A $214M Company That Forgets Who Makes…
A $214M Company That Forgets Who Makes It Run
I've been a contractor coach with BetterUp for several years. I hold top-tier credentials and bring decades of experience to every session — and yet the way BetterUp treats its coaching workforce tells a very different story than the one in their marketing.
Let me be clear about what life looks like on the coach side:
• No raises. Ever. Not for years of loyalty, not for earning new certifications, not for anything.
• No cost-of-living adjustments — in an era where everything else has gone up.
• No benefits. No paid time off. No healthcare. Nothing.
• Prep work, follow-up, and certain session types? Uncompensated.
• Bonus structure that feels designed to disappoint - hit their performance markers for five consecutive months, only to fall just short in the sixth month when the bonus is actually paid out. Make that make sense.
BetterUp generated $214 million in revenue in 2024. There are roughly 4,000 coaches powering that number. Do the math — and then ask yourself where that value is going.
What's perhaps most troubling is the culture of silence. There is no live person to call. Leadership is completely unreachable. Everything — every concern, every question — is funneled through a support ticket system. Coaches who speak up quietly fear for their contracts. That's not a coaching culture. That's a gig economy dressed up in wellness language.
BetterUp sells human transformation to the world's largest companies. But the humans delivering that transformation are treated as interchangeable, invisible, and expendable numbers.
Without coaches, there is no BetterUp!