Beyond HR Tech: How HumanQ Expanded Their TAM by Positioning as a Future of Work Platform
Most HR tech companies stay firmly in their lane, selling exclusively to CHROs and HR leaders. In a recent Category Visionaries episode, HumanQ CEO Nishika de Rosairo shared why they chose a different path – positioning their platform as a solution for the future of work and expanding their market to include every business leader with transformation goals.
Breaking Out of the HR Box
“We think of ourselves as a technology solution for the future of work,” Nishika explains. This wasn’t just a marketing pivot – it was a fundamental shift in how they approached their market opportunity. Instead of focusing solely on traditional HR challenges, HumanQ recognized a broader pattern: every leader faces transformation challenges.
As Nishika notes, “Every leader has a charter… we work with any leader who is looking for help in terms of accelerating their priorities and getting to their outcomes faster.” This insight opened doors across organizations that would have remained closed to a traditional HR tech vendor.
Aligning with AI and Digital Transformation
HumanQ’s positioning taps into urgent strategic priorities. “It’s all about AI. It’s about machine learning, it’s about new ways of thinking,” Nishika shares. “Your role just becomes a lot more important in that it has to be more intelligent, more insightful, more resourceful.”
This connection to digital transformation helped them expand beyond HR to work with technology leaders. Rather than competing in the crowded HR tech space, they positioned themselves as enablers of broader digital initiatives.
The Universal Change Management Play
The key to their expanded market was recognizing that all strategic initiatives ultimately depend on human adoption. Whether it’s “instilling a culture of transformation” or “embracing AI in this new world and helping people build digital mindsets,” success depends on changing how people think and work.
“We’re actually doing something organizations desperately need,” Nishika explains. “And it’s been a missing gap for years, if not decades.” By focusing on this universal need rather than HR-specific use cases, HumanQ made themselves relevant to every leader driving change.
Building a Three-Sided Marketplace
To serve this broader market, HumanQ built a managed marketplace platform. “We manage the different variables, which is the coach, the customer who buys from us, as well as the participant who actually goes through our programs,” Nishika details. This structure allows them to maintain quality while serving diverse stakeholders.
Their approach produces measurable results: “94% of people who go through our programs are more engaged. We know that 95% are more equipped to add value in their jobs and in the workplace.” These metrics resonate with business leaders beyond HR, helping drive adoption across functions.
Lessons for B2B Founders
HumanQ’s expansion strategy offers valuable insights for founders looking to grow their total addressable market:
- Look for universal patterns across departments
- Connect your solution to major market trends
- Focus on outcomes that matter to all leaders
- Build infrastructure that can serve diverse stakeholders
As Nishika puts it: “Find your passion… Make sure it’s something that not only you love, but others are looking for. They’re hunting it down. They wanted it yesterday.” By positioning themselves as a future of work platform rather than an HR tech vendor, HumanQ found a way to serve this broader hunger for effective transformation.
The lesson? Sometimes the biggest opportunity isn’t in going deeper into your initial market – it’s in recognizing how your core strengths can solve challenges across the entire organization.
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