How a Miami startup turned setbacks into breakthroughs, reshaping the leadership and talent management along the way
By Riley Kaminer
Building a startup is rarely a smooth path, and few know that better than founders like Juan Betancourt, CEO of Humantelligence.
The startup has built an AI-driven platform that combines psychometric assessments with collaboration tools to enhance communication, productivity, and team dynamics in distributed workforces.
After multiple iterations of their core product – some of which didn’t meet client, market, or user needs – Betancourt now sees those difficult challenges as stepping stones to something better. The Miami-based company’s latest AI-bot tool, HT Coach, is a testament to that evolution.
When Refresh Miami sat down with Betancourt, he didn’t shy away from talking about the company’s past struggles. “We’ve been through products that didn’t hit the mark,” he said, “but every challenge got us closer to how people really want to consume information, and what UI/UX interface would be most successful.”
Navigating the challenges of product evolution
Now, with HT Coach, they’ve pivoted to a product that seems to have early promise, albeit still in the pilot phase. The product uses a unique consumer-looking interface that Betancourt describes as “Google meets Chat GPT” – leveraging AI to address the long-standing challenges of leadership, communication, interpersonal conflict, and team collaboration through the lens of personality assessments.
Betancourt explained how the new tool works: “You can simply search for any person, team, or group, and then ask any question in a ChatGPT-like simple bar, and the AI bot will write out instantly, a personalized answer that takes into account personality and work styles for communicating, learning, and collaborating,” he said.
That allows managers or employees to better understand how to collaborate with and manage colleagues with different personality traits, work styles, and learning styles. For example, if you’re stepping into a new role and want to know how your new boss leads, at the click of one button, HT Coach can provide insights based on their personality profile.
Pivoting towards personality-driven AI
“Basically, it’s a personal coach – delivered through AI – for every employee and team in the company,” Betancourt explained. “And it all happens instantly, in 1 day, with no training needed, and in any language on the planet.”
Before HT Coach, Humantelligence’s journey was marked by a series of what Betancourt called “learning experiences.” They had initially aimed high, developing products for larger enterprises with big budgets, but long sales cycles and limited adoption made it difficult to gain traction.
“Our previous products required massive training and support on top of complicated sales journeys, where many people needed to experience the product through complex integrations,” Betancourt said, referring to their previous offerings, which were tailored to major corporations. It became clear that this model wasn’t sustainable in the long run.
Now, Humantelligence is taking a different approach – one that’s more accessible to companies of all sizes – with a user interface that is more akin to consumer apps like ChatGPT, with a simple open bar that Betancourt calls “idiot proof, in terms of usage, adoption, and no need for training.” According to Betancourt, “Users feel the tool is fun and key to their success working with others at the office.”
“We’re democratizing leadership training and talent development,” Betancourt said. With HT Coach, even small businesses with as few as 20 employees can tap into the same resources that were once only available to big corporations. It’s available on mobile devices, too, so it’s right at your fingertips, whether you’re leading a team at a Fortune 500 company or managing a small store.
HT Coach as a tool for addressing an evolving workplace
The timing of HT Coach’s release is especially relevant as the workforce becomes increasingly diverse, spanning generations from Baby Boomers to Gen Z. Managing such varied groups can be daunting, but Humantelligence’s tool promises to make it easier by offering actionable insights on how to motivate and lead people based on their unique traits.
“Gen Zers like to be seen, managed, and engaged as unique individuals, and not categorized as part of a broad group of like-minded people,” Betancourt explained. “This applies as well to international companies, with different ethnic and cultural differences in communication and collaboration challenges. HT Coach helps overcome these challenges and ensure that every person, no matter where they are, can be engaged the way they like to communicate, collaborate, and work.”
Betancourt believes HT Coach can act as a transitional tool for leaders facing this challenge, especially newer managers who have never received leadership training. “Now, you can understand and manage people as they are, and therefore manage 5 subordinates differently to make sure they are each happy and motivated,” he said.
Whether it’s motivating a 50-year-old senior leader or figuring out how to keep a 25-year-old engineer engaged, the tool can bridge the gap between different working styles and generational differences. And, as companies navigate this new landscape, tools like HT Coach might just be what’s needed to ease the transitions and boost collaboration.
Building the future of Humantelligence
While HT Coach is still in its pilot phase, it’s already seeing interest from companies of varying sizes. And though the long sales cycles typical of enterprise customers remains a challenge, Betancourt remains optimistic. “We’re finally seeing early promise and adoption,” he said. For him, the journey has been about resilience and staying nimble through each setback, with a clear focus on building something better.
What stands out most about Betancourt’s story is the willingness to admit that Humantelligence has hit bumps in the road and the determination to keep going, by pivoting each time despite, as Betancourt said, “the intense work and soul-searching that it takes for everyone on the team,” even when things didn’t pan out as expected.
“We’ve learned that you need to keep evolving and listening to what the market really needs, looking for that one tweak, or feature that becomes the killer feature, which launches a startup on the path to becoming a unicorn.”
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