partners ("NSVP"), with this additional $1,000,000 investment, brings its total funding of LifeGuides to $2,000,000, including five prior investments.
Mr. McDonough, NSVP's Founder stated: "When I first heard Mark Donohue describe the LifeGuides idea, it grabbed me as a 'once in a lifetime' investment opportunity, that I would always regret if not acted on. Although 'The Uber of XYZ' is becoming an over-hyped, hackneyed phrase, this company lives up to that potential. With a moderate investment in its proprietary technology platform, combined with the right team, LifeGuides accesses a huge pool of untapped talent, who help people who are hit hard by Life Challenges. The service does not cost employers much, yet delivers happier, heathier and more focused employees. It provides a wonderful extra source of income and meaning to people, who have earned expertise through navigating their own Life Challenges. I have been slowing adding my investment over two years. Now that a diversely skilled team and initial Guides network is built, the service is rolling out, so it is time to double my investment. LifeGuides has a huge head start in what will inevitably be a global business. It is run by a small, highly talented crew, poised to marshal a huge global impact."
Mr. Donohue, CEO & Founder, noted that: "It is such a pleasure to have Mark McDonough backing another one of my ventures. We have a strong history of him backing me for 18 years." NSVP's funding accelerates our growth and brings LifeGuides closer to our planned Series A Preferred financing in 2020.
Mr. Mc Donough will be joining the Board of Directors with prior investors Will Bunker, Founder of Match and Partner at GrowthX, and Derek Lundsten, Founder of Scrimmage, the e-learning platform used by much of the health care industry. All Board members are passionate about scaling business models that foster "Doing Well, While Doing Good."
Mr. Lundsten stated: "We are excited to welcome Mark McDonough to the Board and into our community of proven investors and successful entrepreneurs, who are aligning around LifeGuides as a rapidly scalable enterprise, which is accelerating Business as a Force for Good." Mr. Bunker added: "The LifeGuides model, of matching a person who has successfully navigated a Life Challenge, to someone in the midst of that same Life Challenge, is pure genius. This model provides a Unique Value Proposition to all the three sides of the platform: the Client (Employee family), the Employer, and the Guide."
Mark Donohue, the Founder, added: "LifeGuides is expanding rapidly to serve the under-addressed 'silent suffering' in the midst of every employee group. Most HR benefits simply address a crisis or diagnosis, but in the middle, people are living their lives, and all too often are overwhelmed and feeling alone. We help fill the gap. We provide the most human of solutions. Enterprises are further motivated, to buy LifeGuides, by the fact that 'presenteeism loss' is estimated at 6-10 times absenteeism loss. LifeGuides can and does make a difference. We invite all employers to partner with us, as we strive to hit our goal of reducing struggle for 1B globally within 15 years."
Life Challenges are Inevitable™. At times, everyone needs experienced and personalized Guidance. This is a peer-to-peer model based on shared Life Experience, and LifeGuides is foundationally based on a breadth of "social determinants of health" research. We use technology to optimize human connection, as opposed to trying to replace humans with bots or algorithms.
Life Guides represents the next stage of the sharing economy. Bigger than homes or cars (Uber or Airbnb) is the value of our Life Experience, Empathy and ability to Guide each other. What was needed is an effective matching system and a managed platform -- to overcome the fragmentation of modern society, as one tries to find a match when you need experienced, caring guidance.
To achieve success, LifeGuides must offer a compelling value proposition to drive adoption by employers. Now, employee families need never feel alone again. As the Company's tagline states: "Navigating Life Challenges Together."
For information about adding The LifeGuides Network™ to your enterprise, please email [email protected].
ABOUT MARK DONOHUE
A leading pioneer, Mark has specialized in "impact" enterprises, "conscious capitalism" and "triple bottom line" economics for 30 years, and is passionate about bringing regenerative, healing and sustainable models to much-greater scale.
In January of 2019, LifeGuides, PBC, where Mark is Founder/CEO, received the Grand Prize in the prestigious "Abundance Impact Challenge" from Dr. Peter Diamandis, Singularity University and the Abundance 360 leadership network.
In April 2019, Mark was appointed to Fast Company's Impact Council, which is "300 leaders that will redefine the future of enterprise."
In January of 2011, Mr. Donohue was honored as one of the "Top 100 American Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior," by the organization Trust Across America.
He was Entrepreneur-in-Residence for over five years, and subsequently Senior Fellow in Social Innovation for three years, at Babson College, which is consistently #1-rated in the world for Entrepreneurship education.
In the non-profit realm, he has served on Boards including: Babson College, the Social Venture Circle, The Temple of Understanding (USA's oldest interfaith education organization), and as Treasurer of the Foundation for Conscious Evolution.
ABOUT LIFEGUIDES
LifeGuides helps companies with its network of trained and experienced Guides, to support employee families through an array of Life Challenges.
Life Challenges are Inevitable. LifeGuides pairs people, who are going through a specific Life Challenge, with a Guide who has successfully navigated the same Life Challenge. As Match.com pairs people for love, and Doctor On Demand finds doctors for patients, we match a Guide to each employee's specific Life Challenge. Furthermore, our Well-Being Concierges™ and Intelligence Assistance™ software custom match resources for each participant. Services require no crisis, no diagnosis and no stigma. The LifeGuides Network™ is long term human support, combining active listening, empathy and shared Life Experiences in a most relatable and effective manner.
Outcomes for an enterprise can include:
* Reduced Presenteeism Loss
* Reduced Absenteeism
* Improved Focus, Well-Being & Creativity
* Achieving Better Retention & Recruitment
* Reduced Health Insurance Claims
* Enhancing your Culture of Caring
For Press inquiries or to learn more, please contact Stephan Vincent, Sr. Director, Engagement Marketing: [email protected] or call him at: (317) 313-7066
Please visit: https://www.lifeguides.com
SOURCE LifeGuides, PBC