Outplacement Alternative: RiseSmart

Posted at November 17, 2009

I’ve known about RiseSmart for a while – I just reread a press release they put out October 21. You can read it here, titled RiseSmart Announces $4.6 Million in Additional Series A Financing from Storm Ventures and Norwest Venture Partners.

Here are some interesting points I’ve pulled out of the press release:

They consider themselves as outplacement disruptor (they are, kind of)
They are getting Fortune 500 customers
They are in Silicon Valley – relevant because there is a “let’s get funded!” mentality there like nowhere else
They have taken a total of $8.85M in funding so far
The outplacement industry is a $3B industry
Their pitch seems to be that they are more affordable (”…is disrupting the cost structure for corporate outplacement providers…”) AND that they are using technology as a significant part of their offering.
They have “grown rapidly” since June 2008. I don’t know what that means – grown their team? Grown their revenues? Grown there _______?
They define outplacement SOFT services to include “grief counseling and office space”
Most important in their offering is to deliver “actionable job leads from across the Web based on…specific criteria”
“Based on an independent survey the average employer paid more than $5,000 per executive or manager for three to six months of outplacement” – WOW – that average is higher than what I’ve heard…
They claim traditional outplacement is not delivering what the candidate really wants: “a singular focus on finding employees jobs.”

For me this was a juicy read – I’m excited to follow RiseSmart as they proceed. It will be really interesting to see how traditional outplacement reacts to the claims – I have no doubt they are going to evolve, as opposed to become obsolete.

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