Jostle

Jostle operates as a cloud-based employee success platform, positioning itself as a modern replacement for traditional corporate intranets. The company was co-founded by CEO Brad Palmer and Chairperson Don Bell, officially launching in 2009. Palmer's motivation stemmed from his experience with a previous public company, ThermicEdge, which was dismantled after a hostile takeover, highlighting the need for tools that foster strong organizational culture and teamwork. Bell, a co-founder of WestJet, brought his experience in building powerful company cultures based on employee engagement.

The firm's business model is subscription-based, with pricing structured on a per-user, per-month basis, offering several tiers such as Bronze, Silver, and Gold to cater to different organizational needs. Jostle targets a wide range of clients, from small and medium-sized businesses to larger enterprises, including those in corporate, educational, and healthcare sectors. The platform is designed to improve internal communication, connect disparate teams, and foster a unified culture, especially for organizations with distributed workforces. Total funding reached $5.84 million over three rounds, with the latest round in October 2014 for $2 million.

Jostle's platform integrates a suite of features accessible via web and a fully functional mobile app. Core functionalities include a dynamic newsfeed for company announcements, a visual people directory and organizational chart, in-app chat for individuals and groups, and a resource library for documents and links. Additional tools support event management, task lists, and employee recognition through "Shout-Outs" that can be tied to company values. A notable feature is JostleTV, which allows companies to broadcast a custom channel of updates and announcements to multiple screens in common areas like break rooms. While the platform is praised for its ease of use and rapid implementation, it has limitations regarding advanced integrations with other systems and lacks certain performance management tools like KPI tracking. Keywords: employee success, intranet replacement, internal communication, company culture, employee engagement, collaboration software, people directory, organizational chart, employee recognition, workplace communication