Platypus makes it possible to hire, communicate and retain better by aggregating cultural data from employees
The mix of Football Manager, morphine (due to a knee surgery) and a career in HR scaling organisations led Nico Blier-SIlvestri to have an epiphany in 2019. This moment became the catalyst for the HR Tech startup Platypus that provides cultural data on organisations' culture.
In the right working environment everyone can thrive
“I had been working in HR for 15 years when I realised that something was missing in the HR-field. After both resigning from our roles, my cofounder, Daniel Bowen, and I started working on Platypus in my basement on Amager. Today we have created the only HR Tech solution that aggregates cultural values from all employees to give a holistic view of culture. We help companies discover what people value and use this data to impact every stage of the talent lifecycle - from attraction to communication to management to retention. “
“Nothing is more costly to an organisation than mishiring. Research tells us that 46% of people that are joining a new organisation are gone within 18 months. We are helping organisations solve that issue. Our mission is to bring data into the cultural aspect of organisations and give the tools to understand, act and impact the company's culture.”
There’s no such thing as a bad culture
“In Platypus, we have a talented team that is currently represented by 13 different nationalities from around the world. We are 50% split on gender diversity and the average age is 32. In that sense, we have a very broad background also differing in education and industry experience. But every organisation is different - and so is the company culture. We’re not deciding whether the culture is bad or good. Our job is to help any organisation that wants actual data on what drives their culture.”
“We have taken our own medicine to find out that we have three core cultural drivers. The first one is flexibility. Having the freedom to work from home and manage your own working hours is important to the team. The second driver is our company mission. In our case, that is believing in helping organisations understand their culture better and make sure every employee has the opportunity to prosper. Lastly, people want to have an impact in Platypus, so we make sure that every single employee has a voice–and is being heard.”
The future is bright for the Danish tech scene
“Even though, immigration policies are really not playing in our favour, it has been very easy to start and run a business in Denmark. Especially as none of the founders in Platypus speak Danish. Denmark is a small country but the tech ecosystem is strong and growing - and because of the size, it is so easy to reach out and share knowledge.”
“Nowadays you also hear about Danish success stories like Trustpilot, Falcon, Unity and Pleo. It is great to see these second and third generation startups that are all born in Denmark but now rising internationally. I believe that the tight ecosystem plays a big role in that.”
