Location: Milwaukee
Founders: Tyler Marcus and Ava Pott
Founded: 2017
Service: Workforce intelligence platform
Website: gradmor.com
Employees: 2 full-time
Goal: Accommodate new client base
Experience: Both founders worked in marketing
Milwaukee-based software startup Gradmor is helping businesses turn employee-focused data into actionable insights.
The company is led by Tyler Marcus, chief executive officer, and Ava Pott, chief operating officer.
The UW-Madison alums founded Gradmor in 2017 while in New York City. At the time, both Marcus and Pott were working in marketing.
“We wanted to do something entrepreneurial. We both knew we didn’t want to be a CMO, and we figured data surrounding people was not well understood,” said Marcus.
Put simply, the duo wanted to create a business that helps organizations understand the impact of employee-related metrics to their bottom lines.
Gradmor was initially a consulting firm that helped tech companies use their employee data to acquire and retain the right talent. The company was growing until the COVID-19 pandemic essentially shut down New York.
Marcus decided to pivot and began toying with AI models that could help organizations predict things like performance, hiring and turnover.
In 2023, Gradmor relocated to Milwaukee to be closer to its client base, which has shifted from mostly tech firms to become more focused on manufacturers.
“We were like, why New York? We don’t have clients there anymore and our business model has shifted,” said Marcus.
Now, Gradmor is a software company that provides clients with proprietary AI models and a platform to collect intelligent workforce solutions.
Gradmor gathers data from sources like performance reviews and behavioral assessments, like the DISC personality test, to help companies understand which workers are at risk of leaving and who is the best fit for a particular role.
“We take their data to help them understand the factors driving hiring success. Once we have an understanding of what that data is, they need a model and software to execute,” said Marcus.
Manufacturers have become more interested in leveraging data to help boost the productivity of their workforce. In one case, Marcus said Gradmor has been able to help a local manufacturer cut down the time it takes to fill an order from an hour to 30 minutes.
“They can see huge business value from an operations standpoint, not just from an HR standpoint,” he said.
