Sharp Performance has raised $18 million in Series A funding to expand its confidential performance coaching platform for police officers, firefighters, paramedics, and other first responders. The round was led by Hidden Variable, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Commonweal Ventures, Wolfson Group, FJ Labs, and the Ford Foundation. The financing brings Sharp’s total funding to $30 million.
Sharp provides first responders with one-on-one coaches who have backgrounds in public safety or special operations and operate independently from the member’s department. Its coaching network includes former police officers, detectives, firefighters, paramedics, Navy SEALs, Green Berets, and former department chiefs.
The number of police, fire, and EMS departments offering Sharp to their members has more than doubled over the past year to more than 110 across 18 states. Members have booked more than 16,000 coaching sessions through the platform.
Sharp’s marketplace currently includes more than 60 coaches who are individually recruited, vetted, and trained. Members are matched with coaches based on their backgrounds and career goals and can change coaches if their needs evolve. The platform also offers specialized coaching around promotions, returning from leave, retirement, and other career transitions.
The company has built technology to match members with coaches, schedule sessions around first responders’ shifts, and provide departments with anonymized reporting. Its mobile app also offers guided breathing exercises and physical reset techniques used by special operations forces and elite athletes.
Sharp positions its service as complementary to departments’ existing wellness, peer-support, and clinical programs rather than as a replacement. The company was co-founded by CEO Ben Curley and former Green Beret Andrew Sakmar.
Sharp plans to use the Series A funding to expand into more departments and states, improve its mobile app and coaching platform, and develop additional software and products supporting first responder health and performance.
KEY QUOTES:
“Public safety professionals have some of the most important and challenging jobs, yet they’ve had little access to people outside of their departments who can help them perform their best. Sharp has helped thousands of men and women in uniform across the country, and we’re proud to support them on their mission to make personal coaching available to every professional in a high-risk occupation.”
Mackey Craven, Hidden Variable
“When we started Sharp, everyone told us the same thing: cops and firefighters will not talk to anyone. They were only half right. They won’t talk to just anyone, but they will talk to someone who’s been where they’ve been and isn’t evaluating them.”
Ben Curley, Co-Founder And CEO Of Sharp
“As a Green Beret, I had people whose whole job was getting my team ready between deployments. Nobody called that soft. Police officers and firefighters answer the call for 25 years, and most of them have never had a coach of their own. Now they do. Coaching them is how a lot of us keep serving.”
Andrew Sakmar, Co-Founder Of Sharp
