1.
Work 3.0
Investment Thesis
Dhanasree Molugu
Zhi Huang
1

2.
Table of Contents
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I. U.S. Labor Market Overview – Which Groups Have We Overlooked?
II. COVID-19 Tailwinds – A Likely Permanent Shift
III. Future of Work – For Businesses of All Sizes and Workers of All Types
IV. Market Overview – A Growing Space Ripe for Innovation
V. Key Opportunities Deep-Dive – Investment Opportunities We Are Exploring
VI. Related Pipelines
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8
17
29
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63

3.
U.S. Labor Market Overview
Which Groups Have We Overlooked?
3

4.
How Big Is the U.S. Addressable Market?
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics as of July 2020
U.S. Civilian
Noninstitutional
Population
260MM
U.S. Civilian
Labor Force
160MM
U.S. Employed
Labor Force
142MM
4

5.
The Labor Market is Transforming –
Groups We Might Have Overlooked
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics as of July 2020
Participation Rate by Gender Growth of Older Age Groups
77%
75%
68%
64%
67%
63%
52%
60%
57%
1980A 2000A 2020A
Men Women
Total
78% 76% 75%
65% 65%
68%
17% 20%
23%
2008A 2018A 2028P
16-54 65+
55-64
5

6.
The Labor Market is Transforming –
Groups We Might Have Overlooked (Cont’d)
Source: Deskless Workforce 2018; Statista; Fortunly, Gig Economy Statistics 2020
The Deskless Workforce Freelancers
80%
of global workforce is deskless…
Agriculture: 858M
Retail: 497M
Hospitality: 122M
Education: 226M
Manufacturing: 427M
Healthcare: 148M
Construction: 265M
Transp. & Logistics:
189M
~60M
of Freelancers working in the U.S.,
representing 1/3+ of total labor force
They work
11 – 30 hours per week on average
90%+ of U.S. workers would consider freelancing or
independent contracting work
6

7.
Forces Shaping Our Future Workforce
Technological
Breakthroughs
Rapid advances
in automation,
robotics, AI and
other
technological
innovation
Demographic
Shifts
The changing
size, distribution
and age profile of
the world’s
population
Repaid
Urbanization
Significant
increase in the
world’s
population
moving to live in
cities
Climate
Change
Depleted fossil
fuels, extreme
weather, rising
sea levels and
water shortages
COVID-19
Impact
A global health
crisis that has
disrupted and
transformed
our daily lives
Source: PwC, Workforce of the Future report 7

8.
COVID-19 Tailwinds
A Likely Permanent Shift
8

9.
COVID-19 Impact Index by Industry
Negatively
Impacted
Positively
Impacted
Minimal
Impact
Energy
Industrials
Consumer
Disc.
Materials
Real
Estate
Comm.
Services
Utilities
Consumer
Staples
Financials
Health
Care
Info
Tech
Source: FactSet Earnings Insight, July 31, 2020
To estimate the impact of COVID-19 by industry, we used y/y Q2 2020 revenue growth of S&P
500 companies as general guidance
9

10.
CLM
Impact of COVID-19 on Software
Source: Goldman Sachs, Future of Work Report, May 22, 2020
Sales
Cycle
Shorter
Longer
Near-term COVID-19 Impact
Headwinds Tailwinds
Video
Conferencing
Team
Messaging &
Collaboration
Web App
Security &
Performance
Public Cloud
VDI / DaaS
Endpoint
Security
UCaaS
Identity
Management
Monitoring
Omnichannel
& CPaaS
E-Signature
Project
Management
HCM
CRM
FMS
10

11.
Remote Working - A likely permanent shift
Source: GitLab, The Remote Work Report
2020
Earlier: New FoW applications and remote work was
primarily adopted for a select few valley companies within the
Tech & Media Industry, mainly for design and product teams.
Even within the tech industry, Sales teams, Finance teams
didn’t adopt remote work
Now: Almost every industry of the world is adopting remote
work, especially for knowledge workers, with multiple firms
extending working from home until a reliable vaccine is found
or announcing work from home forever option
All-Remote is Surging Everyone Can Contribute
43% of remote workers feel
that it is important to work
for a company where all
employees are remote
56% of remote workers said
that everyone in their
company can contribute to
process, values, and
company direction
11

12.
Source: Statista
62%
84%
84%
86%
86%
87%
90%
I would consider leaving my co-located company for a remote role
My leadership team understands what it takes to operate a team
remotely
I am able to accomplish all of my tasks remotely
Remote work is the future of work
My leadership team gives me agency and autonomy while working
remotely
I am satisfied with tools and processes that enable remote team
communication
I would recommend working remotely to a friend
Shift in Employee Attitudes
Attitudes on remote work for employees in companies with digital output in 2020
12

13.
Shift in Employer Attitudes
Per a recent Gartner survey, nearly 75% of CFOs plan to shift a
portion of previously on-site employees to permanently remote
positions post-crisis.
Fully Remote Companies
§ Stripe was one of the first to announce a fully remote
development hub way back in early 2019. Smaller,
emerging companies such as Zapier, Gitlab, Invision
had fully remote/distributed teams even before COVID-
19 outbreak
§ Post COVID-19, established tech companies have
become fully remote indefinitely
§ This trend is not just limited to the valley but can be
seen in India, China, Singapore and other countries
Source: Gartner; Data complied by Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research
26%
27%
25%
17%
4%
2%
0% 5% 10% 20% 50% >50%
What % of your workforce will remain permanently
remote post-COVID who were not before COVID?
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14.
§ Teams concentrate on high-value results,
getting rid of low-value routines (such as
unnecessary meetings) that actually impede high
performance
§ Teams develop ways of communicating that are
effective, efficient, and enable time for
concentrated work effort as well as for
personal or family life
§ Time usually spent in stressful and often long
commutes morphs into more relaxed time for
personal pursuits or for concentrating on work
§ Higher levels of job satisfaction, employees
are less likely to look for other jobs or quit
Advantages and Challenges Faced by Employees
Advantages Challenges
3%
4%
7%
8%
8%
10%
17%
19%
22%
Finding reliable WiFi
Other
Taking vacation time
Staying motivated
Being in a different time zone
than teammates
Distractions at home
Collaborating and/or
communication
Loneliness
Unplugging after work
14

15.
Challenges Faced by Employers
Source: Statista COVID-19 Survey
29%
38%
25%
16%
38%
30%
71%
62%
75%
84%
62%
70%
Sales have decreased Conferences or other
meetings have been
cancelled or
postponed
Problems with supply
chains, such as
decreased availability
from usual suppliers
Staff shortages due to
illness
I have been asked to
work from home
Other
Yes No
15

16.
Second Degree Impact of COVID-19
Macro:
§ Remote Work levels the playing field and may encourage more participation from women who
may have left the workforce to focus on family and children. Remote work also fosters a
better sense of work/life harmony and creates opportunity for everyone to contribute in the
workplace
§ Increases availability of talent beyond geographical limitations: Technology companies can
now hire best in-class talent from across the world (Asia, Eastern Europe).
§ Will observe a “wage normalisation” especially in the Tech industry which has seen drastic
wage inflation in the last decade or so
Micro:
§ Labor productivity is lower leading to longer product, sales and financing cycles
§ IT spending decreases overall thus leading to a decrease in SaaS ARRs
§ Entrepreneurial activity may see a short-term dip as funding dries up and the employment
environment
§ Industry-specific solutions will gain more traction vs. horizontal solutions
16

17.
Future of Work
For Businesses of All Sizes and Workers of All Types
17

18.
What is ‘Future of
Work’?
“
Future of Work is a complex
interplay of globalisation,
technological and demographic
changes which leads to new
opportunities as well as new
challenges for all forms of
workers (knowledge, liquid or gig
workers) and enterprises of all
shapes and sizes
”
-OECD

19.
Workplace Applications Is at a Tipping Point
1 COVID-19’s impact on workplace applications has been unprecedented,
accelerating adoption of remote working and digital transformation
2 Organizations of all sizes want to modernize workplace application to
improve employee experience and promote a more inclusive culture
3 Today’s diverse workforce have varied preferences and expectations,
making it difficult to reach, engage and align them
4 Emerging technologies focusing on business intelligence, automation and
digital experience create new opportunities and challenges
19

20.
The Future of Workplace Applications
Built to Connect
Distributed Teams
Intelligent Automation
Is Here to Stay
Human-Centric,
Not Process-Centric
§ Transition from a
centralized hub-and-spoke
model to a mesh network
§ Supporting teams that are
dislocated in both time and
location
§ New tools for enterprise
communication, employee
engagement, collaboration
and knowledge sharing
§ Build a culture bringing in
workers of all types
§ Simplify legacy HR
solutions that are complex
and riddled with manual
processes
§ Automation workflows turn
distanced workers into
citizen developers
20

21.
FUTURE OF
WORK
ENTERPRISES
WORKERS
INDIVIDUAL TEAM
WORKFORCE
MANAGEMENT
SG&A
ACTIVITIES
COMMUNICATION
PRODUCTIVITY
HIRING
TRAINING
ACCOUNTING
COLLABORATION
IDENTITY & INFO
MANAGEMENT
PROJECT
MANAGEMENT
KNOWLEDGE
SHARING
ENGAGEMENT/
RETENTION
PAYROLL
FUNCTION-
SPECIFIC TOOLS
SCHEDULING ASSESSMENT
DATA &
SECURITY
21

22.
ENTERPRISES
WORKERS
INDIVIDUAL TEAM
WORKFORCE
MANAGEMENT
SG&A
ACTIVITIES
COMMUNICATION
PRODUCTIVITY
HIRING
TRAINING
ACCOUNTING
COLLABORATION
IDENTITY & INFO
MANAGEMENT
PROJECT
MANAGEMENT
KNOWLEDGE
SHARING
ENGAGEMENT/
RETENTION
PAYROLL
FUNCTION-
SPECIFIC TOOLS
SCHEDULING ASSESSMENT
DATA &
SECURITY
Platform vs. Point Solutions
Platforms Point Solutions
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23.
What Do Today’s SMBs Need?
§ Full view of end-to-end HR, benefits
and payroll processes
§ Single technology partner for all
troubleshooting issues
§ Lower integrations & training costs
§ Automate time-consuming and
complicated tasks
§ Reduce human errors in data
management
§ Self-service solution with lower
implementation hurdle
§ Move from DIY spreadsheet to HR
software with intuitive workflows
§ Expedite new-hire processes through
organized procedures
§ Simplify compliance efforts
All-in-One Platform Organized Processes
Automation
23

24.
What Do Today’s Enterprises Need?
§ Best-of-breed solution for a specific
department
§ Deep functionality for one channel
§ The ability to easily replace the
specific component in the ecosystem
§ Integration with other HR applications
to ensure a streamlined process
§ Integration with the wider ERP
systems to ensure full visibility
§ Generate insights on employee
engagement & productivity with data
analytics
§ High usability with customizable
features and unified reporting
Best-in-Class
Point Solutions
Analytics & Reporting
Integration
24

25.
What Do Today’s Workers Need? – Female Workers
Today’s Female Workers What are the Challenges? What Do They Need?
Source: Catalyst, Women in the Workforce; Deloitte, Women in the Workplace 2019
Gender Parity at Senior Levels
For every 100 men promoted and
hired to manager, only 72 women
are promoted and hired
Lack of Sponsorship
47% of HR leaders surveyed said
a lack of sponsorship is the biggest
challenge for women
Biased Behaviors
73% of women continue to
experience microaggressions
Balancing Caregiving
Responsibilities with Work
The labor force participation rate
for working parents with children
under 18 was 71% for mothers
and 93% for fathers
Clear and Specific Evaluation Criteria
Set in Place
Diverse Slates of Candidates at All
Levels Required for Hiring and
Promotions
Mentorship / Sponsorship from
Higher-Level Employees and
Executives
E-Learning Platforms Designed Train
Women in More Technical Skills
Work-Life Flexibility (e.g. maternity /
paternity leave)
Identification of Potential Biases with
Data Learning Platforms
Continual Assessment of Diversity
Metrics and Workplace Environment
§ Obtain more higher-education
degrees than men
§ Still earn less than their male
counterparts
§ Overrepresented in the industries
most likely to be affected by
automation
§ Scarce among senior leaders
§ Undertake unpaid caregiving
responsibilities disproportionally
compared to men
25

26.
What Do Today’s Workers Need? – Older Generations
Today’s Older Workers What are the Challenges? What Do They Need?
Source: AAPR, The Value of Experience: AARP Multicultural Work & Jobs Study
Age Discrimination
61% of individuals age 45+ have
experienced age-related
discrimination in the workplace
Long-Term Unemployment
Older jobseekers are more likely to
be long-term unemployed,
resulting in an erosion of skills and
career networks
Age-Related Health Decline
Older workers tend to have more
health issues due to their age
Inadequate Training
25%+ of workers age 45+
surveyed would stay with their
current employer longer if their
employer would provide for more
work-related training
Work-Life Flexibility (e.g. remote
working, sick / vacation leave )
Benefits that Tend to Appeal to Older
Workers (e.g. Health Insurance,
Retirement Benefits)
Training / Development Programs
Designed for Continuous Learning
Identification of Potential Biases with
Data Learning Platforms
Continual Assessment of Diversity
Metrics and Workplace Environment
Employee Engagement Tools &
Events that Drive Insights and ROIs
§ Employees age 65+ are the
fastest-growing segment of the
workforce
§ Have a higher labor force
participation rate than their
counterparts in the past
§ Often considered less capable and
less able to adapt than younger
peers
26

27.
What Do Today’s Workers Need? – Freelancers
Today’s Freelance Workers What are the Challenges? What Do They Need?
Source: The Freelancers by Cotently
Attracting Clients
Finding clients and holding onto
them are ongoing challenges faced
by freelancers
Lack of Stability
Freelancers often find themselves
facing periods of no work or
unwanted crowded schedules
Managing Time Effectively
Issues with low productivity and
poor time management often arise
as undesired byproducts of a
flexible work schedule
Not Getting Paid
More than 70% of freelancers
have trouble getting paid at some
point in their careers
Platforms Aggregating a Diverse
Range of Projects / Clients
Project Management Solutions
Designed for Both Short-Term Tasks
and Long-Term Projects
Portfolio Builders to Create Online
Portfolios
Time Management / Calendar and
Productivity Tools
Social Media Management Tools to
Expand Online Presence
Legal and Finance Assistance in
Insurance, Retirement and Taxes
Mediation and Resolution Services to
Ensure Payment Collection
§ Perform temporary or
supplemental work on a project-to-
project basis
§ Want to have more control over
their own schedule and a better
work-life balance
§ Want the flexibility to work from
anywhere
§ Supplement full-time positions with
extra income in a short-term way
§ Choose projects based on
expertise and passion
27

28.
What Do Today’s Workers Need? – Deskless Workers
Today’s Deskless Workers What are the Challenges? What Do They Need?
§ Do not work in the office
§ Usually on the road
§ Limited or no access to a computer
§ Do not have a corporate email
§ Receive limited or no training
§ Cannot easily access company
news and updates
Source: TheEMPLOYEEApp, Challenging Realities of America’s Deskless Workforce Inforgraphics
Dated Communications
Only 9% of companies are using
mobile and mobile apps as a
channel to reach their employees;
the rest rely on old school methods
Inadequate Training
12% of workers surveyed were
not fully satisfied with the amount
of training they receive
Underappreciation
27% workers surveyed said they
receive no appreciation for the
work they do
Lack of Engagement
40% of the workers surveyed do
not value performance feedback
Mobile-Based Solution
Vertical-Specific Solution
Digital Multimedia SOPs
Offline Mode that Allows Data
Synchronization
Real-Time Data Capture
Analytics that Turn Operational Data
into Actionable Insights
Mobile Learning Platform Providing
Microlearning in Efficient and Engaging
Format
KPIs that Track Workplace Safety,
Recognition Initiatives, Engagement
and Performance
Integration with ERP Systems
28

29.
Market Overview
A Growing Space Ripe for Innovation
29

30.
Market Landscape – Platform Solutions
Individual Team
Communication
Collaboration
Project Mgmt
Productivity
Knowledge Sharing
Scheduling
Search & Context
30

31.
Communication
Key Offerings Example Features
1
Centralized Communication for
Distributed Teams
§ Provides frontline / remote workforce with real-time
information
§ Public channels for key announcements
§ Reduce notifications to focus on what matters
2
Personal, Asynchronous
Communication
§ Direct chats for quick conversations & follow-ups
§ Private channels for focused teams
§ Focus on non-real time communication
Two-Way Communication Instead
of One-Way Announcement
§ Foster continuous dialogue among and with employees
§ Include previously marginalized groups
Re-Inventing Communication
Experience
§ Video / audio-based communication
§ Simplified and advanced email experience
§ Cross-channel and cross-application integration
Our Take - Deskbound workers have a plethora of communication tools, whereas the deskless workforce remains
under catered. While the crowded landscape may even lead to a fragmented communication ecosystem in the
white-collar space, there is still an opportunity in the market serving deskless workers despite the recent
fundraises of BeeKeeper, CrewApp, etc.
1
2
3
4
31

32.
Collaboration
Key Offerings Example Features
All-in-One Workspace
§ Centralized information to allow simplified knowledge storing,
sharing and searching
§ Visually assign projects / tasks to team members
§ Comment, start conversations and call upon colleagues
Workflow Automation
§ Auto-assign tasks based on predefined rules
§ If-then workflow to automate messages
§ Library of company templates
Intuitive Organizations of Content
and Data
§ Notes organizations tools
§ Database-like features in spreadsheet
§ Shared inbox
Our Take – We’ve seen the rise of workplace collaboration software over the past decade. Companies such as
Slack and Atlassian succeeded by unbundling email, Gsuite, Microsoft office and other legacy offerings. The
market opportunity remains immense, but today’s collaboration tools need to focus on user-friendly features
serving a dislocated and distributed team to continue to enjoy networked growth with a self-service motion.
1
2
3
32

33.
Project Management
Our Take – Product-led distribution strategies have become the dominant factor driving adoption. As companies
attempt to shorten product launch timeline and to drive business initiatives, the project management market has
experienced rapid growth over the past decade. However, today’s project management tools should expand into
non-tech industries in order to continue its current success.
Key Offerings Example Features
1
Project Management and
Prioritization
§ Organized view on what work needs to be done and when
work is due
§ Task list that prioritizes work across projects
2
Centralized Dashboard Allowing
Coordination Among Members
§ Centralized information to allow simplified knowledge storing,
sharing and searching
§ Visually assign projects / tasks to team members
§ Share roadmaps, feedbacks, files and status updates
Continuous Progress Tracking
and Monitoring
§ Status monitoring to identify red flags and manage workloads
Visibility to Ensure Alignment with
Company-Wide Goals
§ Real-time updates on how the organization is tracking toward
strategic objective
1
2
3
4
33

34.
Productivity
Key Offerings Example Features
To-Do List
§ Organize and prioritize tasks and projects
§ Include both work-related and personal items
Goal Tracking
§ Set daily and weekly goals
§ Visualize productivity trends
Integration with Other Work
Management Tools
§ Pull in tasks from project management tools
§ Sync with calendars to keep track of tasks and meetings in
one place
Our Take – Even though there have been various productivity tools in the market, adoption rate among
professionals remains low. The market is hyper-competitive with low barriers to entry. Turnkey solutions that offer
an all-in-one platform and integrations with other workplace applications are seeing more success. Productivity
software that specifically target freelancers will be an interesting use case as well.
1
2
3
34

35.
Knowledge Sharing
Key Offerings Example Features
Document Management
§ Include a standard set of library services, such as versioning,
check-in / check-out and document viewers
§ Serve as a secure corporate repository to support records
management and regulatory compliance
Team Workspace
§ Support knowledge workers who need access to relevant
documents in the context of their project in a consolidated
workspace
Integrated Business Applications
§ Integration of content capabilities into common horizontal and
vertical applications
Our Take – As organizations continue infrastructure modernization efforts that move files from local storage to
cloud repositories, knowledge sharing has become mission-critical. Dominated by players such as Dropbox, Box
and Google, the market remains highly consolidated and has matured quickly, with minimal product differentiation
across players. We’ve yet to see a solution that has mobile-first features and targets deskless workers.
Source: Gartner, Critical Capabilities for Content Services Platform
1
2
3
35

36.
Scheduling
Our Take – Though calendar management has long been identified as inefficient and various scheduling tools
have emerged, no solution has received massive adoption among working professionals, especially outside of the
tech sector. A user-friendly interface and a bottom-up strategy are core to success. However, we believe
scheduling does not need to be a standalone tool and can simply be a feature of other communication software.
Key Offerings Example Features
Personal Calendar Management
§ Allow counterparty to pick a time based on your availability
§ Integration with Google, Outlook, Office 365, iCloud and
other calendars
§ Set buffer times between meetings
§ Allow for uninterrupted blocks of time to focus
§ Detect time zone automatically
Team Calendar Management
§ Allow all parties to select the preferred time slots for a call /
meeting
§ Access to everyone’s workload and status
§ Organize notes, action items and feedback associated with a
call / meeting
1
2
36

37.
Search & Context
Key Offerings Example Features
Unified Desktop Search Tool
§ Single interface for all work management applications
§ Open any document, contact or file using a single command
§ Retrieve structured and unstructured information across all
applications and databases
Predictive AI*
§ Key phrase extraction
§ Natural language processing (NLR)
§ Optical character recognition (OCR)
Privacy & Security
§ Defined user permissions for accessing information
§ Data encryption
§ Multi-layer security across cloud, physical data centers,
intranet and operations
Our Take – With the amount of apps used and information created increasing, managing information becomes
more difficult. Search & Context is a relatively new and untapped market that attempts to bring a consumer-like
experience to enterprise search. However, because technologies such as predictive AI remain immature, the
functionalities of enterprise search tools are still limited.
1
2
3
* Signals technology that is not yet mature 37

38.
Market Landscape – Point Solutions
Hiring
Training, Assessment
& Engagement
Function Specific
Tools
SG&A
38

39.
Hiring
Our Take – The talent acquisition market is crowded. However, opportunities remain for solutions that offer creative
sourcing channels (e.g. people affected by layoffs, passive candidates, talent matching games) or address
companies’ needs in one specific category (e.g. freelancers, skilled consultants, tech talents).
1
2
Key Offerings Example Features
Candidate Pipeline
§ Marketplace for skilled, niche workforce (e.g. software
engineers and data scientists)
§ One-click job posting to job sites
§ Personalized email campaigns
§ Searchable databases of candidate profiles
Candidate Evaluation
§ RPA screening
§ Interview scheduling; integration with calendars
§ Interview kits, feedback forms and scorecards to ensure fair
and objective evaluations
39

40.
Training, Assessment and Engagement
Key Offerings Example Features
People & Culture Platform
§ Examine company culture and detect employee
disengagement through surveys
§ Measure against past survey results to track the health of
company culture over time
§ Peer-to-peer recognition, custom bonuses and rewards
Employee Training at Individual
and Company Level
§ Scalable, enterprise-friendly programs with universal
accessibility
§ Customized, leadership coaching
§ On-demand, mobile coaching with micro-learning sessions
Analytics and Measurement
§ Performance evaluations and goal tracking
§ Tangible return on investment (ROI)
§ Measurable business impact and outcomes
Our Take – As companies seek to tackle both employee development at scale, legacy solutions that provide
cookie-cutter enterprise-wide training sessions are no longer sufficient. Training, assessment and engagement has
become a revitalized market with a shifted focus on developing culture and supporting minority groups. However,
most of the existing tools have yet to be proven effective in improving culture in a quantifiable way.
1
2
3
40

41.
Function-Specific Tools
Our Take – Function-specific tools, especially those with low / no-code (LCNC) features, will enable the rise of
citizen developers. The LCNC market is large and fragmented, with the majority of companies being point
solutions that lack a sustainable product moat. However, the market value for first-to-market technologies with
deep bolt-on functionality and a multitude of workflows remains high.
Key Offerings Example Features
Web Builder
§ Drag-and-drop style with pre-built elements
§ Built in SEO tools
§ Publish to a hosting stack
Mobile App Builder
§ Drag-and-drop style with pre-built elements
§ Preview on mobile devices
§ Publish a draft build
Internal Tool Builder
§ Display and filter data through tables
§ Forms with text inputs, dropdowns, data pickers etc.
§ Visualize geographic data and display objects on a map
Workflow Automation and
Integration
§ Integration between apps and business systems
§ API connections
1
2
3
4
41

42.
SG&A
Our Take – From SMEs to enterprises, companies are increasingly looking to automate repetitive tasks across all
functions. While the automation tools for HR and finance remain a crowded space, automation tools for legal,
customer service, IT and other departments are rising. For these SG&A tools, integration with the large ERP
system is a crucial factor to success.
Key Offerings Example Features
HR Process Automation
§ Payroll and benefits
§ Hiring and onboarding
Finance Process Automation
§ Accounting and bookkeeping
§ Cap table management
Legal Process Automation
§ Founder, team and employee agreements
§ Compliance with privacy and other regulations
Customer Service
§ Centralize support tickets
§ Conversational AI
§ Integration with existing CRM, Shopify, Magento and others
1
2
3
4
42

43.
Challenges Faced by New
Workplace Apps
43

44.
Slower Adoption Outside of the Tech Industry
§ New workplace applications such as Notion, Slack and Airtable still mainly cater to the
“tech knowledge worker”
§ Non-tech savvy knowledge workers take a longer time to adopt these platforms
• Leads to higher initial user churn and results in slower conversion from free to
paid usage
• May also limit the usage of these platforms to employees or teams in the tech
industry and not expand to other industries such as manufacturing and healthcare
§ MSFT and Facebook Workplace have seen success in scaling to multiple industries as
they have simplified the user adoption journey
§ Specifically, Facebook Workplace has been targeting enterprises with a large number
of frontline workers, such as Walmart, Campbell’s and Starbucks
44

45.
Ecosystem Premium of Incumbents
§ With its dominant position in the workplace app space, Microsoft Teams grabs more
market share, making product bundling and integration with Office 365 an essential
entry point
§ Despite Slack’s first-mover advantage into the chat applications space, Microsoft
Teams was able to accelerate quickly and eventually win shares from Slack, especially
in the enterprise space
§ Microsoft already has access to a lot of large enterprise clients from all verticals before
launching Teams. By leveraging its vast distribution channel and long-term
relationships with enterprise customers, it remains as the market leader
§ Microsoft has won the battle many times by creating a similar product to its
competitors’ – Internet Explorer vs Netscape, or Lotus/WordPerfect/Harvard Graphics
vs Excel/Word/PowerPoint
§ Its ecosystem premium and wide distribution channels will create a barrier to entry and
even stifle the growth of the next upcoming workplace app
45

46.
MSFT still Dominates the Workplace
Source: Statista
3%
6%
8%
15%
33%
35%
Google Hangouts
Worplace by Facebook
Slack
Other
Microsoft Teams
Skype for Business
Survey of the Most Popular Workplace Chat Applications
46

47.
MSFT still Dominates the Workplace (cont’d)
Source: Statista
Chat applications used in organizations by priority
29%
11%
5%
14%
6%
30%
15%
3%
6%
8%
33%
35%
Other
Google Hangouts
Workplace by Facebook
Slack
Microsoft Teams
Skype for Business
2019 2018
47

48.
Monetization Remains Elusive for the Newer Players
600,000
660,000
88,000
110,000
575 893
Jan-19 Jan-20
Organizations with 3+ Users Paid Customers Paid Customers > $100,000
Despite its rapid growth, monetization remains elusive for Slack – only 17% of customers are paid customers in
Jan-20 (15% in Jan-19). While its freemium model drives adoption, Slack faces problem improving its conversion
rate. The same issue applies to other players. Improving usage rate remains key.
48

49.
Key Opportunities Deep-Dive
Investment Opportunities We Are Exploring
49

50.
Market Opportunities
Low-code/No-code function-
specific tools
Developers, Designers, Sales teams etc. - each
individual team or function area is looking for
specific solutions. Thus, we see an emergence of
Figma, Invision, Miros of the wold.
2
Deskless Workforce
Communication & Management
This is a majorly unsolved problems as most of the
new-age team communication and collaboration
platforms are built for knowledge workers and don’t
have a mobile-first approach.
1
Team Productivity
Given increasing percentage of remote
workforce & no clear market leader in this space,
there is an opportunity to build a category leader.
The challenge however is to quantify productivity
and deliver attributable results.
4
Point Solutions for SG&A
More and more new-age solutions are
being adopted by enterprises and SMBs to
streamline their SG&A activities and cut
down expenditure. RPA solutions fall into
this bracket
3
Increasing order of ease
of evaluation & pipeline
50

51.
Deskless Workforce Communication &
Management
51

52.
§ Employee Engagement still viewed as a cost-base
§ Though deskless technology is deployed remotely, most of the
decisions are still made top-down from headquarters. 51% of buying
decisions are made by the C-suite, 38% by mid-level managers and
only 11% by the end user. This causes an interesting dynamic
where the technology purchased is rarely used by the decision
maker.
§ While GTM strategy must focus on the top, in order to be
successfully deployed and adopted, product design must focus on
the end users' needs, surroundings, capabilities, and preferences
Employee Engagement Tools for Deskless Workforce
Trends
§ Only 13% of employees across 142 countries worldwide feel engaged
at work. The result is low individual and company-wide productivity,
increased turnover, and a suffering bottom line
§ Many of these deskless industries have outdated processes that
undermine productivity and efficiency as many of them still rely on the
good old-fashioned clipboard and pen
Market Opportunity
§ 80% of Global Workforce is Deskless
§ The top 8 deskless industries: Agriculture, Education, Healthcare,
Retail, Hospitality, Manufacturing, Transportation, and Construction,
employ 2.7B employees.
§ Even though these industries have traditionally been tech laggards
but have show increasing interest in tech adoption to manage
frontline millennial workforce who are “mobile-first”
§ Business technology market is $300 billion but only $3 billion is
directed towards the deskless workforce
Considerations
§ Venture is underfunding Deskless Technology
§ Despite the interest in increasing spend on deskless technologies,
only 1% of software venture funding is going towards
technology serving 80% of the world's workforce. Thus, there is
a big opportunity for new company creation.
Source: Deskless Workforce 2018 52

53.
Deskless Workforce Often Lack Engagement and Work-
Life Balance
#1 Low engagement
§ Only 14% of employees feel connected to their
organization's HQ
§ Many deskless workers don’t believe they can
communicate effectively with their employer
§ Many deskless workers, especially in industries such as
logistics and retail, don’t feel valued by their employer
#3 Impact on work satisfaction
§ 31% believe lack of communication and advance notice about their work schedule is hurting their work/life balance.
§ Communication tends to go one way - in favor of managers
§ As a ”mobile-first” generation, 87% of millennials are contacted by employers “out of hours” compared to 74% of Baby Boomers
#2 High Employee Churn
§ A major pain point is the ability for companies to
effectively recruit and retain employees
§ The turnover rate for hourly workers is often orders of
magnitude higher than the yearly turnover rate for office
workers; cost of turnover is both a loss of expertise and
a lose of revenue, regardless of the industry
§ Over 60% of workers have considered leaving their job
in the Retail, Hospitality, Logistics, Healthcare &
Transportation Industries
53

54.
Spending on Technology for Deskless Workers Is on
the Rise
54
55%
75%
77% 78%
82% 83%
91%
100%
Agriculture Education Healthcare Constructi on Hospitality Retail Manufacturing Transportation
% of Companies Planning to Increase Spending on
Deskless Technology by Industry
Top Reasons for Investing in Deskless Technology
While Productivity is #1, keeping employees happy is critical to
reduce turnover rates. Technology plays an important role in both
retention as well as getting new hires up the productivity curve
33%
23%
21%
11%
10%
2%
Productivity Employee
Experience
Cost Savings Communication Customer
Experience
Compliance
Source: Deskless Workforce 2018; Statista

55.
What Makes for an Ideal Tool for Deskless Workforce?
#1 Vertical versus horizontal
§ Many deskless application areas are better-suited to a
vertical (industry specific) approach rather than a horizontal
(industry agnostic) approach
§ If the company still takes a horizontal approach, they may
need to quickly deploy industry-specific functionality and
marketing in order to compete with vertically-focused players
#3 Go-to-market
#2 Usability
§ There is a premium on usability when it comes to
deskless workers
§ Optimize for making the most important actions and
information accessible in a highly intuitive way
§ Invest heavily in UX testing initially
#4 Multiple features
§ Freemium is much harder to do in many deskless
environments as individual users in the deskless world
often have limited spending authority and may have less
influence with key IT decision-makers
§ 89% of buying decisions for deskless workers is still top-
down. Hiring sales professionals with experience in top-
down selling early-on is essential
§ Decision-makers often seek one-stop products which
serve multiple needs of the deskless workforce
§ Deskless workers also prefer the ease of having one
super-app for all their needs vs. switching apps to fetch
different information on their mobile device
§ Most popular features are a) scheduling, b) task-tracking,
c) P2P communication, d) training, e) repository of
documents and checklists
55

56.
Low-code/No-code
Function-Specific Tools
56

57.
§ The low-code / no-code market is big ($5BN+), fragmented (200+
companies) and growing quickly (40%+ CAGR; reaching $52BN in
revenue by 2024)
§ By 2023, 50%+ of medium to large enterprises will have adopted a
low-code application platform as one of their strategic application
platforms
§ The majority of citizen development software costs are covered by
business unit budgets (73%) versus IT budgets
Low-Code/No-Code (LCNC) Function-Specific Tools
Market Drivers
§ Shortage of software engineers: On an annual basis, 120K computing
jobs should be made available through 2022, while only 40K new
graduates will enter the workforce
§ Digital transformation: Speed is crucial in introducing new disruptive
products, engaging and responding to customers across different
channels, and adapting existing services based on shifting competitive
drivers
§ Successful exits and high valuation of recent startups have validated the
market
§ Low-code is a platform that enables rapid application delivery with a
minimum of hand-coding
§ Low-code solutions have been around for 15+ years. They
traditionally have been considered insufficient for enterprise use
cases, were generally built for on-prem environments and have
retained an antiquated UI
§ However, as programming languages and GUIs mature, low-code
platforms is combining the simplicity of graphical interfaces and the
power of programming languages to enhance user experience
Market Overview
§ The number of startups has exploded in the past three years. With
no-code tools, startups require little capital to scale. Many
companies can build a solid beta product with a single developer
§ Large enterprises across all industries need more software for
every part of their business and there are not enough developers to
deliver what is desired
§ SMBs outside of the tech industries do not have the capabilities to
enable software development but are also are currently going
through digital transformation
Source: Forrester; Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Low-Code Application Platforms; Medium, Where next for no-code?; WSJ, Can’t Code? You Can Still Make Your Own Apps 57

58.
Market Segmentation 1: General Product Flexibility vs.
Product Functionality
Scenario
Flexibility
Functional Breadth
Database
Request-
handling
Mobile-first
Process
General-
purpose
Scenario Flexibility: the breadth of use-cases that the product is currently servicing or can service
Functional Breadth: the different functional areas within an organization that the product is currently being used
58

59.
Market Segmentation 2: User and Use-Case
User: Business Unit User Content Creator / Designer Developer
Use Case:
Productivity automation
Spreadsheets / databases
Docs
Mobile / Web app
Robotic process automation
Internal tooling
Data science
Membership
Content creation automation
Marketing automation
Mobile app
Website application
Game development
Data science
Voice
AR
API creation/ management
Internal tooling
The go-to-market and customer value proposition is substantially different depending on the user and use case
59

60.
A Lot of Fluff, but Valuable Unlocks
§ Low-code products enable more types of people (non-developers) to deliver software thus “10x”-ing the speed
of tool and application development. These “non-developers” can be
• Business analysts that work in large enterprise companies, or even
• Your local restaurant franchise owner, the GM of a regional bank, the owner of your favorite coffee shop,
and the yoga instructor teaching live classes online
§ Given the maturity and crowdedness of the low-code market, new companies building maximally flexible /
general-purpose platforms are unlikely to see traction
• The majority of LCNC companies are functionally, point solutions. Many do not have a sustainable product
moat and lack the growth rates and features to attain $100 million in revenue
• The big winners (e.g. Notion, Airtable) are likely already chosen given the strong first-mover dynamics.
For companies with easy-to-built products, their growth is most dependent on efficient customer
acquisition, giving incumbents strong new customer acquisition advantages
§ With that said, the market value for first-to-market technologies with bolt-on functionality is very high
§ Our take: Deep functionality for one specific end user group that is with a multitude of workflows drives
scalable product uniqueness and is core to success
60

61.
What Are The Takeaways for Investing in LCNC Tools?
§ Because user-experience is so important for a low-code
platform, it would be difficult for existing platforms to
seamlessly incorporate a new technology in a way that does
not significantly disrupt their established UX
§ We should consider investing in a maximally flexible low-
code platform if it brings a new technical capability to the
mass-user
§ Companies like Orbiter and Rosebud.ai are making AI/ML
more accessible for non-developers
#1 New Capability
#2 Vertical Niches
§ Industry-specific applications are likely to face less fierce competition,
especially as big tech such as Microsoft, Salesforce and Google are
entering the space
§ There are also opportunities in vertical niches where customers will pay
high amounts for a uniquely, useful product
§ These niche products demand prices multiple-fold higher than general
products (e.g., Airtable charges $10/month per user but industry specific
applications can charge up to hundreds of dollars per month). General
products are also more likely to face price compression, as the market
becomes more crowded
§ Admittedly, a company might pay once at the company level for a niche
tool and for multiple users for a more general application like Airtable
§ More diligence should be conducted on a specific solution’s tradeoff
between price and usage
Potential Under-Explored Opportunities
Hotel industry
workflow
Booking, cancellations, cleaning
Independent bars TV content automation, promotion workflows
Health insurance Communication between carriers and broker
platforms
Creator economy Content management, CRM tools
61

62.
What Are The Takeaways for Investing in LCNC Tools?
(Continued)
§ Enterprises are also currently served by process automation
vendors, which tend to better meet enterprises’ demands
§ While opportunities still exist with non-business users within
enterprises, we believe the best opportunities lie with SMBs
that have been using paper, traditional spreadsheets, and
obsolete, unintuitive applications to handle their processes
§ While we’ve seen high adoption of various LCNC tools, it is
unclear how deeply these tools will be used in enterprises
§ If a low-code application becomes recognized as mission
critical, businesses may want more control over the
application than low-code platforms typically allow. They may
want enhanced customizations, security and admin tools
#3 Targeting SMBs as the First Market
#4 Go-to-Market
§ The majority of citizen development software costs are
covered by business unit budgets (73%) versus IT budgets.
This suggests an upper bound on pricing for an effective
GTM
§ Ideally the product is purchasable by the business unit
without escalation to higher levels for approvals
§ Citizen development is driven by need for speed, while ease
of app building is most important tool criterion
Source: Gartner, Survey Analysis: Citizen Development Is Happening and IT Needs to Be More Engaged
11
18
35
18
15
21
15
16
10
44
49
66
Fast time-to-market for apps
Ease of integration into existing
enterprise applications
Ease of building apps
Most Important 2nd Most Important 3rd Most Important
Top Three Criteria for Selecting a Citizen Development Tool
62

63.
Related Pipelines
If you want to discuss pipeline or curious about Work 3.0 write to me: dmolugu@chicagobooth.edu
63

64.
Related Pipeline
Deskbound Workers
Function Specific
Tools
Productivity &
Engagement
Communication
Seed
Series-A
Series-B
Series-B +
64

65.
Related Pipeline
Seed
Series-A
Series-B
Series-B +
Deskless Workers
Vertical Specific
Tools
Productivity &
Engagement
Communication
65

66.
Evaluation Criteria
Products with a B2B revenue model and a B2C GTM & growth strategy
We are seeing a consumerization of the enterprise/SaaS space – the decision funnel is moving more and more bottom-up. Under
these scenarios, evaluation metrics will be consumeristic in nature such as
§ User growth, engagement & retention metrics
§ Penetration / usage rate in a team
§ Ease of onboarding & integrations
§ L28 distribution / cohort analysis
§ Minimum adoption barrier - a thumb-rule number which reflects the minimum amount of user penetration and engagement
needed to make the product sticky and vital. This number is specific to the nature of the product. For example
1
2 Products with a B2B revenue model and GTM & growth strategy
Under these scenarios, key non-GAAP performance metrics still apply
§ Retention: gross & net retention (showcase how mission critical a product is and whether it has product-market fit)
§ Salesforce efficiency: customer payback period (targeting 12-24 months), CAC ratio (targeting 1.5x+), quota achievement rate
§ Customer value: average contract value (ACV), lifetime value (LTV), LTV/CAC (targeting 3.0x+)
§ Pipeline metrics: win rate, conversion rate, sales cycle length, etc.
2000 messages sent One file in one Dropbox
folder on one device
User returns 1 day after
signing up
X users followed
Y% followed back
User connects with
10 friends in 7 days
66