This Charlotte Startup Wants to Make Your Boss Better at Being a Boss |
Two UNC Charlotte-trained organizational scientists spent years studying workplace behavior. Now they’re turning that research into software designed to help managers actually lead better. |
We’ve all had one.
The boss who was great at the job but terrible at managing people.
A Charlotte startup thinks that problem might have less to do with personality and more to do with how companies train managers in the first place.
Joyntly, a Charlotte-based leadership development startup, is building software designed to help managers improve specific workplace behaviors through small, repeated actions instead of traditional one-and-done training sessions.
And the company’s founders didn’t start with software.
They started with research.
đź’ˇ THE BIG IDEA
Companies often promote people because they’re good at doing the work. Then they suddenly expect them to be good at managing the people doing the work. Joyntly is trying to close that gap.
From UNC Charlotte Research to a Startup
Joyntly was founded by Kate Frear and Sam Paustian-Underdahl, who both earned PhDs in Organizational Science from UNC Charlotte.
The two met while pursuing their doctorates and spent years studying workplace behavior, leadership and organizational psychology.
Over time, they saw a gap between what researchers understood about behavior change and what companies were actually doing to train managers.
Traditional leadership development often looks familiar: send a manager to a workshop, give them a course, hand them a workbook and hope something sticks.
Joyntly is betting there’s a better way.
The company launched in 2022 and introduced its first MVP in early 2025. Today, the startup operates from UNC Charlotte’s Center City campus and is continuing to refine its product while working toward product-market fit.
Five Minutes of Software. A Week of Practice.
Joyntly’s approach is intentionally different from traditional corporate training.
Instead of asking managers to spend hours watching videos or sitting through workshops, the platform focuses on small behaviors managers can practice during their actual workweek.
A manager might first complete an assessment to identify specific areas where their leadership could improve.
Then Joyntly gives them small, practical actions to work on.
The goal is for managers to spend only about five to 10 minutes a week inside the software.
The real work happens outside of it.
That could mean practicing a better way to give feedback, asking different questions during a one-on-one meeting or making a conscious effort to recognize an employee’s work.
🤔 WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT?
Joyntly isn’t trying to keep managers staring at another dashboard all day. The software is designed to give them something to practice and then send them back to work.
Why Good Employees Don’t Always Make Good Managers
The problem Joyntly is trying to solve is one many companies know well.
Someone excels in sales, operations, engineering or another technical role.
They get promoted.
Suddenly, success depends less on their individual work and more on their ability to coach, motivate, communicate with and manage other people.
Those are different skills.
And plenty of managers are asked to learn them on the fly.
That gap can affect more than just the manager. Poor leadership can influence employee engagement, retention, productivity and whether talented workers decide to stick around.
Joyntly’s bet is that managers can improve those skills the same way people build other habits: through repetition.
A Charlotte Startup Getting Attention
Joyntly is still early, but the company has started picking up recognition.
It previously received an NC IDEA MICRO grant, and this year Joyntly was selected as one of just seven North Carolina startups for the Spring 2026 NC IDEA SEED cohort.
NC IDEA selected those seven companies from 185 applicants.
That puts Joyntly among roughly the top 4% of companies that applied for the program.
The startup says it has also worked with organizations in industries including financial services, retail services and public service.
One public example involves a multi-location Valvoline franchise operator that used Joyntly to support managers responsible for leading teams across multiple locations.
For now, though, the company is still testing, learning and refining.
That might be the most interesting part of the story.
Can Software Actually Make Someone a Better Boss?
That’s the real question.
There’s no shortage of leadership books, training programs, corporate retreats and management courses promising to improve the workplace.
Joyntly is trying something simpler.
Identify one behavior.
Practice it.
Repeat it.
Then see whether the behavior sticks.
It’s a surprisingly human idea for a technology company.
đź“Ť BUILT IN CHARLOTTE
Joyntly was founded by two UNC Charlotte-trained organizational scientists and is based at UNC Charlotte Center City. The company is now working to turn years of workplace research into a product managers can actually use on the job.
The Scoop
Charlotte’s startup scene has plenty of companies trying to use technology to make businesses faster, cheaper or more efficient.
Joyntly is attempting something a little harder.
It’s trying to change how people behave.
And if the company is right, the future of leadership training might not involve another eight-hour seminar.
It might start with five minutes of software and one small thing to practice before your next meeting.
Whether that’s enough to turn a bad boss into a good one is still an open question.
But it’s a question being tested right here in Charlotte.
đź”— LEARN MORE
Read GrepBeat’s profile of Joyntly
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