An AgeTech Collaborative™ startup participant, Peadbo helps users develop personal goals and then select members to serve on a personal advisory board that can help them achieve those goals. The company offers training for users and board members alike, automates board member outreach, schedules meetings, and provides a newsletter feature and an interface for goal tracking and messaging.
Cofounder and CEO Keith Chaney sat down with us to talk about the company and its mission to help younger and older adults alike.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Please tell us about Peadbo.
“Peadbo” is short for “personal advisory board,” which is exactly what it sounds like. Just as a billion-dollar company needs a board of people to guide them and help them reach their goals, we believe that ordinary individuals should have advisory boards to help them get that job, get that promotion or whatever it is that they want to achieve.
We believe that being self-made is a myth — it takes a community of support to succeed. We’ve built a tool that allows users to assemble and manage one or more boards so they don’t have to go on their journey alone. We also have a personal newsletter feature that makes it easy for users to send out updates to anybody who’s on their team or who is interested in their journey.
Do users have to identify people to be on their board, or do you have a network that you leverage on their behalf?
It’s really a mix of both. We’ve learned that almost everybody undervalues the people they already know and have access to. You might see someone as “just an uncle” or the like, but often those people have experiences and connections that can really help you. We help users tap into those people.
After that, if people still have gaps in their board, we also do some matchmaking. That’s really a value-add proposition for our B2B customers. Universities are an example: We help position them to ask alumni to donate time to be on the board of a student. But we structure it so that alumni know they are donating, say, six hours a year, instead of committing to an open-ended mentorship. Our superpower is helping people to say “yes.”
What does a typical board look like?
We offer content and training on how to be an effective board member, because it’s not always something that people know how to do. We also help users to set their boards up for success. For example, giving your board a specific name is important: It shouldn’t be something general like, “Help me be a better employee,” but something specific, like “Help me secure a promotion to senior manager by the fall of 2025.” That keeps the board focused, and helps board members know how they can best contribute.
We also provide template agendas to help keep the meetings structured and on track. Users can send those out in advance so board members can come prepared to be as effective as possible.
What inspired you to found the company?
It’s something that I wish I’d had when I was younger. I have an amazing family that taught me all the principles that make me the man I am. But none of them graduated from college or worked at big companies, so when I began my career, there was a lot I didn’t know about how to navigate that world. I bumped my head more times than I care to admit. Then, I was in a board meeting with a client one day, and I thought, “I need one of these for my life!” That’s how the idea was born, and I couldn’t sleep until I’d done something about it.
Obviously, a personal advisory board can benefit people who are setting out in life or who are in mid-career. Does Peadbo have any benefits for older adults?
A large portion of our board members are either retired or approaching retirement. Often, they’ve gone from a stage in life where they’re at the head of the table, so to speak, and everyone is seeking their wisdom, to a place in retirement where no one is seeking out their opinions any more. But they still have all this wisdom and passion that they are happy to share. Being on someone’s board gives them an opportunity to stay active, sharing their experiences and helping someone succeed.
What’s on the horizon for Peadbo?
We have some plays in artificial intelligence that are really exciting, and we’re working on getting those funded. From a more personal angle, I have a mission to close the wealth and opportunity gap. A lot of people who come from successful families have had those dinner table conversations where they learned how to navigate the job market and the world. By positioning people who haven’t had that advantage to ask for help and to build support systems around them earlier, we’re helping to give them an important leg up.
Check out their website to learn more about Peadbo.
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