Employee feedback service 15Five raises $1m from Richmond Global, 500 Startups and others

Employee feedback service 15Five has raised $1 million in funding led by Richmond Global, a seed- and early-stage venture capital firm. In addition, other investors have participated, including Yammer co-founder and CEO David Sacks, 500 Startups, UStream founder John Ham, Mahalo and LAUNCH founder Jason Calacanis, #DominateFund’s Ben Parr, and several more. The company says that the investment will be used to help increase its marketing and product development efforts.

Launched out of its beta phase last August, 15Five says it’s a software company that is focused on “producing transparency and alignment in organizations through structured, efficient and effective communication practices.”

The hope is that CEOs and managers can get a snapshot of their team’s progress during a standard workweek by using a conversational-style cloud-based platform. As the company puts it:

Employees take 15 minutes to write their answers to customized questions chosen by a company’s higher-ups for a weekly report that encourages honesty and transparency. Business managers then spend five minutes to review and comment on the answers before rolling up the report and sending the highlights to the CEO, or other high-level executives, at the company. With this time-saving aggregated report, the CEO is able to quickly unearth successes and problems while communicating bigger picture goals back to the team.

The service made its debut at the most recent LAUNCH conference where it joined the ranks of other employee feedback services like Happiily. During its demo on stage, the company made such an impression on Sacks that he offered to invest in it right then. Months later, it’s obvious that time hasn’t lessened his interest in the company.

Several startups and companies use the service, including UStream, Mahalo, TaskRabbit, RedHat, Warby Parker eyewear, and Woo Themes.

15Five CEO David Hassell says that the company is in a space that is a really big market opportunity at this moment in time and that his new investors bring an expansive array of business world experience to the table. The company plans to expand on marketing and product development while also increasing user acquisition.

Richmond Global’s Steven Dupree says about the company: “In minutes, any middle manager in any company can begin using 15Five to stay connected, uncover problems, and discover new ideas across his or her team…Ultimately we’re confident that David Hassell and the 15Five team can build a franchise of simple-tools — frictionless to implement — that address common organizational challenges.”

Previously, the company raised $200,000 from friends and family.

Photo credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images