Curtis Forbes, a professional jazz musician, has been steered throughout his career by a crucial piece of counsel from his music school instructor many years ago: Occasionally, you have to accept the performance opportunity even when none is readily apparent.
TL;DR
- Curtis Forbes created MustardHub, a system to boost engagement and retention for emerging and smaller companies.
- MustardHub offers a freemium model with paid plans providing AI-driven forecasts and management functionalities.
- The system uses digital currency for recognition, allowing employees to exchange points for gift certificates or monetary value.
- Forbes emphasizes creating opportunities, understanding the market deeply, and avoiding ego for business success.
“It really struck me,” he recalls. “How else do you tell somebody to go be an entrepreneur? You can’t wait for an opportunity to appear—you create it, even if the conditions aren’t perfect.”
Forbes established and leads MustardHub, a system created to boost engagement and retention, particularly for emerging companies and smaller enterprises. This adaptable system not only encourages involvement and responsibility via teamwork and acknowledgment but also provides forward-looking insights that pinpoint workplace elements such as turnover likelihood and preparedness for advancement. Its aim is to assist smaller businesses in lowering employee turnover and cultivating enduring workplace environments. Although the system is presently accessible as an open beta, the majority of customers select MustardHub’s integrated offering, which is monitoring 4,000 client accounts by the middle of January.
Forbes's path to entrepreneurship began during his 15 years on the jazz scene, performing guitar and upright bass across the country following his graduation from Berklee College of Music. He also tutored his own pupils during this period, leading him to establish Forbes Music in 2001, a business focused on music instruction that integrates both in-person and virtual classes. The company experienced steady growth for many years until the arrival of the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020.
Unexpected opportunity
“When COVID hit, priorities shifted, especially for employers in education and in-person services,” Forbes says. “We realized that we couldn’t just keep people on payroll—we also had to keep them connected, motivated, supported, and engaged.”
Forbes and his colleagues developed an in-house application, utilizing their existing proprietary software designed for overseeing the firm's numerous, predominantly part-time and freelance personnel, to motivate, acknowledge, and compensate Forbes Music personnel. Considering that many were freelance music instructors, they linked incentives not solely to the duration of their lessons, but also to additional indicators such as how well students were retained. Achieving predetermined benchmarks then activated awards.
“We weren’t trying to replicate platform features from solutions already on the market,” he recalls. “The tools available then were all built for the enterprise world—they didn’t fit small businesses that had a mix of full- and part-time employees and contract staff. MustardHub grew out of things we were doing internally to solve these problems for ourselves.”
The impact proved significant: Turnover at Forbes Music fell 80% in year one, while revenue rose 42.5%. After adding additional features and further “productizing” the platform, Forbes launched MustardHub for the small and medium business (SMB) market in a phased deployment starting in 2023.
Scalable solution
MustardHub's “freemium to premium” framework allows businesses to register and utilize its primary functionalities—such as acknowledgment messages, communication, and timely event acknowledgments—without any cost. Through a straightforward setup, managers specify their sector (which guides subsequent selections within the system) and “hubs”—adaptable, personalized streams with distinct content, facilitating employee engagement—“kind of like if Facebook Groups and Slack had a baby.”. Organizations have the liberty to include an unlimited number of administrators and users, as no charges are applied per individual.
Points, a form of digital currency that managers can acquire for employees and colleagues to exchange as recognition for effort, to uphold company principles, or to express gratitude for successful work, represent an additional fundamental element of the system.
“When companies buy points, they’re investing directly in their people,” Forbes explains. “They fuel the economy on the platform and strengthen behaviors and cultural signals that keep teams connected and engaged.”
Individuals accumulate credits through receiving acknowledgment (from supervisors or peers) and acknowledging fellow employees, which they can then exchange within MustardHub's online store for a multitude of branded gift certificates, spanning from Amazon to Wine of the Month Club subscriptions. This system further collaborates with administrators of pension schemes and providers of medical coverage, enabling staff members to transform their accumulated points into monetary value for their retirement funds and healthcare savings.
Organizations featuring a mix of full-time and part-time employees, freelance professionals, and essential personnel in sectors such as hospitality, education, and healthcare are ideal clients for MustardHub.
“The idea is that every worker can have a voice and a sense of belonging,” Forbes says. “It’s a purpose-built platform that scales with a company’s growth, and keeps people connected along the way.”
Beyond its complimentary option, MustardHub provides two paid plans priced at $50 and $120 monthly, granting access to various management and reporting functionalities, alongside AI-driven forecasts concerning customer attrition likelihood, retention approaches, and promising employees. The company's white-label embedded service connects with more than 280 software platforms, enhancing current internal data analysis and offering further insight into organizational behaviors.
“We introduced the freemium model so business owners could experience the platform without any financial risk, then we built a strong partnership channel with software partners like payroll providers and workforce management platforms, who embed our solution into their offerings,” says Forbes. “That turned distribution more into collaboration, which fuels our customer growth today.”
Advice for entrepreneurs
In addition to the wise counsel from his musical guide, the most valuable guidance he obtained originated from his dad, during a telephone exchange following Forbes's 48-hour bus journey to try out for a music institution without his parents' consent.
“He said, ‘We live in the boredom of the time that followed, thinking of what once was and might have been,’” he recalls. “In other words, don’t live in the shadow of what-ifs, or waste time replaying alternate versions of the past. Make the decision, own the outcome, and move forward.”
Forbes has learned a few other lessons along the way.
“There’s really no place for ego—it’s a cancer to growth and development,” Forbes says. “The best ideas come from conversations, not hierarchy. I surround myself with people who are much smarter than I am, and I listen to them. The more you listen, the smarter your company gets.”
He also believes knowing your market trumps all.
“We talk a lot about product-market fit in startups, but I think the real challenge is understanding the market—you have to cultivate it first,” he explains. “Your job as an entrepreneur is to become an expert in your domain—to identify those gaps and see how the innovation can transform the space. Eventually, you should know your customers better than they know themselves. That’s where the meaningful products are born.”