BUNCH emerges from stealth with $4.4M in seed funding to provide an AI coach that turns millennials into leaders in 2 minutes a day

Another day, another great underdog startup story. In a world where remote workers fall asleep at their laptops and replace commute time with answering Slack messages, it’s no surprise that people are having a hard time carving out space to take a course or read an extra book. But with a dramatically different skill set needed to successfully work with a team in the pandemic “WFH” era, what’s a millennial to do?

Enter BUNCH, a New York-based tech startup that is disrupting antiquated management training by creating the world’s best learning experience for millennial leaders. After multiple pivots and raising $4.4m in seed funding (including a fresh $1 million this week), BUNCH has launched an AI leadership coach (for iOS) with the vision of enabling anyone to be a leader in just 2 minutes a day. And it’s starting to really take off, with nearly 20,000 people using it already. In Just 3 months, BUNCH has amassed a community of nearly 20,000 aspiring leaders and growing fast.

Founded in 2016 by Anthony Reo, Charles Ahmadzadeh, and Darja Gutnick, Bunch is on a mission to enable every manager to become a world-class leader in just 2 minutes a day with our AI coach for the iPhone.

“For too long, “leadership” has been a fuzzy and unapproachable topic often focused on status, power, and privilege. We’re out to change that! Our psychology x AI x micro-learning approach has especially resonated with millennials during the pandemic,” BUNCH wrote in an email to Tech Startups.

By fusing psychology, micro-learning, and AI, BUNCH makes it easy to level up with your morning coffee. That means it takes into account your mindset, the challenges you’re currently facing with your team, the skills you want to build, or even your schedule through clever calendar integration. In contrast to a heavy curriculum or one-size-fits-all online course, BUNCH enables you to make small improvements each day that compound into big results over time.

“BUNCH has this great concept”, said Patricia Lieske, UX Designer at InVision, “the combination of relevant content and low time investment has made it possible for me to stick with it and make the app a part of my daily routine.”

The team behind BUNCH sees this as much more than an app: “Leadership is a topic often associated with status, power, and privilege”, said Darja Gutnick, CEO, and Co-Founder, “ but we’re out to prove that anyone can be a leader”.

The coach is available now on the Apple App Store.