Inside Prince Harry’s new corporate job at employee wellness start-up BetterUp

Prince Harry landed his first corporate job this week at a US start-up – which hosts regular yoga classes, fancy dress days and has office dogs.

Prince Harry became the first chief impact officer of a San Francisco start-up that combines coaching and computing to sharpen the mental fitness of employees. Picture: Steve Parsons/AFP

Yoga and boxing classes, wellness programs, fancy dress days and dogs.

It sounds like some sort of retreat, but that’s just another day in the life for people who work at US employee wellness start-up BetterUp, which now includes Prince Harry as its chief impact officer.

The San Francisco-based company works with external organisations, including the likes of NASA and Google, to deliver employees with tools to assist in mental health and development.

This includes a Tinder-style app which links employees to BetterUp coaches, mentors and mental health counselling.

Bloomberg reported in February that BetterUp has a $2.28 billion valuation, with unconfirmed reports Harry could be pocketing a seven-figure annual salary for his role.

Prince Harry has joined BetterUp as its first chief impact officer.

Given BetterUp’s wellness mantra, it makes sense the start-up applies such thoughtful practices in-house.

Some of the employee benefits at the eight-year-old company include yoga and boxing classes during the workday, medical cover, lunch provided two days a week, two retreats per year, the option to bring your dog to work, as well as the offer for employees to work remotely whenever they need.

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The BetterUp HQ in San Francisco, where Prince Harry is now the chief impact officer.

The company also gives staff four inner work days per year, which sees employees drop the tools and focus on their internal health, as well as five volunteer days where they are encouraged to give back to the local community.

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Staff are encouraged to work out during the day.

People who have worked for the company for a year, or who regularly demonstrate the brand’s values, are given ‘BetterUp Adventures’, where they can either go hiking up the Inca Trail in Peru with the chief operating officer, kayaking the MN Boundary Waters in Minnesota with the chief technology officer, or a trip to Camino de Santiago in Spain with the chief executive officer.

BetterUp CEO Alexi Robichaux said of Harry’s appointment: “We were just so impressed, and really I think there was such a natural chemistry and synergy around the insights and the contributions he can make creatively to BetterUp in ensuring that we achieve our mission,” he said.

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“We just started conversing really with no big agenda,” @BetterUp CEO @Arobichaux says on Prince Harry becoming Chief Impact Officer. “There was a lot of shared passion and energy around BetterUp’s mission and his mission of advancing preventative mental health worldwide.” pic.twitter.com/lkejtK82MT

— Yahoo Finance (@YahooFinance) March 24, 2021

“Bigger than commercial success, this is about global impact, and so as we crafted the role together, those four buckets of opportunities, we came to the title chief impact officer.

“Really denoting that he’s focused on our mission and he’s focused on ensuring that we’re doing everything we can to achieve our mission on a bigger and larger and grander scale to impact the lives of more people.”

Describing Harry’s day-to-day responsibilities, Mr Robichaux said: “He’s also helping to work on everything from product design to product strategy, to co-creating content and the experience for our members.

“(He will be) helping with partnerships and creating some new content for users related to mental toughness and mental fitness as well.”

Harry, 36, told The Wall Street Journal in an email: “I intend to help create impact in people’s lives.

“Proactive coaching provides endless possibilities for personal development, increased awareness, and an all-round better life.”