Featured Startup Pitch: Planet Jockey has built a gamified emotional intelligence training platform for developing better decision makers

By Kevin Allen, Planet Jockey co-founder and chairman

Elevator Pitch: Planet Jockey is an employee engagement company that creates gamified learning and collaborative mentorship platforms based on emotional intelligence techniques.

Product/Service Description

The Planet Jockey Leadership Academy provides emerging leaders with practical, real-world training in emotionally intelligent decision making.

The leadership development academy includes:

The Planet Jockey Game: A multi-level, reality-based leadership training game that puts players in the CEO hot seat, where they must lead a troubled organization by applying emotionally intelligent techniques to build a high-performing team, give them purpose, deal with setbacks, and rally the company to success. Players are guided along their journey by video mentorship and management insights from real executives, in their own words.

The Jelly Pond Mentorship Forum: An online community for all players where thought-provoking and practical business questions can be posed and answered with advice from peers and a panel of executive mentors.

The Planet Jockey Video Library: A complete archive of on-demand game videos, as well as multi-subject video tutorials on everyday business topics for ‘in-the-moment’ reference and support.

Founder’s Story

I spent decades at the top of multinational advertising giants McCann Worldgroup, Interpublic Group, and Lowe And Partners as a pitchman, working with brands like MasterCard—helping develop the very first ‘Priceless’ campaign—and was part of Rudy Giuliani’s team behind his successful election and turnaround of New York City.

I learned in 30 years of pitching some of the largest companies in the world that business decisions are made with the heart, not the head, and that success lies in finding and connecting to the emotional motivations of your audience, whether that’s a buyer, a board member, or the team of people who work for you. This brand of emotional intelligence was the basis for re:kap Ltd., the business growth transformation company I founded, which counts Burberry, Smythson, and Verizon among its global clients.

Planet Jockey is an organic progression of my growth consulting business and of my second book, The Case of the Missing Cutlery: A Leadership Course for the Rising Star. There is an urgent need in companies to develop emotional intelligence in their leaders in order to survive, and to train the new generation of emerging leaders who are rapidly taking the place of retiring boomers. These rising stars don’t learn or retain in the same way that boomers did, through seminars or lectures. We need to deliver leadership training in a way that is highly-engaging and fun, while giving users practical knowledge based on real experiences. So, we decided to combine gamification techniques, emotionally intelligent leadership, and real scenarios from real Fortune 500 executives to create Planet Jockey.

Market Opportunity

According to Gallup, 71 percent of American workers are not engaged, or “actively disengaged,” in their jobs. That lack of engagement is costing U.S. companies about $550 billion annually. There is an urgent need for employee engagement, coupled with the need for companies to train a new generation of leaders to replace retiring boomers who are departing in large numbers.

How We Differentiate From the Competition

Planet Jockey is the first ever gamified learning platform that teaches emotionally intelligent decision making. Unlike traditional training solutions that cost time and travel away from the office but result in low knowledge retention, no follow-through, and little ROI, Planet Jockey gives companies and individuals an entirely new way to develop leadership skills, increase emotional intelligence, and get mentorship from business leaders and peers. Planet Jockey has something to offer every kind of learner—the game enables active engagement, the video library provides a resource for passive learners, and the mentorship forum allows users to learn socially from our business community.

Business Model

Planet Jockey offers companies an annual business membership for $69.99/month, with complete administrative access for HR departments to track their team’s progress. Individual users can sign up for an annual membership for $39.99/month, or 30 day guest membership for $99.

Marketing/Promotion Strategy

Planet Jockey is active in integrated marketing and public relations efforts, targeting both B2B (enterprise, startups, education) and B2C customers, supported by robust campaigns for the book The Case of the Missing Cutlery, upon which the game is based, and keynote speaking engagements around the globe.

Current Needs

We are looking to get the word out about gamified learning, and for new users and companies to try the Leadership Academy. If you are interested in a free trial, please get in touch with us at citizens@planetjockey.com.

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Headquarters: New York City

Website: www.planetjockey.com

Founders: Kevin Allen, Karl Allen

Investors: Bootstrapped

Year Founded: 2014

Twitter: @planetjockey

Facebook: facebook.com/planetjockey

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/planet-jockey