Introduction: STEERus is a start-up company that specializes in talent development not just for the Gen

Z but veterans and formally incarcerated individuals. They enable alignment, inclusion, and cohesion in
the workplace by training and coaching soft skills. They offer multi-media interactive coaching journeys
that they serve from their proprietary learning management system to offer clients an engaging and
unique way to learn. They outsource their employees and have 8 U.S based contractors, 5 offshore
contractors and many vendors. They were officially incorporated as a C corporation for profit in
December 2020 and their general standing in the industry has remained to be in the pre-seed and pre-
revenue phase as they are looking to raise funds to operate their business and implement ideas.

SWOT Analysis:

Strengths: STEERus currently has many strengths as there are many assets, for example, the executive
team who are all unpaid equity holders. They consistently put in efforts everyday as the company is
currently a pre-revenue phase without any monetary considerations. They have also hired talented
coaches to help students. STEERus also makes good use of the skills and knowledge of interns/students
at university who assist them with improving their systems and policies. Students also benefit by using
their coaching website for free and free digital resume-maker. In this way, both students and the team
at STEERus learn from each other. Many veterans and ex-incarcerated individuals use their website to
gain skills from their website which gives STEERus a spotlight. The website is user-friendly making it easy
for anyone to navigate and access any options they’d like, and many customers have given positive
reviews on how STEERus helped them gain valuable skills and find internships/jobs.

Weaknesses: Since STEERus is a start-up company and they are still in the pre-revenue phase, no profit
is being earned. Personal money is being used to assist in business operations, making equity holders’
personal assets liable in case of bankruptcy. Hence, they also do not have funds available to implement
creative ideas to improve the business and are falling behind from its competitors who quickly raise
money through fundraising. Even though the website is user-friendly, it still requires some work in terms
of making it more enticing and colorful for customers to improve their experience with the content.
Lastly, there are no parental controls and policies such as PIPEDA or GDPR to protect minors who are
using the STEERus website.

Opportunity: STEERus can make career opportunities equitable for students by making soft skills
accessible to them, since education is expensive for students nowadays. They are also increasing their
customer base and presence by activating an international student engagement experience program for
international students to provide micro-coaching and help them merge in new countries. They are
gaining support from other businesses as several grants are currently in motion to assist them with their
operations and implement their ideas for e.g., the National Science Foundation Small Business
Innovation Research grant. STEERus can use new technologies to improve user experience and more
efficient marketing tactics to attract customers.

Threats: There are many competitors in the industry who provide similar services as STEERus so there is
increased rivalry between companies. Competitors can also imitate new features and ideas STEERus
incorporates. New laws and regulations can also be introduced which the company might be forced to
follow. Customers can compare the benefits for each company and can move from one talent
development company to another if they find new information. A potential threat in the cybersecurity
department is that the team can use STEERus’s coding and software to unethically work for other
businesses. Lastly, current employees/coaches could be hard to find and they can quit and move to
another reputable company if they are offered higher paying salaries.