Before taking the leap to become a founder and business owner, Erin Eatough was an academic. It might seem like a leap, but the research foundations she took from the academic world have informed her work in the private sector and shaped the services that her company, Fractional Insights, offers.
Fractional Insights is a “consulting, advisory, and research company founded by two organizational psychologists,” Eatough explains. “Our goal is to be able to help organizations understand and measure the connection between their people and their ultimate business outcome and goals.”
Fractional Insights offers consulting services for companies, helping them adapt to the future of work. How do you design work to accomplish your business goals, especially in the AI era? While historically there has been a disconnect between HR and business outcomes, the rise of AI and conversations around the future of work have highlighted the need for the insights and services that Fractional Insights provides.
Erin Eatough connected with 20Fathoms to share more about her entrepreneurial journey and how she decided to launch a business.
The following interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
20Fathoms: Tell me about your background prior to founding Fractional Insights.
Erin Eatough: I was actually an academic at the beginning of my career. I ran a research lab focused on the intersection of personal life and work life, and how these two domains are mutually reinforcing or detrimental. Although I was writing and speaking a lot about research and data, I was thirsty for more direct avenues for impact. The research that my colleagues and I were doing was not breaking through outside of academia. I wanted to bridge the gap between science and practice and create translatable, practical decision-making strategies for leaders.
So I left academia and joined BetterUp, a mental health and coaching startup for the enterprise, as a founding scientist. I was working on scaling personal development through technology. I joined pretty early on and stayed about seven years, helping infuse science into their products.
The initiatives I was a part of were focused on getting clear indicators and metrics of impact. You want to be sure that the product is making a difference for the people using it, but ultimately, that that difference makes an impact on the business too. Connecting those dots requires a deep understanding of how it all works and expertise in terms of how to quantify it. We developed a whole-person model and assessment approach to do just that, essentially building the metrics and business case for the solution.
20Fathoms: How did you go from there to starting your own company?
Erin: My cofounder Shonna Waters and I were seeing the world change to be more technology-driven and more AI-driven; we saw an opportunity to be useful. We could help companies see the alignment between people and business outcomes, really explaining, demonstrating, and proving that the way to get to your North Star goal is not in conflict with or mutually exclusive of dignified treatment of your people and investing in your people, rather it’s an incredibly powerful strategy. The historical perspective is that “it increases cost,” but what we know from organizational science is that it’s a business investment that pays off. That’s where the science-to-practice gap is so clear. It was this point of frustration and motivation for us.
20Fathoms: What are you working on right now? What’s your next milestone?
Erin: At the end of March we’ll be releasing our first insights report on workforce angst, this term we are using to describe the state of the workforce. There has been a lot of recent data from Edelman and Gallup around low engagement and trust. My business partner and I are running our own research study to uncover the psychological reasons behind these patterns and how to address them.
As psychologists, we identified three needs people are seeking from their employer-work relationship. When those needs are not met, organizational performance is eroded.
The problem is that we have drastically eroded the sense of security and safety, that people will be able to meet their financial and health needs. People are being impacted by layoffs, return-to-office mandates, reduction in DEI initiatives, and a fear of becoming obsolete – a part of angst of insecurity. These are the root cause issues. When people don’t have certain needs met, the outcomes can be negative, but if you can fix them, you can right the ship.
20Fathoms: Sounds timely. When you think about 3-5 years in the future, what’s your vision for your company? Where are you heading?
Erin: We are planning to continue advisory and professional services while scaling into a technology-enabled company to increase access for organizations. We are building a platform that seamlessly integrates AI-powered analytics with our Psychological ErgonomicsTM framework to drive measurable organizational transformation. The platform combines an adaptive intelligence engine that analyzes workforce signals and data and generates tailored, evidence-based strategies, with a comprehensive measurement system that tracks metrics and connects them to business performance. This creates a scalable solution that automatically adapts to an organization’s context while continuously optimizing workforce strategy through data-driven insights and targeted interventions. However, our vision is to always have what we call “service in the loop” where expert support is looped into client success and the process, using technology to its highest and best use, and humans to theirs.
20Fathoms: How has working with 20Fathoms supported you as you’ve launched and grown your business?
Erin: I was a coworking member for about two years, which was amazing – it helped me see that there were resources around me for taking a leap out of the traditional employment status to becoming an entrepreneur. Having exposure to the community and resources that 20Fathoms played a big part in building my confidence to make a decision as big as leaving my job to start my own company.
I’ve completed a ton of the educational programming, like the Business Essentials course, the CO.STARTERS bootcamp, and I’ve tapped into other resources within the 20Fathoms community, like Aurora Patents. I have attended a lot of lunch and learns; I’m invested in continual personal development and growth. Especially when it comes to entrepreneurship – what else can I learn? I want to take advantage of the resources being offered.
TCNewTech was great; one reason that I wanted to do TCNewTech was because of the wraparound coaching to help you craft your pitch. I really took advantage and think it helped tremendously. [Fractional Insights took the top prize at TCNewTech last November.]
20Fathoms: Speaking of, congrats on winning the TCNewTech pitch competition last November! What was meaningful for you about the experience?
Erin: Beyond the win, sharing the stage with remarkable founders like Erin Blohm from Blooma, Jamie Kramer from Earthly After, and Brittanie Dabney of Ecosphere Organics was so meaningful. Each one of these brilliant women (and their teams) is tackling crucial challenges with powerful solutions. It was wonderful that we won, and also the line in the sand between any one of us could have shifted. I could have seen any one of them winning.
One of the most personally important parts of the whole experience was having my children in the audience. They usually just see me behind a laptop, missing family moments for “work.” At TCNewTech, they got to witness the impact and value of the sacrifices Shonna and I are making for our vision. They saw our work being recognized and celebrated by the community. And they got to hold a giant check!
None of this would have been possible without the incredible support from our families, friends, neighbors, 20Fathoms, and the women who have blazed a trail before us, inspiring us to see what’s possible.
20Fathoms: What advice do you have for hopeful entrepreneurs?
Erin: First of all, approaching business with an experimental mindset has helped me tremendously. We have to have a willingness to pivot, to be agile and responsive to the macro environment, customer feedback, and market insights, finding the blend between the ideal and what is feasible. We recognize that we need to be unattached to any specific way and more attached to finding the best solution to the problem we are solving. I don’t think entrepreneurship is for those without a lot of grit and resilience.