Forefront — Equipping Companies With Cultural Competency Skills

Bram Berkowitz
Storied
Published in
2 min readMay 23, 2019

Forefront is an app that provides bite-sized educational content, peer matching and a commitment tracker.

The Problem

Adjusting to work life in corporate America is different and diverse talent is 3.5 times more likely to lose their jobs than those from less diverse backgrounds. Meanwhile, big companies are losing out on talent and high turnover is costing them $30.5 billion dollars per year. The corporate development and learning industry market is growing 15 percent annually and valued at $140 billion.

What The Company Does

Forefront makes it easier for companies to foster inclusive cultures through innovative in-person and online training, moving from one-off, off-the-shelf training to continuous just-in-time learning. The app provides bite-sized educational content, peer matching and a commitment tracker. Forefront’s goal is to equip companies with cultural competency skills; help them remain an employer of choice and attract, engage and retain top talent.

Revenue Model

Through app. Goal is to scale to reach all fortune 500 companies.

Traction

Company launched the app last year and has already signed on 16 clients including SAP and Accenture. Clients are reporting three times rise in employee engagement and employee well being. Forefront has already trained 1,500 executives and received grants from reputable organizations in the HR and education space and recently formed a partnership with PwC Chairman Tim Ryan.

Founding Team Background

Co-Founders are Yulkendy Valdez and Josuel Plasencia. Valdez grew up in the Dominican Republic and has traveled the world with young potential leaders, which has taught her a lot about how to facilitate transformative dialogues about race, gender and identity, and most importantly how to move them to action. Plasencia grew up in Queens, NY and would go on to start a series of national conferences connecting people committed to inclusion. His work was featured in a United Nation’s conference on youth in Sri Lanka.

What They Need Help With

Forefront is looking to close a $250,000 seed round and hire a lead engineer and more talent. If interested, the company can be reached at info@forefrontcultures.com.

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Bram Berkowitz
Storied

Writing about banks, stocks, and startups. Frequently published in The Motley Fool and Rhode Island Inno. Co-founder of The Buzz.