Founded in 2014 by Deepthi Welaratna before she launched Tiny Little Cosmos, Thicket Labs was a pioneering technology company dedicated to enhancing stakeholder engagement and strategic management in complex ecosystems. Utilizing a blend of innovative data analysis, user-centered design, and advanced machine learning and AI technologies, Thicket Labs developed participatory solutions that successfully served corporate, government, and nonprofit clients worldwide.
Founding Year: 2014
Industries Served: Corporate, Government, Nonprofit
Key Achievements: Served over 150 teams around the world working with governments in the US, Canada, and New Zealand to support the improvement of services for tens of millions of people globally.
Featured In: Fast Company, Stanford Social Innovation Review, USA Today, Chronicle of Philanthropy, Civicist. Intied to present at SXSW Interactive, SuperNova South, and the American Evaluation Association’s annual conference among others.
Core Technology: Collaborative Intelligence SaaS platform designed to support stakeholder engagement, scenario-driven strategy planning, and strategic management across networks.
Platform
Thicket Labs was inspired in large part by work performed at Openbox to develop a new approach to impact evaluation that applied design thinking tools to the qualitative research we conducted on the ground in Port-Au-Prince. Openbox founder Marquise Stillwell generously incubated the development and launch of Thicket Labs to create a technology platform that could scale up the methods we had developed and make them available to anyone. Thicket’s technology platform was designed from the ground up to combine systems thinking, complexity theory, power mapping and analysis, and visual pattern recognition in a blend that we ultimately boiled down to “design thinking meets data science.” Thicket’s platform enabled teams to easily build and apply their collaborative intelligence using sophisticated ranked choice voting mechanisms, stakeholder and community management, and powerful data visualizations to generate data visualizations and impact forecasts based on a limited or vast number of participants’ data.
Core Features
Real-Time Collaboration: Enabled groups of people to come together in a virtual space to discuss, deliberate, and make decisions collectively.
Decision Support Tools: Incorporated advanced algorithms to facilitate decision-making processes, ensuring that outcomes were data-driven and consensus-based.
Goal-Oriented Program Design: Allowed users to create and implement digital programs aimed at developing shared goals, enhancing group cohesion and focus.
Dynamic Interaction Modeling: Adapted to the changing dynamics of group interactions, ensuring that the digital environment evolves as necessary to meet the needs of all participants.
Comprehensive Data Analysis: Provided robust tools for analyzing interaction data, helping organizations measure and enhance the effectiveness of their collaborative efforts.
Scalable Platform Architecture: Designed to scale seamlessly to accommodate a large number of users and complex program structures, making it suitable for large organizations and diverse groups.
Adaptive User Interface: Featured a user-friendly interface that adjusts to various user roles and experience levels, facilitating easier navigation and personalized interaction
Real-Time Analytics and Reporting: Provided real-time analytics and detailed reports that help track progress, assess the effectiveness of discussions, and make informed decisions based on empirical data.
Representative Client Projects
Mapping, monitoring and evaluation technology and services provider to measure the collaboration, impact, and innovation of government-funded healthcare programs serving tens of millions of residents in Canada (for the University of Toronto’s BRIDGES healthcare incubator program), the US (NYC.gov’s Department of Mental Health and Hygiene, and New Zealand (for Enspiral Foundation’s publicly funded program Lifehack HQ).
Audience research and marketing study to measure fan engagement and affinities and validate investment planning decisions by teams at Google and YouTube for original media programming reaching upwards of 30 million viewers.
Real-Time Optimized Homeless-to-Housing technology provider for a pilot study conducted by McGill University, serving one of Canada’s largest and densest cities and urban centers.
Collaborative public policy agenda focused on women’s wealth and health equity crowdfunded by 300+ experts from across the country for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded initiative Allies for Reaching Community Health Equity (ARCHE), a multi-year program of the Center for Global Policy Solutions.
Activities & Accomplishments
Strategic Leadership: Developed and managed business plans, financial models, funding strategies, and go-to-market strategies, resulting in a 375% improvement in ROI per client project over five years.
Product Development and Team Building: Identified product/market fit, recruited a technical co-founder, and hired and managed a diverse team of 6-8 designers, developers, and strategists.
Fundraising and Investment: Interfaced with potential investors and secured all pre-seed/angel capital, supporting the company's growth and innovation efforts.
Business Growth: Architected high-value sales pipelines and secured foundational clients, achieving 300% YoY revenue growth, not including pitching and securing a $350K enterprise strategic proposal for Google to support internal innovation and collaboration frameworks.
Client and Partner Engagement: Directed complex accounts and partnerships for a diverse global portfolio, including YouTube, NYC Gov, Ontario’s Ministry of Public Health, University of Toronto, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Media and Industry Recognition: Featured in USA Today, Fast Company, Stanford Social Innovation Review, SXSW Interactive, and The Chronicle of Philanthropy among others.
Incubation and Mentorship: Supported by Openbox, ThoughtWorks, Startup Leadership Program, Personal Democracy Forum, SOCAP, the NYC Media Lab, and Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network.
Thicket Labs achieved 3X YoY revenue growth and 375% YoY improvement in ROI per client project, and reached break-even point in five years with $1 million in seed capital. Clients and funders included governments in three countries, foundations, and Fortune 500 companies. Alumni went on from Thicket Labs to work at leading companies and startups including Microsoft, McKinsey, Peloton, Signafire, Accurat, ALICE (now Actabl), Decoded, Dapper Labs, Gro Intelligence, CB Insights, and LinkedIn.
