Investment Notes: Earlywork

We are delighted to share Fund 1’s latest investment in Earlywork, an Ed Tech startup on a mission to fix the disconnect between education and careers.

Jelix has invested in Earlywork’s $1.5m round led by No Brand with support from Archangel Ventures and Ultraviolet Ventures as well as several high-profile individuals. This investment signifies our recognition of the tremendous potential and impact that Earlywork can have on reshaping the education and employment landscape.

Why we’re excited to back Earlywork

The current model of higher education fails to prioritise employment outcomes, leading to irrelevant degrees taught by educators who are out of touch with industry needs. At the same time, industry struggles to find, filter and hire high-calibre candidates for non-technical positions that lack an effective signal that would usually exist in a university degree or similar.

A unique approach to vocational education

Earlywork excels in the job market by rapidly upskilling individuals, often without traditional qualifications, to secure high-paying roles in just weeks. This broadens the talent pool for employers, making it easier to find qualified candidates. Their approach is gaining traction with Australian tech firms and international SaaS companies eyeing the Australian and New Zealand markets.

Earlywork reminds us of existing stand-out Fund 1 portfolio company Prophero in the way it delivers on a thesis of complex coordination: it re-imagines an existing industry with solutions that bundle and integrate complex incentives to deliver revolutionary customer experiences. In these markets, we feel that great operators (supported by a technical solution) can carve out large businesses that challenge existing incumbents and business models.

An exceptional team

This brings us to the incredible team behind Earlywork: Jono, Dan and Marina. They started Earlywork as a newsletter to help fellow early career people navigate their way through the world of professional work. This newsletter then took off and transformed into a vibrant Slack channel, now with over 5,000 members that include some of the most talented operators in the startup ecosystem in Australia.

In just a few months, Earlywork Academy has completed 4 cohorts of students and achieved 4 consecutive months of profitability.They are seriously talented operators who know how to get things done and have the ambition and capability to build a category-defining business.

The next frontier: product and regional expansion 

Despite all the above, there remains questions about its scalability and the potential size of the outcome of this investment. While there are clear opportunities to increase revenue and margins meaningfully, the current model may eventually reach scaling limits.

However, we believe that the Earlywork model can and will continue to evolve. What has been impressive with the Earlywork team to date is their ability to rapidly launch, test and prove new ideas. They have proven themselves multiple times with the progression of Earlywork: first as a newsletter, then as a community and now the Academy. The team has the ambition and capability to find and chase the right opportunities to expand their impact.

This $1.5m raise will enable Earlywork to expand their program to new roles (Customer Success and Growth) and expand to new regions (Singapore and then the UK). We are proud to support this team in their vision to make a meaningful impact on the education and employment sector while creating positive outcomes for all stakeholders involved.