Stephanie Usry and Debbie Ellisen's journey to co-found Clutch began in early 2023 at SHACK15, where they first met as independent leadership consultants. What started as conversations about how they could better serve their clients quickly evolved into a collaborative partnership. They co-delivered keynotes, led team offsites, and provided CEO coaching, blending their expertise and discovering a shared vision for the future of leadership development. In December 2023, a meeting at the Shack solidified their plans to create Clutch, an AI-powered leadership development platform. Launched on October 1, 2024, Clutch harnesses the power of artificial intelligence to provide transformative tools and insights for leaders and teams, while maintaining the human touch that drives real conversations. Their partnership is a testament to how innovative ideas can flourish when passionate people come together with a shared vision.

SHACK15: What inspired you to create Clutch, and how did your experiences as executives and coaches shape the vision for the company?

Deb: As a leader in high-growth tech companies, I experienced everything from top-performing teams to complete dysfunction. When I moved into executive team coaching, I wanted to help leaders grasp the skills needed for high team performance, assess their current team strengths and weaknesses, and enable meaningful conversations about them. Existing methods and tools were either too slow, expensive, or just didn’t drive the right discussions. I wanted to provide these leaders with something accessible that would really make an impact and encourage lasting habits. The combination of our skill based framework and AI enables Clutch to do that.

Steph: After years of coaching executive teams, I realized they needed more than training or strategy work, they needed an instigating force to have hard conversations. Traditional performance reviews and mediocre 360 tools failed to tackle their collaboration challenges, and existing feedback frameworks couldn’t spark the tough conversations that truly mattered. I aimed to create a better 360 tool, but I faced the same hurdles: meaningless “on a scale of 1-5” questions and vague positive feedback. When ChatGPT arrived, it finally gave me a way to analyze the thoughtful qualitative insights I gathered from extensive interviews, but I didn’t have to be involved. This, combined with our leadership framework, laid the groundwork for Clutch.

SHACK15: Given the fast-paced environment leaders face today, how have the skills required for leadership evolved, and how does Clutch stay current in identifying these key skills?

Deb and Steph: While leadership has had to adapt to today’s fast-paced environment, the core skills haven’t changed. At Clutch, we orient on building culture, setting strategy, and executing effectively. These capabilities are as essential as they’ve always been. What’s evolved is how leaders approach these fundamentals. We stay current by engaging with leaders and teams, learning from their real-world challenges and successes, and sharing our expertise through Clutch.

SHACK15: How has your journey as entrepreneurs and founders of Clutch shaped your own growth as leaders, and what key lessons have you learned along the way?

Deb and Steph: One of the most rewarding aspects of leading Clutch has been the continuous reflection on leadership itself. The greatest lesson we've taken from our journey is the critical importance of having explicit conversations. We've invested significant effort in being crystal clear about our roles, expectations, and goals. This clarity hasn’t just strengthened our trust in each other, but it has also minimized confusion, allowing us to operate more efficiently and with a shared sense of purpose. We’re far from perfect, but this approach has certainly increased both our productivity and our joy in the process.