Sharp Raises $18M Led by Hidden Variable to Put a Coach in Every First Responder's Corner

Sharp's coaching and training marketplace connects first responders with former police officers, firefighters, Navy SEALs, Green Berets, and the veteran community; Andreessen Horowitz returns as total funding reaches $30 million.

Sharp Performance provides confidential performance coaching to first responders from the academy through retirement. Today, Sharp is announcing an $18 million Series A led by Hidden Variable, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Commonweal Ventures, Wolfson Group, FJ Labs, and the Ford Foundation.

The round brings Sharp's total funding to $30 million. Investors are backing Sharp as a marketplace that gets better as it grows: the more departments it serves, the larger the roster of coaches it can build and the better each member's match.

The number of police, fire and EMS departments that give their members access to Sharp has more than doubled in the past year to over 110, and those members have booked more than 16,000 coaching sessions. Each member works one-on-one with a coach who has a first responder or special operations background and works outside the department.

"Public safety professionals have some of the most important and challenging jobs, yet they've had little access to people outside of their departments who can help them perform their best," said Mackey Craven of Hidden Variable. "Sharp has helped thousands of men and women in uniform across the country, and we're proud to support them on their mission to make personal coaching available to every professional in a high-risk occupation."

The coaching gap in public safety

A Navy SEAL comes home from deployment to a team of specialists getting him mentally and physically ready for the next one. A quarterback has a staff of coaches breaking down every snap and working with him on stress regulation and sleep.

Most patrol officers go to the academy and get on-duty training as they work shift after shift. Then they drive home to their families with their hardest calls still running through their minds. Firefighters are trained to throw ladders and stretch lines. Then they spend a career on 24-hour tours where the tones can drop at any hour and shatter their sleep.

Throughout all of this, most have never had a coach of their own.

"When we started Sharp, everyone told us the same thing: cops and firefighters will not talk to anyone," said Ben Curley, co-founder and CEO of Sharp. "They were only half right. They won't talk to just anyone, but they will talk to someone who's been where they've been and isn't evaluating them."

How Sharp works

Sharp matches every member one-on-one with a coach who aligns with their background and career goals. If their goals change or the fit isn’t right, they can switch coaches without starting over. Coaches include former police officers and detectives, firefighters and paramedics, Navy SEALs and Green Berets, and Chiefs who coach Chiefs. For many of them, coaching is a way to keep serving after their own time in uniform.

Members work with that coach on a consistent basis while also having access to coaches who can go deep on promotions, coming back from leave, retirement, and other career moments. Sharp’s roster now includes more than 60 coaches, each recruited, vetted and trained individually.

Sharp built the technology behind its coaching marketplace: it matches members with coaches in minutes, schedules sessions around their shifts and gives departments anonymized reporting. Between sessions, the Sharp app gives members guided breathing exercises and physical resets used by U.S. special operations forces and elite athletes.

Sharp is designed to complement departments' existing wellness, peer support and clinical programs, not replace them.

"As a Green Beret, I had people whose whole job was getting my team ready between deployments," said Andrew Sakmar, co-founder of Sharp. "Nobody called that soft. Police officers and firefighters answer the call for 25 years, and most of them have never had a coach of their own. Now they do. Coaching them is how a lot of us keep serving."

What department leaders are saying

"There's my life before Sharp coaching and my life after. I can't imagine doing this job without it now," said Captain Miguel Ibarra of the Alameda County Sheriff's Office.

"Sharp Performance is the most important thing I have for the health and safety of firefighters in my over three decades in the fire service," said Patrick Butler, [former] Fire Chief of the Redondo Beach Fire Department.

What the funding supports

The Series A will fund:

• Bringing Sharp to more departments and states so more first responders have access to a coach who's done the job
• Improving Sharp’s mobile app and coaching platform to deliver a world class experience
• Building additional products and software to support the health and performance of first responders

Sharp is hiring; see open roles at sharpperformance.com/careers. Department leaders can book a meeting at sharpperformance.com.

About Sharp Performance

Sharp Performance brings the coaching model behind special operations teams and elite athletes to the police officers, firefighters and paramedics who answer the call every day. Every member gets a confidential, one-on-one coach for their entire career: a former cop, firefighter, medic, Navy SEAL or Green Beret who works outside the department. Co-founded by CEO Ben Curley and former Green Beret Andrew Sakmar, Sharp partners with more than 110 departments across 18 states and is backed by Hidden Variable and Andreessen Horowitz. Learn more at sharpperformance.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261015119749/en/