Benchm△rq is a platform for dialogue about life-at-work issues that allows employees to safely discuss and provide feedback on their workplace. Employees’ answers are stored anonymously, and the poll results are private to those working in the company. We asked Benchm△rq founder Patrice Bonfy about the app and what’s ahead.

Tell us about your app and what it does.

Benchm△rq is a platform for safe dialogue about life-at-work issues (well-being, diversity, equity, inclusion, work-life balance, engagement, etc.). Our mission is to make it easy for employees and employers to discuss societal issues—even the most sensitive ones.

Benchm△rq is safe for employees, whose answers are stored anonymously. And it is safe for employers, as the poll results of their employees are only accessible for people working in their company.

How does your app work?

There are two types of users on Benchm△rq: employees and “HR managers.”

Both connect with a valid professional email address by requesting a PIN code, which they immediately receive in their professional inbox. They can consult and complete active “article-surveys,” short articles intermixed with multiple choice and open-ended questions. They can also consult global results of every public survey.

“HR manager” profiles have access to the detailed results of their company surveys. They can compare them with global results (thus the name of the app), and they can also consult and download anonymous open-ended answers from employees of their company.

Tell us a little about your background.

I have been a “digital entrepreneur” since I graduated from business school in 2008 (I am now 38). I had technical co-founders and handled the finance/sales/marketing/product parts. I loved working with developers (still do). My historical technical co-founders taught me so much about UI, simplicity, consistency, etc. And we had some nice successes together—most notably, developing and selling one of the first “social marketing agencies” in France, back when social marketing was new and more tech-oriented than it is now.

Yet, the product person in me was really inspired by the promises of “no-code” that started to crowd my LinkedIn feed recently. By the end of 2021, I had this new project I wanted to work on and some free time ahead, so I thought, “Why not test this idea with a no-code MVP?”

Why did you build your app on Bubble?

I started playing with the most accessible usual suspects (Airtable, Notion, Zapier, etc.). But I found limitations that prevented me from implementing the core functionalities that my MVP needed.

Then I discovered Bubble. And I’m not building an MVP anymore!

Bubble is so powerful and versatile that I can now see myself iterating on Benchm△rq for quite some time on Bubble. Hopefully with the help of “yes-code” developers (as I sometimes wish I could develop my own plugins).

What have been your milestones for success so far?

First, I am quite proud and happy to have been able to release a fully operational first version of Benchm△rq in approximately two months (from first marketing deck to release).

I am also thrilled that many partners have already agreed to work with us on co-branded surveys in their area of expertise. It demonstrates that they feel comfortable sharing the app with their audience and HR network. HR professionals whom we have been showing the app to are eager to try it in their companies, too.

The initial plan was to officially launch the app by the end of February with a survey about friendliness at work. But it seemed untimely to start such a conversation while the world was anxious about the war in Ukraine and its consequences. We are now ready for a launch on March 15th. Let’s hope (for the Ukrainians, for the Russian people, and for the world) that international tensions will have eased by then.

What are your future plans for your app?

I have many ideas for new features, and I have to restrain myself from diving back into the Bubble editor. The first priority is marketing, in order to get our first employee and HR users and collect feedback on what features they need the most!

Learn more about Benchm△rq: LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

About Bubble

Bubble is a leader in the no-code movement. Bubble offers a powerful point-and-click web editor and cloud hosting platform that allows users to build fully customizable web applications and workflows, ranging from simple prototypes to complex marketplaces, SaaS products, and more. Over 500,000 users are currently building and launching businesses on Bubble – many have gone on to participate in top accelerator programs, such as Y Combinator, and even raise $365M in venture funding. Bubble is more than just a product. We are a strong community of builders and entrepreneurs that are united by the belief that everyone should be able to create technology.

Do you want your app featured by Bubble? Reach out to us and tell us about your app. In addition to this series, we sometimes select our best apps to showcase on our website.