Stoic is a corporate technology company that uses Generative AI to improve leadership development, evolve organizational mindsets, and drive cultural transformation. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Stoic co-founder and CEO Oseas Ramirez Assad to learn more.
Oseas Ramirez Assad’s Background
Could you tell me more about your background? Assad said:
“I am an entrepreneur and corporate intrapreneur. I started my career in tech at age 18, working as the CIO for a major newspaper. From there I took on a role as CTO for an ISP, and then graduated as a Family Counselor. Ever since then, my story became a combination of technology and humanities. I led the development of the top 2% of managers at Cisco worldwide. Then I was in charge of the strategy of Cisco’s worldwide network of innovation centers. Eventually I took the role of CEO at Axialent, a multinational consulting company specialized in culture. My latest stop is being the CEO of Stoic, a spin-off company from Axialent I co-founded to aid the development of professionals with proven methodologies and AI.”
Formation Of The Company
How did the idea for the company come together? Assad shared:
“When I was offered the position to be Axialent’s CEO, I proposed to the board my intention of transforming the company. The initial vision was to build a separate ‘vehicle;’ another company that had a different business model and abilities to scale, namely a digital company. The proposal was accepted and since I took over as CEO, we started doing the groundwork to create this company. We got funding from Spain and Asturia’s governments, as well as Axialent’s own funds, and thus Stoic was born 3 years ago.”
Problem Being Solved
What is the problem you’re solving? Assad shared:
“There is a perennial problem for companies trying to either develop their personnel, or to have them adapt to the quickly evolving environment in which they operate. Over the last few years we’ve seen cultural shifts as well as ones based on technology. For example, a decade ago there was a focus on innovation, which then evolved into startup-like innovation. This prompted companies to seek how to get their employees to explore through hypothesis, prototyping, etc. Around the same time we saw agile, then digitization, as important tendencies. Today, it’s AI. In any case, the challenge is giving people the knowledge and tools to effectively operate in these spaces; requiring them to evolve the way they think (mindsets) and how they act (behaviors). We help specifically with this challenge, regardless of the type of transformation or development being sought by our clients.”
Core Products
What are Stoic’s core products and features? Assad explained:
“An Applied Learning platform for leadership development that ensures people actually practise what they learn.”
“We assess individual gaps in leaders’ mindsets. Then we help them acquire the tools and skills needed to close those gaps. Finally, they practise applying those skills to day-to-day challenges with our proprietary AI coaches.”
“It took us over 20 years to build and refine this methodology with more than 100,000 leaders from some of the world’s biggest companies, and three years to turn that success into a technology platform.”
“This allows companies to ensure that their desired culture, expressed through mindsets and behaviours, actually comes to life. Executives also gain visibility into how people apply those skills, through a simple dashboard.”
Evolution Of The Company’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Assad noted:
“We started before LLM’s became mainstream. At the time we built an entire learning journey based on Axialent’s 20 years worth of experience working with top executives. It was designed around the construct of Cohort Based Courses; a strong emphasis on the social aspects of development brought to life with technology. We got our first break with close to 4,000 senior managers from different corporate clients under this model. However, once it was clear that GenAI was the way to go, we started incorporating AI features into our product and quickly pivoting it. As we gained expertise in LLMs, agents and the infrastructure needed to comply with European regulations. We eventually landed on our current version of our product, the Applied Learning Platform. However, this is not to be confused with a traditional learning platform (like an LLM). This is a platform built around behavioral change, to evolve from merely knowing something conceptually to actually applying it in real life, in the context of work.”
Standing Out
What makes your company stand out in the sea of AI startups? Assad described:
“For better and worse, we’re not a typical startup. Most startups are taught to develop an MVP to run quickly and break things. Because our product was developed with large enterprises in mind (we’re a spinoff of a large corporate consultancy Axialent), we actually spent two years on perfecting the offering, making sure it fits corporate needs and most importantly – works and helps people adopt new behavioral habits and improve performance.”
“This also means that from day one we also had 20 years worth of IP and experience from our parent company. Axialent has worked with clients such as Google, Microsoft, BBVA, PG, Mercado Libre and Booking amongst many others. Having done so gives us a privileged starting point to develop our product, and a fantastic entry into the market.”
Adapting To Rapid Change
How is your company relevant to this unique era of rapid change? Assad pointed out:
“We actually developed a program in collaboration with Duke Corporate Education and Axialent that teaches senior leaders how to lead AI adoption at scale.”
“Our product is flexible, so it can help institutions with different types of behavioral or cultural changes. Most recently, companies are very interested in undertaking the changes necessary to ensure a successful adoption of AI. This is one of many examples.”
Customer Success Stories
Can you share any specific customer success stories? Assad highlighted:
“One of largest clients in the ecommerce space was able to accelerate the development in key areas for over 2,000 of their top managers with our technology.”
“Another one of our clients, a high tech company, worked with us to drive transformation towards an innovative startup mindset with 200 of their top leaders. In this case we also tested for the first time providing visibility to the anonymized data of interactions with coaches, which allowed us to see what the main conversation topics were about (thus giving the company a sense of where to invest for development), while strictly adhering to security and privacy regulations.”
Funding/Revenue
Are you able to discuss funding and/or revenue metrics? Assad revealed:
“All I am allowed to say is that we’ve gotten two seed investors other than Axialent so far. The government of Spain and the Kingdom of Asturias. Currently, we’re targeting our first proper round by the end of this quarter.”
Total Addressable Market (TAM)
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Assad assessed that it is 5 million users.
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Assad affirmed:
“The proprietary IP, methodology, and cumulative know how of consultants and coaches, all of which has been imbued into our products.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future goals? Assad concluded:
“Further evolve our platform into one that has a specific focus on accelerating team performance. We would build on top of what we have, supporting leaders’ individual development, into developing stronger, more effective teams.”
