What Curiosity Lab does

Curiosity Lab is a Brooklyn, NY-based empathy-focused consulting firm founded in 2017 by Michael Tennant, the former brand strategist for P&G, Coca-Cola, Google, Oatly, and Delta. The firm helps enterprise leadership teams — as well as startups, non-profits, and educational institutions — build more connected, innovative, and resilient cultures through workshops, keynotes, and bespoke consulting engagements structured around its proprietary Five Phases of Empathy™ framework. Curiosity Lab monetizes this methodology across four streams: paid workshops and training services, keynote speaking engagements, consumer product sales, and IP licensing. Its consumer-facing product line includes the Actually Curious™ conversation card game, the free Values Exercise digital tool, the Abundance journal, and the 2024 book The Power of Empathy, which was named one of Inc.'s Best Business Books of 2024.

The company's underlying technology is light on software and heavy on proprietary methodology. The Five Phases of Empathy™ is a registered trademark and the structural backbone for all workshops and licensed products; the Actually Curious™ card game and Values Exercise are tangible and digital tools that operationalize the framework. There is no disclosed software platform, API, AI capability, or integrated technology stack — the IP is delivered through human facilitation, books, and a small set of stand-alone web properties (curiositylab.io, actuallycurious.com, valuesexercise.com).

Revenue mechanics are multi-format and relationship-driven. Enterprise workshops and keynotes are sold through a consultative, typeform-mediated sales process on a quote basis, with the founder's personal brand serving as the primary demand-generation channel via SXSW, NASA, IDEO, Stanford, and Lincoln Financial Group speaking gigs and contributions to Inc. and Oprah Daily. Consumer products are distributed through a mix of an owned e-commerce storefront and third-party retail (Amazon, Chronicle Books). The firm is privately held and founder-controlled with no disclosed institutional capital; Caroline Bel-Kher is Partner & Creative Operations, and the team size is reported at 1-10. Customer concentration risk is centered on a small set of Fortune 500 logos, though the firm also counts 100+ organizations across non-profits, public agencies, schools, and universities.

Name

Curiosity Lab

Legal name

Curiosity Lab

Website

https://curiositylab.io

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Curiosity Lab is a Brooklyn-based empathy consulting firm founded in 2017 that helps enterprise leadership teams, startups, non-profits, and schools build more connected and innovative cultures through workshops, keynotes, and consumer products built around its Five Phases of Empathy™ framework.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Corporate Training & Consulting

NAICS

Professional and Management Development Training (611430), All Other Schools and Instruction (61169)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Interpersonal & Relationship Skills (EDABAMAB)

akta.pro secondary industry

Critical Thinking & Problem Solving (EDABAMAG)

Keywords

• Empathy training
• Leadership workshops
• Corporate consulting
• Team facilitation
• Professional development

Headquarters

HQ city

Brooklyn

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. Workshops & Training Services: High-impact experiential programs for leadership offsites, innovation workgroups, team-building events, and onboarding. These are custom-designed engagements ranging from one-time sessions to ongoing partnerships. Revenue is generated through professional services fees.
2. Speaking & Keynotes: High-impact keynotes and motivational talks for executive town halls, corporate events, and conferences. Revenue from speaker fees.
3. Product Sales (Actually Curious Card Game, Books, Journals): Sale of physical products including the Actually Curious card game, The Power of Empathy book, and Abundance journal. Products sold through own storefront (actuallycurious.com) and third-party platforms (Amazon, Chronicle Books).
4. IP Licensing & Consulting: Licensing of the Five Phases of Empathy™ framework to platforms in professional development, education, and wellness. Also includes strategic advisory on product, curriculum, and culture-focused brand initiatives.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Curiosity Lab delivers empathy-based corporate training, workshops, and keynote speaking engagements for enterprise teams. The company also sells consumer products including card games, books, and journals designed to foster curiosity, empathy, and human connection in workplace and personal settings.

Product overview

Curiosity Lab offers a portfolio of empathy-focused products and services built around its proprietary Five Phases of Empathy™ framework. The core offerings include the Actually Curious™ card game (a physical/digital conversation tool), the free Values Exercise digital tool, and the Empathy + Innovation Sprint Guide. These are complemented by The Power of Empathy book, the Abundance Journal, and service offerings including workshops, trainings, and speaking engagements. The company operates as a platform of interconnected human-connection tools rather than a single unified software product, with IP licensing and consulting serving as additional revenue streams.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Actually Curious: A card game system designed to spread empathy through questions that help users meet people where they are and go deeper in conversations.
• The Power of Empathy
• Five Phases of Empathy
• Values Exercise

Quantifiable outcome

• Trusted by 100+ organizations across Fortune 500s, startups, non-profits, public agencies, schools, and universities
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• The Arbinger Institute: Provides corporate mindset, interpersonal-dynamics, and empathy-based training for enterprise teams. Closely comparable to Curiosity Lab in that both are B2B training organizations built around a proprietary psychology/mindset framework applied to team collaboration.
• Second City Works: Corporate training division of The Second City delivering experiential workshops on communication, creativity, and collaboration for enterprise teams. Comparable experiential-learning format and Fortune 500 customer base.
• Crucial Learning: Corporate training company (formerly VitalSmarts) focused on communication, crucial conversations, and interpersonal skills. Direct comparable for enterprise buyers seeking soft-skills and team-communication training.
• LifeLabs Learning: Global in-person and virtual soft-skills training provider for enterprise teams. Directly competes for the same corporate L&D wallet on topics that overlap with Curiosity Lab's (collaboration, communication, leadership).
• Conscious Leadership Group: Leadership and team-culture training built around empathy, awareness, and conscious-leadership principles for executives. Direct comparable on subject matter (empathy-based leadership) and buyer (senior leadership teams).
• BetterUp: Enterprise coaching and leadership-development platform with empathy, resilience, and inclusive-leadership content delivered via 1:1 coaching and digital learning. Comparable buyer (HR/L&D at large enterprises) and topic focus (empathy-driven leadership), though delivered via coach network and platform rather than founder-led workshops.
• Dare to Lead (Brené Brown): Researcher-led corporate training program on courageous, empathetic leadership distributed via workshops, books, and licensed facilitators. Highly comparable to Curiosity Lab in format (book + workshops + facilitator network) and customer (Fortune 500 leadership).

Broad incumbents

• Dale Carnegie & Associates: Long-established corporate training provider offering interpersonal-relations, leadership, and communications programs worldwide. Competes for the same enterprise buyer but at much larger scale and broader curriculum scope.
• FranklinCovey: Large incumbent provider of leadership, culture, and performance training content sold into enterprise L&D budgets. Overlaps with Curiosity Lab's leadership/team-culture workshop category but as part of a much broader curriculum catalog.
• IDEO U: Online and in-person learning arm of design firm IDEO offering courses on innovation, leadership, and creative collaboration. Comparable on innovation-and-empathy framing (IDEO itself is named in Curiosity Lab's speaking roster) and target audience.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/c/CuriosityLab
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/curiositylabnyc
• Instagraminstagram.com/c_riositylab
• Xx.com/c_riositylab

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Curiosity Lab