We started 81cents in fall 2018 with the goal of changing how negotiations work for women and historically excluded (and therefore underrepresented) minorities.
Two years later, we’ve supported over 500 individuals through negotiations, helping them find an average pay increase of 17% — more than $5M in total compensation!
How? We’ve built an incredible community of 1,700+ “pay equity advisors” who provide relevant data points and personalized negotiation advice to candidates as they navigate new offers and annual reviews.
These perspectives get compiled into 30-page “market value reports” along with best practices we’ve developed in conjunction with recruiters, coaches, and academics.
Keeping in line with our mission to improve transparency, especially around money, we wanted to provide some insight on the 81cents business model and how we got to where we are.
Our Business Model Today
We’ve built 81cents as a for-profit, direct-to-consumer company. As of December 2020, individual consumers pay $245 per “market value report.”
We decided to start 81cents with this model for a few different reasons:
- It was the fastest way for us to get something out into the world.
- Employers spend thousands of dollars on compensation data, however no one was giving quality, structured pay data to individuals. We felt there was an opportunity to do something different and switch the balance of power from the employer to the individual.
- Candidates and employees are the ones being hurt by pay gaps. We wanted to build a product that worked for and supported them, first and foremost.
- We felt that a for-profit structure would help us maximize and scale our impact i.e. we’d only have customers if we help them find tangible results — otherwise no one would use our services!
Today, this revenue covers our software (Typeform, Google Suite, Hubspot, Mailchimp, Quickbooks, Zapier, etc.) and work with contractors for design, development, and operations.
Furthermore, while we’ve automated a significant portion of the 81cents review process (thanks, Grace and Michelle!), each 81cents market value report is completely customized and requires between 2–3 hours of work from our team in order to:
- work with each candidate to figure out how to best present their information to 81cents advisors,
- select the most relevant advisors for the candidate, and
- vet and compile all feedback into a final, actionable report for the candidate.
In saying this, we realize that we, as a company, are “guilty” of the very problem we’re trying to solve — justifying why we’re asking to be paid for our work. The irony is real, but as uncomfortable as it feels, asking for money is not inherently bad — whether it’s as a business owner or an individual negotiating a new offer.
What’s Ahead
However, because of the mission-driven space we’re in, we also recognize that our pricing model could create conflicts. For example, charging for our services means that many of the individuals who would benefit the most from this support won’t have access, noting that the pay gap widens as you consider race.
Additionally — our “pay equity advisors” provide their support pro-bono (which 81cents charges candidates to source and compile).*
Beyond these conflicts, we also believe that a high price point could impact our ability to scale 81cents, which is critical to us achieving our mission to close gaps.
So, we’re considering some changes to help us better facilitate scale and keep us accountable to our mission:
#1. Pricing model innovation — There’s an opportunity to use our pricing structure to expand access to 81cents. We’re currently evaluating different models such as tiered pricing (based on your current pay) or a pay-it-forward / one-for-one model a la Tom’s Shoes.
We’ve also considered incentive-based pricing (where you pay only when you increase your salary) but have some reservations given 1. the lengthy timeline of negotiations for annual reviews (about 50% of our work), and 2. the legal requirements of income-share agreements.
Our biggest challenge to rolling a new structure out is limited capacity from our part-time team and constrained functionality of our “scrappy” website.
#2. Partnering with nonprofits — We’ve had early conversations with two nonprofits about bringing 81cents support to their constituents — helping us to reach individuals who may not be in the small network currently aware of 81cents or who haven’t been taught the value of negotiation.
While we’d need to figure out the mechanics, this could help us significantly expand our reach and ensure that we don’t solely support individuals who already know the value of negotiation.
#3. 81cents scholarship program — Today we offer need-blind discounts to any individuals who reach out for financial support. We also just launched a scholarship program to provide support to BIPOC womxn. (More on that here!)
#4. What else!? We’d love your help in thinking through this, especially if you have solutions in mind for some of the challenges we’ve laid out. You can reach our team at hello@81cents.com.
We’re excited about all that’s ahead for 81cents and genuinely believe there’s a way for us to do well while making significant dents in pay gaps.
Thank you to everyone who’s supported us along the way, especially our pay equity advisors, to whom we would not exist without. And, an extra thank you to the individuals who helped us pull this article together — Erin Booker, Jess Sand, Laura Tischler, Lora Rosenblum, and Shirbi Ish-Shalom.
* Note — we’ve done extensive interviews and surveys of our pay equity advisors and the vast majority have expressed that they are not interested in being paid — either monetarily or with rewards.
