“I think we’ve all been in positions as leaders where we may have felt like we didn’t know exactly what to do. We read the books or listened to a Simon Sinek TedTalk, but on Monday, you don’t know how to actuate it,” Teaming’s co-founder Tim Mulron told Hypepotamus as we started chatting about what are the intangible factors that define a good team and a good leader.
Recognizing the current gap in team management software space, Mulron launched Teaming out of his homebase of Nashville in 2019. The main goal: “helping leaders build and operate high-performing teams.”
For Mulron, the goal is Teaming is simple, but has strong downstream implications on company culture. “It’s like having a great administrative assistant on one shoulder and a coach on the other.”
Teaming is meant to fill the gap for leaders looking to track management growth and team development. Unlike other performance management software companies, which focus on individual employee engagement, Teaming’s platform offers leaders and managers a 360-degree view of team goals and meeting outcomes, team health, and teamwork styles.
“We knew that many times people are put into management positions without tools or coaching. Often, that leads to team leaders getting caught up in the day-t0-day. You get pulled into the tactical and you don’t have time for the strategic.”
Teaming brought in its first round of external investment this month, with $1.7 million from a group of angel investors. The funds will be used primarily on the product development side.
Teaming was born out of the former executive team from LeanKit (acquired by Planview in 2017). Mulron moved from Silicon Valley to Nashville and had previously built up email platform Emma and insurance company Asurion prior to working as LeanKit’s co-CEO.
Building Teams in COVID…And Beyond
No doubt beta testing a work management platform during COVID is a challenge in and of itself. But for Mulron, the pandemic has only highlighted the importance of building strong teams.
“The acceleration of the [work from home] environment has made it even more challenging to build and operate teams,” said Mulron. The platform was not built specifically for remote-first teams, but Mulron says that the platform has been evolving dynamically to meet the needs of teams with all different types of geographic arrangements.
“Teaming is solving real pains for me and my team,” said Danielle Condon, senior director of marketing at Built Technologies, in a statement. “On a practical level, it’s helping us keep track of our meetings, team goals and commitments, so we’re all on the same page about our work and priorities. But on a higher level, Teaming is bringing us closer together, which is so needed right now. It’s a forum that allows us to support each other, continuously improve how we work cohesively as a team, and as a result, we are a more effective team.”
