Written by Soraya Darabi
We’re pleased to introduce our latest investment, Increment, a startup that brings good news for wage workers and manufacturers alike. Sitting at the emerging intersection of tech and manufacturing, Increment enables manufacturers to upskill their workforces and reach full production capacity. Increment’s platform leverages education, data, insight, rigorous transparency, and digitization to create new job opportunities for wage workers — and increased visibility for manufacturers. This helps to create a robust internal pipeline to close the gap on in-demand, hard-to-fill jobs.
Here’s How it Works
Increment’s product creates informed insights by correlating workforce skills data to production outcomes! It accomplishes this by aggregating role information, skills requirements, and pathway options for advancement, while also providing real-time training progress trackers for supervisors, training and operations directors and wage workers.
The result is a customizable, interactive workforce training tool that shows worker training progress, a pipeline of recommendations, and proven ROI of specific training initiatives. This not only enables transparent workforce upskilling, it also digitizes tracking for training (previously managed offline), enabling real-time updates and results-driven programming.
The Future of Manufacturing
Automation brings with it a common narrative of digital displacement and the notion that robots will steadily take away more and more jobs — we’ve all read that line before. But for many industries, including manufacturing, it’s not so simple. Even with innovations in automation, many manufacturing processes will continue to require a human workforce. Automation will be implemented alongside labor to increase efficiency and lower costs; this will lead to changes in the nature of existing work and create a need for new tools that empower employees to adapt and advance. Increment’s platform teaches them critical new skills and provides the pathways for leveraging them. Meanwhile, manufacturers are able to mitigate skills shortages and decrease trainable errors. The result is greater efficiency and earnings for manufacturers.
Hello South Bend, IN
Increment’s founder Jessica Lee is a born builder. She grew up watching her parents, both immigrants from mainland China, build and run their car dealership and repair shops, where early on she learned how to change oil filters, fix cars and connect with customers. She spent weekends learning the trade, developing a natural love of talking to people from all walks of life.
After obtaining a B.A. in Computer Science at the University of Virginia, Jessica moved to NorCal, where she worked at Stripe in growth and product roles. As she spent more time in the corporate world, she noticed how powerfully globalization was affecting industries like manufacturing, and realized there is a dire need to prepare industrial workers for emerging trends in manufacturing. Living in San Francisco, however, Jessica felt removed from the parts of the country where this impact was taking hold; she drew upon her childhood experiences at the repair shops to reassess what drew her to tech in the first place. She started exploring ideas to address this growing challenge.
As serendipity would have it, Jessica was approached by an Indiana-based start-up generator, and she took her idea to South Bend, Indiana to bring it to life. She has spent the past two years talking to hundreds of manufacturers and stakeholders, iterating, working from the ground up in order to immerse herself in the challenges posed by the workforce skills gap. Out of those experiences and conversations, Increment took shape.
In Jessica’s Words
We asked Jess what advice she’d give to emerging founders: “Take the time to really know your industry at a deep and nuanced level. Find mentors in your field, talk to everyone, and build your village. Everybody brings a unique perspective.”
We couldn’t agree more.
About TMV
TMV is an early-stage venture firm that invests in purposeful startups reimagining the future.
If you are building an innovative business of the future or if you are an investor who believes in the power of community and operational commitment, we want to hear from you. Find us at hi@tmv.vc
