Claudia Naim-Burt (SFS’08)
Co-Founder and COO
What inspired you to create Keep Company?
After having my first son, I just kept coming back to this question: How are we supposed to know how to do all of this?
In my work life, I am an optimizer. I'm asking, "What are the tools and tactics?" "What would make this more efficient?" "What's the goal and the strategy to get there?" I kept wondering how to apply that mentality to parenting. As I saw more and more friends struggling with similar challenges, many leaving the workforce, I felt urgency to figure out what would actually help.
I spent years thinking about these questions and looking for the doers and resources that could help. I found lots of books and apps and endless "right answers" that didn't really work. I found that most of us think everyone else has this all figured out. I learned that "balance" is a myth, and that integrating caring for someone else into your sense of self is a process.
I also saw how becoming a parent deepened and expanded me — as a person, in my relationships, and in my work. I saw this in so many others, too.
So what actually helps? First, connecting with others in a similar stage of their career AND with commonality at work is immediately transformative. Second, I found that when you get stretched thin, emotional and relational skills become more important than ever: at work and at home. These insights became the foundation of Keep Company.
We’ve taken the best of executive coaching and behavioral health, dug into the science of group design, and supercharged it with the power of peer support. The result is a new kind of support for employees, that we’ve proven drives not just wellbeing, but retention. AKA… *keep your company.*
Tell us more about your platform. What is your favorite aspect/feature that you offer?
Up to 73% of employees are caring for someone at home - whether a baby, teenager, aging parent, or spouse. We work with organizations ready to invest in this enormous segment of their team, with big jobs at work and at home. Our group coaching experience connects small groups of peers from across the industry navigating similar demands. Our proprietary, patented technology enables us to create groups that stick at scale.
Together, groups build the skills to navigate all of life’s seasons from a place of power.
My favorite aspect of Keep Company is that it actually helps! Employee members report feeling more connected to others and taking better care of themselves, and employers feel the impact: Keep Company members resign at a rate 3X lower than industry average.
You were recently named the 2024 Rising Star for Georgetown’s Entrepreneurship Excellence Awards! How do you define success, both personally and for Keep Company?
To me, feeling successful is feeling in choice. It’s a privilege to build a business because you think it should exist. There are so many big and small ways I navigate things that don’t work in my life, but ultimately, if I am able to make choices about how I spend my time and my energy, that is success.
For Keep Company, we’ve found something that is impactful, and solving a problem that’s bigger than most realize. So, success is growth. It’s reaching more people with our model. We grew 6X year over year last year. I’m really proud of that. For us financial traction and success is deeply interwoven with our mission and the impact we’re trying to create. As we continue to show that there is a model here, one that makes human sense and economic sense.
Keep Company has created a three-step approach to building positive workplaces: quantify, retain, and support. What have been some challenges/learnings along the way?
Hire slow and fire fast sounds great but is really hard to do in practice.
2% of venture capital goes to women. There are massive systemic issues in biases in how capital is allocated, and we feel it.
Investing in our brand early has had a very high ROI.
Figure out how to be responsive to feedback and market data, without overreacting or underreacting.
How are diversity and inclusion integrated into how you lead Keep Company? What does diversity mean to you as a female-owned company?
The data says diverse teams produce stronger outcomes. The data also says women and people of color are more likely to leave the workforce because of caregiving. We founded Keep Company because without more support for caregivers, we cannot close gender and diversity leaderships at the gap and unlock the full potential of the full workforce.
What led you to GAIN? What has been the highlight of your experience working with GAIN investors? How has GAIN influenced your alumni experience?
GAIN really brought me into the Georgetown alumni community in a new way. I have been taken aback at how eager Hoyas are to support other Hoyas. They say it takes a village to raise a family, but it also takes a village to build a business! We have benefited from the eager support of GAIN investors, the GEA community, and other Georgetown alumni that have been eager to expand what’s possible for Keep Company. GAIN has consistently connected us to meaningful investors, advisors, and advocates.
Thinking back on your Georgetown experience, can you speak to how classes, friends, clubs, etc influenced your entrepreneurial journey?
I really loved how global my community of friends was at Georgetown. My best friends were from Guatemala and Florida, Dubai and NY and Puerto Rico, from Russia and Spain. Having such a diverse and global perspective as I started understanding the world, and understanding how I fit into it, was hugely powerful for me.
Other highlights: Final Four my junior year! Every LASA performance. Map of the Modern World. Being a Writing Center tutor.
If you could give a piece of advice to a Hoyapreneur or aspiring Hoyapreneur, what would it be?
Make your asks explicit, not implicit. Particularly for aspiring female founders: we are often taught to not make people too uncomfortable, and to dance around what we want or need. But with that we leave a lot on the table. Learn how to make what you need and want explicit.