Good morning, Broadsheet readers! New research shows that freelance women face a “glass wall,” two women on opposite sides of a women’s soccer scandal must find a path forward, and Rachel Romer’s Guild moves beyond education. Happy Wednesday.
– Graduation. Eight years ago, Rachel Romer cofounded Guild Education, the education startup that partners with big businesses like Walmart to help their employees acquire new skills. That mission and business opportunity have helped the company become one of the world’s highest-valued female-founded startups, with a valuation of $4.4 billion and backed by Bessemer Venture Partners and Cowboy Ventures.
But Romer, Guild’s CEO, always saw a path for Guild beyond what traditionally qualifies as education. Today, the company announced, it is dropping “education” from its name to rebrand as Guild and introducing a new career coaching product that aims to help employees advance outside of skills-based training.
“Education and skilling can help people make shifts [in their careers] but so can helping people understand the skills they already have,” Romer says.
Guild partners with companies like Walmart, Lowe’s, Disney, and Chipotle to manage education benefits ranging from degree programs to short-term certificates and English-as-a-second-language classes. By adding more career services to its marketplace, Guild plans to offer support like résumé writing and job interview preparation.
Many career development programs cater to white-collar workers, but Guild hopes its offering reaches the majority of workers at the businesses it supports who are in hourly or frontline jobs. Its new vertical aims to help a retail worker advance to a supervisory position or a drugstore cashier move into a health care role.
About 5 million workers employed by Guild’s clients have been eligible over the past year to use the Guild platform; about 5 to 10% of employees at Guild’s client companies are actively using the education platform at any given time. Guild found that a greater share than that 10% said they’d be interested in a broader career services offering. For companies that use the platform, Guild addresses issues like retention and is even seen by some as a way to avoid laying off workers if their existing positions became obsolete.
Romer has spent the past year-and-a-half incorporating new career coaching services into the Guild platform; she hired a new CMO, Rebecca Biestman, who has steered the company’s rebrand.
“We’d always hoped to earn the right to make that reach beyond learning,” Romer says, “and be able to help all employees access career and economic opportunities.”
Emma Hinchliffe
[email protected]
@_emmahinchliffe
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ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- 'Environmental moonshot.' Occidental Petroleum's CEO Vicki Hollub is betting $1 billion on a new technology that she expects will help the company reach net zero emissions. The direct-air capture will use fans the size of tennis courts to pull CO2 back down into the geological cavities of the Permian Basin, the very same bedrock that the company pulls oil from. Wall Street Journal
- Apple legacy. Former Apple communications executive Katie Cotton, who steered the tech giant's media strategy for 18 years and organized massive launch events, died earlier this month. Her family said that she "passed peacefully;" she was in her late 50s. Her tenure as comms VP coincided with Apple's incredible comeback from near-insolvency, and she famously guarded Steve Jobs as his health declined. Bloomberg
- Spill the beans. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) And Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) Asked 14 of Silicon Valley Bank's biggest depositors to outline their relationship with the failed bank. The lawmakers believe that the closer-than-normal relationship between the two sides could have led to the bank's rapid decline and say consumers deserve to know the role those relationships played. Bloomberg
- Glass wall. New research shows that women who go freelance to expand their career options hit something akin to the glass ceiling. They're seen as having less agency than the freelance men who do the same thing, and therefore appear less valuable to employers. Harvard Business Review
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Melanie Babcock has been named VP of retail media and monetization at Home Depot. Linda Grais will join the board of directors at Collective Health. Tonal has appointed Krystal Zell its new CEO. BibliU has added Shannon Meadows to the board of directors and Carli Tegtmeier as chief revenue officer.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
- Funding gap. New venture funds are struggling to raise money in a tough economy. High interest rates and a looming recession are making limited partners wary of startup investments, risking the progress of female and minority fund managers who are newer to the space. The Information
- Another chance. Last year, Irish soccer player Sinead Farrelly was part of a group of whistleblowers who accused coaches in women's soccer of widespread abuse. She now plays for Team Ireland, which is led by one of the coaches in question: Vera Pauw, who was accused of body-shaming players (and has called the claims false). The two are treading lightly as they try to build trust ahead of the Women's World Cup. New York Times
- Comeback. The Eileen Fisher clothing line was once the butt of jokes for its earthy vibe. But younger consumers are gravitating to the brand for its sustainable practices, leading to a resurgence. Wall Street Journal
ON MY RADAR
How Slutty Vegan puts the party in plant-based food The New Yorker
Where is PhRMA in the mifepristone debate? STAT
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith can't believe she’s still the first Vulture
Jodie Comer puts her talents on trial The New Yorker
PARTING WORDS
“I think there is truth to getting a little more comfortable in your decisions, your skin [in your 40s]. And life is a work in progress. You’re always learning.”
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