Five to Nine

Five to Nine sells software for managing internal company events and employee programs from a single platform. Its product covers one-click event creation, invitations and centralized communications, guest-list and group management, custom pre- and post-event surveys, attendance and RSVP tracking, real-time budget tracking, custom event pages, privacy controls and an interactive analytics dashboard. Event types supported include employee socials, trainings, all-hands meetings and employee resource group (ERG) programming.

The platform is positioned as integration-first, connecting to tools organizers and employees already use: Slack, Google Calendar and Outlook Calendar, Zoom, Google Meet, Google Groups, Okta, Google and Outlook SSO, and HRIS systems. Five to Nine also emphasizes a dedicated customer success team that includes former event leaders. The company's founders describe the concept as an "Eventbrite for Corporations" aimed at program leaders who previously relied on email and spreadsheets and lacked data on how programs affected employee retention and productivity.

The company describes itself as a Black women-owned software company whose stated mission is to help organizations create inclusive programming and workplaces where employees feel a sense of belonging. The name reflects the idea that "people are more than just their 9-5."

Founding story

While working as an IT consultant at EY after graduating from the University of Notre Dame, Jasmine Shells led employee initiatives for the Chicago office, including the Black Professional Network and volunteering programs. She found the work highly manual, relying only on email and spreadsheets, and saw that the business had no data to understand how such programs affected employee retention and productivity. That gap led to the idea for Five to Nine, which she and co-founder Denise Umubyeyi, also a former people leader, built for employee experience leaders. Shells pursued the business full-time while completing a part-time MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business as an inaugural Entrepreneurial Scholar, a program that covered her tuition.

Business model

Business-to-business software sold to employers, with the website funneling prospects to a booked demo rather than self-serve signup; a dedicated customer success function supports accounts.

Traction

Company-reported platform analytics cite over 40,500 RSVPs collected, more than 7,800 surveys collected, over 17,000 total attendees and a 5x increase in RSVPs. The CEO said the company more than 10x-ed growth during the pandemic and landed enterprise customers including DoorDash, Verizon Media, MasterClass, Jellyvision and Upwork; published case studies cover Amplitude, Webflow and a CPG company.

Latest developments

The About Us page lists 2022 press coverage of the $4.25M seed round and a founder interview; the website carries a 2022 copyright notice and continues to promote the platform and customer case studies.