Clear Review has raised £3.1M in total. We talk with Stuart Hearn, its CEO.
PetaCrunch: How would you describe Clear Review in a single tweet?
Stuart Hearn: A continuous performance management platform that improves people’s working lives whilst increasing organisational performance and productivity.
PC: How did it all start and why?
SH: I founded Clear Review back in 2016. As a former HR Director in my past life, I experienced ongoing frustration with outdated and ineffective annual appraisals. Existing performance management processes and systems were tedious and time-consuming, which led to traditional annual appraisals being viewed as a tick-box exercise by both employees and managers. Apart from creating copious amounts of admin, the worst part was that the employee was receiving little to no value in performance improvement and coaching.
Because of this, I was compelled to create and deliver an altogether better and different solution that would improve people’s working lives and deliver the performance and productivity gains that come with this. Specifically, I wanted to deliver an ‘in the flow of work’ solution that would facilitate more frequent feedback and more meaningful performance conversations – something that I believe is essential to people engaging with, and getting value from, a performance management system.
The Clear Review platform that we have today is therefore very much focused on people and relationships rather than systems – or even the technology. That’s really informed the way that we’ve built the Clear Review product. It doesn’t matter how smart an idea is: if it doesn’t mesh with how people behave, it won’t work.
PC: What have you achieved so far?
SH: As a company, we have enjoyed immense success since we were founded in 2016, and growth has been most rapid over the past 12 months. During this period, Clear Review’s annual turnover has doubled to £1.5m, headcount has grown from 5 to 24 people, and the company has on-boarded its 200th customer.
Our ‘talk more’ platform is also resonating with customers across industry sectors and geographic borders, with notable brands including CYBG/Virgin Money, Ricoh, the law firm Kennedys, Aston Villa Football Club and The Valuation Office Agency (VOA). The Clear Review team is also very proud of our better than 98% customer retention rate, which is further evidence of the value being reaped from our continuous performance management platform – both by employees, and in terms of overall business outcomes.
Clear Review has also enjoyed notable industry recognition this year – a clear indication that we are on track to become the UK’s undisputed leader in new performance technology. Recent accolades include winning ‘Vendor of the Year’ at the 2019 UK Employee Engagement Awards and being shortlisted in the category ‘Best HR Supplier’ at the CIPD People Management Awards 2019. The company also received ‘Gold’ accreditation from Investors in People at the first time of asking.
With regards to our product, as with any technology, the key indicator of its value is adoption. Do people use it? Does it integrate with their existing behaviours? This is something we have worked hard to deliver, and when putting these questions to our customer base, the answer is a resounding “yes”. Feedback relating to ongoing customer service and customer success has been overwhelmingly positive, too.
PC: How will you use your recent funding round?
SH: Our latest funding round will be primarily used to support both continued product development and market development into the US – a market that already accounts for 20% of our total annual revenues.
On the product side, and following the recent build-out of language functionality, we will be investing in areas such as an Outlook extension, Natural Language Processing (to enable employees to set better goals) and API/integrations. We will also be further developing the way our product supports collaborative team performance.
Market awareness and adoption of new performance management models is increasing dramatically and we’re confident the recent funding will allow us to take things to the next level at just the right time.
PC: What do you plan to achieve in the next 2-3 years?
SH: We see our solution as having an application across the business world – our current customers include central government departments, local councils, financial institutions, football clubs, law firms and many others – so we foresee immense growth possibilities. In line with this we will focus on growing revenues in our home market (the UK), where we plan to consolidate Clear Review’s position as UK leader in new breed of performance management technology by the end of 2019.
Alongside this, and as mentioned above, we will be growing our presence and market share in the US – a key growth strategy for us over the coming 1-2 years.
The Clear Review leadership team is also committed to building and growing a community of employees who are passionate about delivering on the company’s mission: to improve people’s working lives whilst driving better performance and productivity gains for business. The company has plans to double its headcount over the coming 18 months, and to accommodate these ambitious recruitment plans, we have recently moved into a larger office space in Farringdon, Central London.
Ultimately, Clear Review’s aim is to be known as the most intuitive, user-friendly performance tech in the world, designed to fit into and improve people’s working lives.
