He made his first splash with Workbrain before recently selling Rypple, a social media program based a shockingly simple idea: people like feedback
(Image: Mark Peckmezian)
Rypple purports to bring the performance review into the social media age. Employees can receive recognition on a Facebook-style wall and ask for feedback via private messages. What was wrong with the traditional, pen-and-paper performance review?
What was right with it? It’s slow, inefficient and way too formal. Rypple makes feedback fun and social, and it reaches an employee right away, rather than six months after the fact. It uses real language, too. No one says, “You exhibited the competencies of leadership and decisiveness.” They say, “You were a rock star. You kicked ass on that deal.”
Rypple users can give each other badges that say “You’re #1!” and “Thumbs up,” which seems goofy. Do people really crave that kind of hyper-positivity at work?
Yes! People aren’t robots. Recognition means a lot. People care a lot about money, of course, but once they reach a certain compensation level, salary ceases to be a significant motivator. Coaching, recognition and relationships with management matter more.
In 2007, you sold Workbrain, a workforce management company, for $227 million, and you just sold Rypple for $65 million. What do you know that the rest of us don’t?
Nothing. I’m just willing to take some crazy risks and fail a lot along the way.
The Buyers: Joel McConvey, a 33-year-old freelance writer and producer, and Amy Butoiske, the 33-year-old manager of the Worldwide Short Film Festival.
The spectacle at city hall has become a common obsession, even among people who never before cared much about municipal politics. It’s part comedy, party tragedy, and overall the weirdest show in town. The carnival-like atmosphere reached its apex when Rob Ford jumped on a giant scale and turned his weight problem into a public exhibit. David Miller, for better or for worse, was at least sensible enough to drop his extra pounds before discussing it with the world. In our cover story this month (“
Last fall, the Royal Bank of Canada—with $27 billion in annual revenue, $752 billion in assets and 74,000 employees, the biggest and most prudent bank in the world’s safest banking system—announced that new employees would no longer be eligible to receive what is probably the company’s most important workplace benefit: the comprehensive retirement insurance plan. It insures the Royal’s Canadian employees, or at least those hired before January 1, 2012, against all sorts of risks. The risk of reaching retirement age at a time when stock markets are down, or interest rates are low. The risk of outliving one’s retirement savings. Inflation risk. Risks you’ve probably never even heard of, like reinvestment risk and liquidity risk. Even the risk of earning below market returns.
I’m a 28-year-old film editor, and I don’t want for much. I live in a spacious apartment on a quiet street off Queen West. I rarely have trouble finding meaningful and well-paying employment. But after following the Occupy Wall Street protest in New York, I was inspired to step outside my comfort zone.
The Buyers: Karie Whetter, a 32-year-old marketing account director, and Paul Cussons, a 35-year-old account executive.
Janet opens the door to her house, already wearing her powdery white latex gloves, left over from her mother’s kidney dialysis.
