Cleo was on the Silicon Valley fast track. But its CEO and cofounder Shannon Spanhake lied about her background and built a work culture that didn’t match the vision of a parent-friendly company she was selling by bizcarson
n a Monday in April, Shannon Spanhake stood at the front of Cleo’s office as her executive team lined up beside her. It had been only a few months since her parenting benefits startup had raised its latest round of funding—$27.5 million from blue-chip venture capital firm NEA—and Cleo’s CEO and cofounder was telling staff to push harder. A lot harder.
Such an outcome would have been unthinkable six months ago, when Cleo closed the books on its $27.5 million Series B round that lifted its valuation to $115 million, according to Pitchbook. In three years, it had signed up companies from Uber and LinkedIn to law firm Cooley and dairy farm Straus Family Creamery, for Cleo’s benefits program, which assigned “guides,” typically registered nurses or lactation counselors, to coach employees through their pregnancy and subsequent return to work.
Spanhake had a vision to put the responsibility for inclusivity and the transition back to work in the hands of employers. She didn’t have children, but she had seen her friends facing hard decisions, from not taking a promotion to leaving the workforce entirely because they didn’t have support at home.
She had been kicking around the idea for Cleo with friends before she met Chitra Akileswaran, a practicing ob-gyn who has an M.B.A. from Harvard. At the time, Spanhake was calling her idea Instacare Group. Then she and Akileswaran, whom she brought on as cofounder, changed the name to Lucy in reference to the mother of all humanity.
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