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Winners of The Pitch 2024, Platform55: ‘This is a win for all of us trying to juggle everything’
19th Dec 2024
After impressing the judges of The Pitch 2024 with their business journey and live pitch, Platform 55 took home the incredible prize worth €100,000. We meet the duo behind the organisation that is seeking to build more equitable and inclusive workplaces.
For Tracy Gunn and Michelle O’Keefe, founders of Platform55 and winners of The Pitch 2024, this was the year of ‘going for it’.
Few experiences illustrate this more clearly than their application for The Pitch 2024. “I saw The Pitch 2024 pop up on Instagram and I had the mindset of ‘I think I’m going to go for this’,” says Tracy.
“I actually told Michelle after I’d entered it. I was like, ‘By the way, this would be an amazing prize for our business. And she was like, ‘Oh, okay’,” laughs Tracy.
And then everything collided. Platform55 were shortlisted as a finalist in the national competition, which requires all finalists to live pitch in front of a panel of judges and live audience. In the same period, they were also hosting their second annual summit with over 250 HR professionals attending, leaving them with little time to prepare their pitch on the night of the final in the grand surroundings of Dublin City Hall. “Were we as polished and perfect as we would have liked? No, far from it but we did the best we could in the time and resources that we had available,” says Tracy.
A surprise
Winning came as a complete surprise. “On the night, we did our pitch and we listened to everybody else and there were a couple of people who I thought ‘Wow, I really think they’re going to get it’. So when our names were called I was genuinely so surprised. I did not expect it.”
What do Tracy and Michelle reckon sealed the deal for the judges? “Were we the most polished pitch? No. But I think we conveyed a real sense of passion for what we do and why we do it,” Tracy muses.
“I think there’s now a shift in the market of recognising the potential [of the work we do]. Our business is no longer a nice thing to do. It actually makes commercial sense too, so it’s very timely right now.”
On the night, the duo had to impress the renowned industry leaders who were the judges of the competition: Jamie Heaslip, Strategic Growth Lead at Stripe Ireland; Clodagh Edwards, CEO of IMAGE Media; Caroline Hirons, Founder of Skin Rocks, author and podcaster; Annika Bizon, Samsung Director of Marketing, Omnichannel and Head of Ireland, MX Division; and Áine Kerr, entrepreneur, board chair and broadcaster. All judges had reviewed the 12 applicants in depth before engaging in their live pitches.
Making a difference together
Platform55 is changing the face of the workforce for working parents. A HR platform that helps you attract and keep employees by supporting them to balance work and family life, their work has been integral in supporting families and driving gender equality in the workplace.
Michelle, whose background is in digital media, found a new passion and purpose in Platform55. She explains some her professional background that brought her to establishing the organisation. When an opening as MD of Tthe Irish Times Digital Media Agency came up, “I didn’t go for it because I was expecting at the time,” she says.
“I was running out the door to the Rotunda to be induced and they asked me why I didn’t put myself forward and offered me the MD role.” The organisation held the MD position open for Michelle while she was on maternity leave, a move which she describes as “very progressive”.
“I was one the youngest female MDs in the industry. But when I came back [to work], it was . . . managing a new team, new targets, new baby.”
Michelle went on to have a second baby in that role, an experience that compounded her belief that workplaces needed to be, could be – and should be – more supportive environments for families. She knew she wanted to build something that made a difference. “I was looking at my peers and there weren’t that many females succeeding into senior roles around the same time as having a family,” Michelle shares. “I had set my sights on trying to solve that problem when I bumped into Tracy Gunn en route.”
Before co-founding Platform55, Tracy was working internationally as a leadership consultant and loved getting to travel as part of her job. “In my mid-30s, I started a family and I was like, ‘Yeah, sure. I can do both, I can still have this career and I can still be the parent I want to be and nothing’s going to change’. Of course, it does change,” she says.
“I began to feel like I wasn’t doing a good job in any aspect of my life. I wasn’t being the parent I wanted to be and I felt that tension of ‘I don’t want to be away from home travelling’. I thought ‘Am I the only person who’s struggling with this?’”
Tracy did some research and discovered that no, she wasn’t the only person struggling; people just weren’t talking about their experiences. That’s when she started working with women coming back from maternity leave and leaders to elicit change. Together, Tracy and Michelle founded Platform55 in 2021.
Challenging the status quo
Shifting workplace attitudes, policies, and practices can be a slow process, but Platform55’s work is truly moving the needle. “We had over 500 people respond to a survey . . . when you read the comments from that survey [you] understand how difficult it is for people who are trying to juggle work alongside a family life. Then we get the feedback from our end users about something that we’ve supported, that’s the bit that makes the difference,” says Michelle.
“That’s what’s kept us going for three years [the feedback]. It’s not been easy, but this is that reminder of what it’s all about.”
You only have to look at the reaction to Platform55’s win at The Pitch 2024 to see how much their work means. “We received so many messages from people afterwards saying, ‘Oh my God, I woke up to the news this morning and we’re so happy you’ve won because this feels like a win for all of us who are just trying to juggle everything’,” explains Tracy.
Dusting yourself down
As you might expect, championing social change hasn’t been without its setbacks. Michelle says it can be tough when you’ve spent a long time with a prospective client thinking it’s going really well to then get a ‘no’.
“You need to have a very thick skin to hear those ‘no’s. When you’re hearing ‘no’s [in relation] to something that you’ve developed, built and something you believe in so passionately, it makes it a bit harder,” she says.
Tracy concurs. She says it’s difficult when people say ‘no, this isn’t a priority’ or when you turn up to an event and someone says, ‘Oh, you’re that parenting thing, aren’t you?’”
As is often the case with start-ups, Michelle and Tracy didn’t pay themselves a salary in the early days. “When you have no money coming in, it’s really hard to just keep going and believe in the bigger picture,” Michelle reflects.
When you’re a start-up, it can also be a challenge not to stretch yourself too thin. “There have been times where I personally have just felt burnt out,” says Tracy. “I never wanted the ambition for Platform55 to come at the expense of my family because that would be quite ironic, given what the business was set up to do. So, what that means is sometimes putting in very early shifts in the working day before the kids get up, working intensely during the day but then being there 100 per cent for them in the evenings.”
The common thread in Platform55’s wins and setbacks is that Tracy and Michelle have experienced them together, as a team. “If I was trying to do this on my own, I might have given up long ago, because it’s too hard. We’ve had to dust ourselves off and pick ourselves up many times,” says Tracy.
“We’re a good team in that we have a shared vision, but we think incredibly differently.”
Looking to the future
Now for the fun part: what do Tracy and Michelle plan to do with their prize? The Pitch 2024 prize includes a tailored suite of Samsung technology worth €50,000 for use across their operations, alongside a bespoke media and marketing campaign with IMAGE Media of equal value, and invaluable mentoring from entrepreneur Bobby Kerr.
Tracy and Michelle have already discussed how they’ll allocate the funds. “We thought we might struggle to spend the entire amount but we haven’t,” Tracy laughs. “It’s been fairly easy.”
“The prize money will be a complete game-changer for us day-to-day, but also in terms of getting us set up for events,” Tracy says.
Michelle is particularly excited about the support of Bobby Kerr. “It doesn’t matter what industry you’re coming from, anyone who has been through the wars of business will understand that that kind of advice and expertise is invaluable,” she enthuses.
“And with our IMAGE Media campaign, we’re going to really figure out how to hone our message and make it land.”
Clodagh Edwards, CEO of IMAGE Media, and judge of the competition across all three years of The Pitch says it gets more and more competitive every year. “Our finalists put more work into their presentations and their business achievements are world-class. Judging was tough, but also a hugely rewarding process and I’m delighted with our unanimously selected winners of Platform 55. We look forward to supporting them across IMAGE’s vibrant platforms as 2025 unfolds.”
Time for investment
In 2025, Platform55 is looking at version two of their technology which will offer a much improved UX, user interface and user experience. “What we’re going to build is going to look so much slicker,” Michelle says.
Platform55 is looking for investment in early 2025 to reach its growth objectives too. Tracy and Michelle have already achieved so much with Platform55, and yet, it feels like they’re just getting started.
“We have managed to create a conversation with personality. We’re not here to be negative or beat people up,” says Michelle. “It’s about bringing the facts to light and then saying ‘What are we doing about it?’”.
Congratulations to all of the finalists of The Pitch 2024. All 11 runners-up made it through rigorous judging before earning their place on the stage.
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