Overview
As ZenBusiness scaled, strengthening manager effectiveness became a top priority. They needed a way to deliver consistent, practical development that could support managers in real time.
With Hone, ZenBusiness could continuously enable managers through live, expert-led learning and AI-powered experiences designed to build, reinforce, and apply skills. Through the partnership ZenBusiness:
- Scaled global manager training that equipped leaders with essential skills, like coaching and giving feedback, designed to help them lead their teams more effectively.
- Improved performance management by connecting managers with AI-powered roleplays and lessons that helped them prepare for and lead performance conversations with confidence.
The company
ZenBusiness is an all-in-one platform that supports entrepreneurs from the first spark of an idea through formation, compliance, and growth — bringing calm to an otherwise chaotic process. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, ZenBusiness has helped start nearly 1 million businesses. At the center of the experience is ZenBusiness Velo®, a personalized AI guide built on over ten years of real customer data and over 10 million unique interactions with entrepreneurs in every phase of their journey.
More than 850,000 entrepreneurs have trusted ZenBusiness to help them build something of their own.
The challenge
At a pivotal moment balancing rapid growth, customer engagement, and evolving company priorities, ZenBusiness’ leaders identified an opportunity to better support their managers, who were the linchpin of the company’s success. While ZenBusiness had already begun building an internal leadership development program, they needed a solution that could scale globally and reinforce these efforts in a consistent, accessible way.
“Hone matched what we were doing for leadership development internally except on a global, scalable level.” — Keith Amaker, Human Resources Director
The solution
ZenBusiness partnered with Hone to extend and scale their leadership development strategy. Together, they launched a Leadership Essentials program designed to equip leaders with key skills such as coaching, giving feedback and managing performance.
With Hone, ZenBusiness could continuously enable managers through Hone’s unique blend of live learning led by subject matter expert coaches and AI-powered experiences designed to build and reinforce skills in the moment of need.Â
After Hone live classes, ZenBusiness managers leveraged Hone AI to practice the crucial skills they learned alongside AI in a highly personalized, psychology safe environment. For example, managers used Hone AI to:
- Practice delivering difficult feedback to direct reports by bringing real-world examples and receiving personalized guidance tailored to each manager and their team.
- Learn what “good” looks like through realistic, AI-powered scenarios that gave managers a safe space to experiment with different approaches and roleplay how direct reports might respond, so they can enter conversations with clarity.
- Prepare for performance reviews with AI-led lessons and roleplays that help managers craft thoughtful, fair reviews and deliver them effectively.
“Hone AI is teaching and engaging employees in real conversations—their hands are off the keys, and they’re leaning in.” — Keith Amaker, Human Resources Director
Hone also made it easy for ZenBusiness’ HR team to drive engagement and reinforce learning by bringing Hone’s AI coaching and timely reminders directly into Slack. Through the integration, managers could chat with Hone’s AI coach anytime they needed support—right in Slack—and receive helpful reminders that kept development top of mind.Â
The result? Leadership development was seamlessly embedded into managers’ daily routines through the Leadership Essentials Program’s ongoing Hone classes and AI experiences, reinforced by company-wide communications, and supported by a Slack integration that brought learning directly into the flow of work.
Conclusion
Prior to implementing Hone, ZenBusiness saw manager support scores trending lower than desired in their annual engagement survey.Â
After integrating Hone into their leadership development efforts, the results were clear:Â
- According to ZenBusiness’s engagement survey, manager support improved substantially from 2024 to 2025.Â
- 90% of managers shared that the learning was effective (10 percentage points above learning benchmark), and gave Hone’s classes 4.6/5 stars on average.Â
- 94% of leaders said their performance at work increased as a result of the Leadership Essentials program.
- 82% of managers took 5 or more Hone classes outside of the Leadership Essentials program demonstrating the value they received from the classes.Â
By investing in scalable, personalized upskilling, ZenBusiness strengthened its leadership foundation and, in turn, its entire organization.
