Originally published on Cision PR Web

Inc. Magazine today announced that Agile Cloud Consulting (ACC), a certified Salesforce Consulting Partner specializing in CRM implementations, custom development and support services ranks #877 on Inc Magazine’s list of the top 5,000 privately held companies having a growth rate of 723%.

The Inc. Magazine top private company list is based on a company’s net worth, growth and development – metrics that showcase ACC’s commitment to its own evolution and its focus on its clients.

“There are more than 6 million privately held companies in the United States. Building one of the fastest growing companies in America is remarkable and a testament to our team’s culture, industry knowledge, and customer focus,” said Sharif Shaalan, Founder and CEO. Sharif is also a Salesforce MVP Hall of Fame member.

“Our entire team is focused on excellence and our client’s success. This recognition by Inc. Magazine is a reflection of ACC’s company philosophy – ensuring our clients thrive in their technology ecosystem.” said Stuart Longley, Vice President of Sales & Alliances.

The complete roster of the Inc. 5000 can be found at http://www.inc.com/inc5000.

About Agile Cloud Consulting

Agile Cloud Consulting (ACC) is Salesforce.com Crest Consulting Partner, a Salesforce PDO (Product Development Outsourcer), a Salesforce.org Impact Partner, and a proud Pledge 1% member.

ACC specializes in CRM implementations, data migration and development across diverse industries with specialization in HighTech, non-profit, higher education, MedTech, manufacturing, FinServ, and health care. ACC has practices around web development, mobile application development and software application development including Artificial Intelligence and machine learning.

Born out of a successful Salesforce acquisition, Sharif Shaalan (Salesforce MVP Hall of Fame) founded ACC in 2019. ACC is supported by a team of certified Salesforce and change management experts and industry leaders from the C-Suite.

ACC uses the sprint-based, collaborative Agile Scrum Methodology. Customers participate in the project lifecycle to increase velocity and efficiency. Empowering organizations to be more effective and efficient at delivering organizational objectives through the use of technology is what drives the ACC team.

Read the article on Cision PR Web

Originally published on The Wall Street Journal

Software company VidMob Inc. said it closed a Series D funding round for $110 million as it seeks to expand its offerings that help marketers make and improve their digital advertising.

The round was led by Shamrock Capital and included new investors eGateway Capital Advisors and venture-capital firm Proof. Existing investors including ID Funds and Drive by DraftKings also participated in the round.

Pledge 1%’s #WomenWhoLead series celebrates female leaders who are paving the way for the next generation. While our featured leaders come from a variety of backgrounds and industries, they are united in their efforts to promote equality for all women in the workplace. We’ve asked them to share a bit about their journey to success, as well as lessons they’ve learned along the way. 

Filipa Bellette

Co-Founder, Chris & Filly Functional Medicine

Don, Tasmania, Australia

What is your current role? Briefly describe in 1-2 sentences. 

I’m a Clinical Nutritionist, Functional Medicine Practitioner & PhD Scholar. Founder of award-winning holistic health practice, Chris & Filly Functional Medicine

What’s the best part of your job? What do you enjoy the most?

My clients! I absolutely love seeing the changes people experience – health-wise, in parenthood, in their careers and in life – when working with us. Getting random emails or texts that say – “My energy is back!” or “I feel so calm and focussed now” or “I’m a happier mummy” – is just the absolute best. I do also love being a thought-leader in my industry, advocating for prevention and overcoming of body burnout in high-achieving mums, and inspiring mums to love themselves enough to heal their body.

We’ve all faced personal and professional challenges these past two years – what motivates you to keep going?

The pandemic has been tough for many people. We actually pivoted our business right at the start of the pandemic, during lockdown. We pivoted because we knew our clients needed more help, more support, more guidance, and more accountability, especially during this time of high-stress and an ever-changing world. I’m passionate about creating the absolute best solution to help our clients end their body burnout. My team is constantly pushing the boundaries, chaining up our services and product ecosystem, to create the best path for healing, that is effective, simple, fast, and not overwhelming.

What’s the best piece of advice you ever received?

You cannot pour from an empty cup

What does generosity mean to you? 

Generosity can come in so many forms. An unexpected smile or a hug is generosity. Going the extra mile to help others is generosity. Pouring all your expertise and passion for the purpose of providing your clients complete and remarkable results in generosity. Offering free advice and inspiring others is generosity. And pledging 1%(+) of our sales is generosity.

How do you feel businesses can play a larger role in solving today’s biggest challenges? Do you have any specific stories or examples from your work or colleagues you can share?

For our company, we solve today’s biggest challenges in a two-fold way. Firstly, is the impact we have with our clients. For example, healing one mother from body burnout, has a huge impact on her family, her children, her community, and generations to come. When a mum is free of exhaustion and anxiety and inflammation, she can show up as a better mother, a better career/business woman, and a more vibrant human being in society. With every woman that we help, we are creating a healthier, happier, and more meaningful world. And a more gender equitable world. We’ve recently been awarded in the Telstra Best of Business Awards in the category Advancing Women, for our work in helping progress women.

Secondly, we are a Business Doing What Matters. We have a partnership with child protection organisation Free To Shine where we give a portion of our fees, to help keep girls in Cambodia safe and in school, and out of sex brothels. Sex-trafficking is one of the world’s most abhorent human rights issues, and we are actively working towards ending this issue.

If you could describe yourself in one word what would that be and why?

Analytical, quirky & empathetic (sorry, couldn’t pick one, lol!). Analytical, as I have a keen eye for detail and connecting all the pieces, when addressing health issues with clients, as well as creating and running a business. Quirky, because that’s what people say! You’re cut and quirky, haha! And empathetic, because I deeply care.

What are you looking forward to this year? Are there any goals (personal or professional), activities, or experiences you are excited about?

2022 is so exciting! We are heading to the Telstra Best of Business Awards for the Nationals in April (we were announced State Winner a couple of weeks ago for Accelerating Women). I’m also in the process of writing a book – “Healthy, Happy Mum: How To End Body Burnout” (working title) – which I aim to have finished and published by the end of the year. My team are creating a new transformational course/program to further help our clients establish a healthy body and life. And I’m looking forward to more work-life balance, and spending quality time with my husband and two little girls.

Originally published on Salesforce Ventures. 

Cloud 100 companies are creative about the many ways in which they give back.

One of the ways companies do so is through joining Pledge 1% — a commitment to donate 1% of their profits, product, equity and/or time to charity. In fact, nearly one-third of the companies in Cloud 100 have taken the pledge. Others choose to support specific causes through financial donations via corporate-sponsored foundations, while others donate sweat equity to improve the lives of those around them.

Each year, at the Cloud 100, we award The Pledge 1% Impact Award to a company that demonstrates an outstanding commitment to giving back by not only taking the pledge but by delivering programs that make a measurable positive impact and working to empower other companies to do the same. 

This year, the committee has selected Snyk as the 2022 Pledge 1% Impact Award winner based on Snyk’s consistent dedication to giving back and social responsibility. In addition to their donations as an organization, they’ve launched 1:1 matching grants up to USD $500 per year for eligible employee donations, and a Volunteer Time Off benefit for employees. Last year, they launched Snyk Impact to mobilize Snyk’s technology, resources and community to enable a more secure, inclusive and sustainable sector.

Career Opportunity Platform, Guild Education, offers all employees five paid days off to volunteer with causes or organizations within their communities. Guilders have used their volunteer days to engage in the civic process and serve as election judges, support those in need by making and delivering fresh meals, and improve their environment by restoring trails. 

Collaboration software maker Front donates 1% of its equity and 1% of its products to various nonprofits and gives employees three paid days off per year to volunteer. Workers can choose to give their time to causes they care about or participate in group activities organized by the company, such as helping the homeless, domestic violence victims, and at-risk groups in the San Francisco Bay Area and Paris, France.

In 2018 the company launched The Front Foundation. Mathilde Collin, CEO, and Co-Founder of Front, was inspired by a book called Doing Good Better and felt Front had scaled to a point where the impact of having a foundation would be meaningful without being distracting. “Fronteers” from disparate geographies and teams are empowered to decide what charities they want to support.

“It contributes meaningfully to our culture because it helps people understand that life is greater than the product we build and the customer we serve,” says Collin. “It contributes to having a low-ego culture, keeps us grounded in reality, and contributes to our culture and retention.”

Read the full length feature and to hear more from Cloud 100 CEOs here.

Originally published on Business Wire. 

Pledge 1%, a force multiplier and global movement to inspire, educate, and empower every entrepreneur, company, and employee to be a force for good, today announces that a growing number of top cloud companies on the Cloud 100 list, a prestigious ranking of top cloud companies made possible by Bessemer Venture Partners, Salesforce Ventures, and Forbes, have committed to leveraging their assets for good. Of the 100 companies on the list, nearly 30% are Pledge 1% members, reflecting the growing global push toward ESG and a more engaged business culture.

“The companies on this year’s Cloud 100 list that have partnered with Pledge 1% understand that leveraging their assets for social impact is both the right thing to do – AND the smart thing to do,” said Amy Lesnick, Chief Executive and President of Pledge 1%. “They serve as incredible role models for others by demonstrating the impact a company can have when they integrate social impact into their DNA and leverage their assets such as employee time, product, revenue, and/or stock equity to bring their company values to life for the long-term.”

Now more than ever, companies are realizing that they have an important role to play in tackling the toughest challenges of our time. With major shifts happening both on the global and local level, the need for businesses to give back has never been higher, matched only by consumer and employee expectations that companies take action. Increasingly, the companies that commit to supporting their local communities, authentically addressing pressing global social issues, and leveraging frameworks like Pledge 1% to fortify their ESG commitments, are proving to be the most successful.

As part of today’s news, Pledge 1% is thrilled to announce that Snyk, a Boston-based cybersecurity company specializing in cloud computing and Pledge 1% member, is the winner of the annual Pledge 1% Impact Award.

Snyk donates approximately $600,000 annually to organizations aligning with its impact mission pillars: Diversifying the developer security talent pipeline, strengthening digital security in the nonprofit and impact sector through freemium and discounted product offerings, sustainability, and supporting local causes and crises. Snyk recently launched its inaugural Snyk Week of Impact, a weeklong global volunteering initiative in seven cities across five countries, offering in-person and virtual volunteer projects aligned with their impact mission pillars. They’ve also launched 1:1 matching grants up to $500 per year for eligible employee donations, and a Volunteer Time Off benefit for employees.

“One of Snyk’s core values is to Care Deeply, which is why last year we launched Snyk Impact to mobilize Snyk’s technology, resources and community to enable a more secure, inclusive and sustainable sector,” said Peter McKay, CEO of Snyk. “Having our work acknowledged with the Pledge 1% award means a lot to our global community of Snykers, customers, and partners. We look forward to continuing our mission to give back to communities across the world.”

Snyk joins an esteemed group of former Impact Award winners, including Twilio, DocuSign, Slack, Procore, Canva, and Guild Education who creatively leverage their company assets to make an impact, including equity, employee time, product, and/or profit. For example, with the help of Pledge 1%, Twilio, the 2016 Pledge 1% Impact Award winner, has given over $124 million in all-time grants, donations, product credits, and discounts to social impact organizations, empowering 51 million people worldwide. The company has also donated $18 million in funding and over 1,000 volunteer hours to build COVID-19 vaccine equity, helping 324 million people gain access to vaccines and critical public health communications. Canva, the 2020 Pledge 1% Impact Award winner, has provided 250,000 nonprofits with its software and donated over $10 million to fund the GiveDirectly pilot program, a nonprofit that sends money directly to the world’s poorest households via unconditional cash transfers.

With the help of Pledge 1%, the Boardroom Allies, and their portfolio companies, billions of dollars in new philanthropy have been ignited; and leveraging company assets for good has increasingly become the new norm. 

Visit the Cloud 100 2022 List, and  Business Wire to read more.   

Originally published on GlobalNewswire.

MONTREAL and SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Coveo (TSX:CVO), a leader in relevance platforms that transform search, recommendations, and personalization within digital experiences, announced today its first round of contributions under Pledge 1%, a global movement to inspire, educate, and empower all companies to leverage their assets for good. Coveo will contribute time, products, expertise and money to support programs with a focus on organizations that provide learning and growth opportunities, including knowledge-sharing and mentoring, technical access, and financial assistance for young people (12-18 years old) in vulnerable social groups.

“At Coveo, we believe equal and unconstrained access to knowledge and education is the ultimate social equalizer,” said Louis Têtu, Chairman and CEO at Coveo. “We view this pledge as an investment in our community and our future. However, we also see this as a pathway to building a stronger company where shared values and commitment will drive us forward together. Pledge 1% puts us in a great position to build both a stronger business and brighter future.”

Coveo commits to its 1-1-1-1 pledge through the following means:

• 1% of its time by launching Deed, a Volunteering Hub where employees will be able to access and create volunteer opportunities, log hours, and track their impact.


• 1% of its equity to several organizations within the educational, inclusion, and environmental spheres including Actua, LOVE, Pour 3 Points, Girlstart, Interligne, and Environmental Defence.


• 1% of its time and product by offering software and consulting to Alloprof, a Quebec-based non for profit that offers parents and students aged 6-17 free, practical resources to help them succeed along their academic journey.

“By leveraging Coveo’s industry-leading AI technology, Alloprof will be able to create a better website search experience that will help students find the learning content they’re looking for,” said Sandrine Faust, co-founder and executive director of Alloprof.

In addition to community support efforts, Coveo will also commit to minimizing environmental impact, promoting the wellbeing and growth of Coveo employees, and adhering to the highest levels of corporate governance to ensure it’s doing what is right for all company stakeholders.

“In this era of increasing digitalization, leading tech companies like Coveo have a particular responsibility to share technology, expertise and even profits and equity to create better access to tools, information and opportunities,” said Sheila Morin, SVP – Marketing & ESG at Coveo. “Just as Coveo is committed to making a difference for our customers, we’re also committed to making a difference in our community. Through the Pledge 1%, we can help democratize knowledge and education, which are key levers for human wellness, to combat poverty, and to reduce inequalities and this first round of donations is just the beginning.”

About Coveo
We believe that relevance is critical to winning in the new digital experience economy. Coveo is a market-leading AI-powered relevance platform. We aim to enable our customers to deliver the relevant experiences that we believe people expect in the new digital economy. Our SaaS-native, multi-tenant platform injects search, recommendations, and personalization solutions into digital experiences. We provide solutions for Ecommerce, service, website, and workplace applications. Our solutions are designed to provide tangible value to our customers by helping drive revenue growth, reduce customer support costs, increase customer satisfaction and website engagement, and improve employee proficiency and satisfaction.

Our AI powers relevant interactions for hundreds of the world’s most innovative brands and is supported by a large network of global system integrators and implementation partners.

Coveo is a trademark of Coveo Solutions, Inc.

Learn more about Coveo and their impact here. 

Originally published on Twilio.

At Twilio, we believe that one of the most effective ways to prioritize social impact is to empower our employees to do more of what they love. That’s why, inspired by the Pledge1% model, Twilio created WePledge 1%, a volunteer employee impact and giving program in which Twilio supports employees in pledging to give 1 percent of their own time, income, or equity (or any combination of the three) to causes that resonate with them.

Since Twilio created WePledge 1% in 2019, 3,605 Twilio employees have signed onto the program, and participation in our volunteer and giving programs has increased to over 50% from single digits. And there are other ripple effects, too. We’ve seen that over the past year, employees who donated and volunteered were 2.3x less likely to leave Twilio than those who didn’t. And it’s not just Twilio seeing positive results. Data shows that companies with giving programs have 2.3x the employee retention rate than those without one.

Inspired by the increased impact we saw among our own employees, Twilio developed the WePledge 1% Accelerator, which is a comprehensive program that equips impact leaders at companies with all the tools, templates, and support needed to successfully launch an employee impact program of their own within 5 months. 25 companies including Atlassian, Zoom and Okta have already joined the program. In September, we’re launching our third Accelerator, where we’ll walk even more companies through how to stand up a similar program to support their employees in making a difference.

Learn more about Twilio and WePledge 1%

. 

Pledge 1%’s #WomenWhoLead series celebrates female leaders who are paving the way for the next generation. While our featured leaders come from a variety of backgrounds and industries, they are united in their efforts to promote equality for all women in the workplace. We’ve asked them to share a bit about their journey to success, as well as lessons they’ve learned along the way. 

Vanessa Chesnut

Lead Product Designer, Humanly.io

Houston, TX, US

What is your current role? Briefly describe in 1-2 sentences. 

I am the lead product designer at a seed-stage company in the HR Tech space. I spend about 20% of my time creating sales and marketing assets and 80% working on building out our interview intelligence tool called Humanly Voice. I function as both a PM and a Designer, building out strategy, moving pixels, and making sure we are tying all of our product decisions back to our customer needs.

What’s the best part of your job? What do you enjoy the most?

I enjoy all of the potential energy that comes along with working at a startup. I get to work on hard problems that I believe are still unsolved and that will have huge net- positive returns for both interviewers and interviewees inside the hiring experience.

We’ve all faced personal and professional challenges these past two years – what motivates you to keep going?

1. Getting to build a product from 0 to 1 (Humanly Voice)


2. The discovery of new things and solving hard problems


3. A strong desire to change the world for the better

What’s the best piece of advice you ever received?

Write down your thoughts and predictions of a product or feature launch beforehand and revisit them afterward. Our memory is notoriously flawed and we rewrite history with false memories. Writing down our thoughts keeps us honest.

What does generosity mean to you? 

No strings attached.

If you could describe yourself in one word what would that be and why?

Crafty

Since joining a startup, I’ve led projects that are completely outside my expertise like researching how to build out machine-learning models or understanding the nuances of why people interrupt others during interviews, mostly unconsciously.

As a product designer, I design the world that I want to see, crafting solutions to problems, both known and unknown.

If you could pick a song to guide you through 2022, which song would it be? 

“Heat of the Moment” by Asia

What are you looking forward to this year? Are there any goals (personal or professional), activities, or experiences you are excited about?

Outside of my work, I’m excited about learning more about the potentials of Web3 ( Metaverse, NFT, blockchain gaming) and I’m looking forward to imparting my design knowledge on my mentee, who is a junior product designer at a startup.

I’m also looking forward to my traveling to Japan this summer and eating SO much sushi, visiting a ton of UNESCO World Heritage sites, and getting to see non-western design principles and philosophy.

Originally published on Tides.

Decades after the term “digital divide” was coined, this systemic inequity persists, preventing too many people from living a quality life—and sometimes even to survive. In the past two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the gulf between those with internet access and those without, as necessary activities like seeking healthcare, education, and jobs have moved online.

For our Corporate Impact Leaders Forum (CILF) series, Strategies to Bridge the Digital Divide, Tides recently brought together four panelists, experts in the subject of equity and the digital divide, to identify challenges and solutions. Led by Amy Lesnick, chief executive and president of Pledge 1%, the panel included Jen Stredler, vice president of workforce development at Salesforce; Ellen McClain, COO of  Year Up; and Caroline Barlerin, founder and CEO of Platypus Advisors.

Lesnick opened the discussion with sobering statistics that paint a grim picture: 43 percent of adults with lower incomes do not have access to home broadband and 41 percent don’t have access to a desktop or laptop. Nearly half of Americans without home internet are either Black or Hispanic. And while the Biden administration allocated more than $65 billion to broadband through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, broadband alone is but one small piece of the digital divide.

“It’s an enormous challenge, especially for vulnerable populations,” Lesnick said. “In many cases, the digital divide is not only a result of historical inequities, but also perpetuates them. And COVID-19 has only highlighted and in many cases exacerbated these inequities.”

Stredler, vice president of workforce development at Salesforce, acknowledged the enormity of the issue. “The problem and the scope of the challenge is vast,” she said, noting that the many factors causing this divide must be tackled by leveraging the unique roles and assets that different companies can bring. “We can’t all do everything, and we can’t all do it alone.”

Ellen McClain, COO of Year Up, focused on the root issue during the panel discussion. “The digital divide is deeply, deeply rooted in the systemic issues, including systemic racism, that have plagued our nation from its inception,” she said. McClain identified the global response to George Floyd’s murder as a catalyst, pointing to the “fundamental systemic unfairness” that continues to wreak havoc in our country.

In the face of a challenge so complex and embedded, what can companies do? A lot, according to McClain. “We operate with a fundamental belief that corporations can and do play a role in advancing equity and justice and the conditions for our communities and economy to thrive,” she said of her team at Year Up.

All panelists agreed that collaborative efforts are crucial in the face of these challenges. As Stredler pointed out, it’s “not sustainable for every company to support every need of every person. But,” she went on, pointing to the importance of partnership, “we’ve tried to mitigate immediate needs and then work with our partners to develop a more systemic and scalable solution.”

And while systemic and scalable solutions are absolutely essential to resolve these challenges, the need for hyperlocal solutions is also key to making progress.

Click here to continue reading about how place based solutions are crucial to combat the  digital divide, and how it impacts jobs and livelihoods.