Village Labs

What do they actually do

Village Labs builds software for the ESOP ecosystem. Today they sell two main products: Peninsula, an AI workspace for ESOP advisory teams to read long reports, extract data, edit spreadsheets/models, and draft client materials; and Repurchase for Enterprise, which forecasts ESOP repurchase obligations and lets teams run scenarios. They also provide advisory services to help firms identify use cases and implement these tools (site, Peninsula, Repurchase, advisory, docs).

A typical workflow is: an advisor or TPA uploads ESOP documents and census/valuation data; an AI agent (their “Kelso” prototype) extracts key fields, summarizes, and updates models/spreadsheets; then the professional reviews, verifies, and shares results. The tools are positioned to reduce manual work while keeping fiduciary judgment with the human reviewer (site, Peninsula, State of AI).

They plan to expand into full plan administration (TPA workflows, distributions, trust accounting, transaction management, and participant portals), which are listed as in development, with several items marked “Coming January 2026.” Practically, this means the live product today augments advisory and forecasting work but is not yet a full ESOP admin system (homepage, docs/roadmap).

Who are their target customer(s)

• ESOP advisory firms: Spend significant time pulling data from valuation reports, editing spreadsheets, and drafting summaries; they need faster, repeatable ways to produce drafts so more time goes to analysis and judgment (Peninsula, docs).
• Third‑party administrators (TPAs): Handle heavy, manual plan operations (participant records, distributions, repurchase processing) and reconciliations; they need reliable forecasting and workflow tools to reduce manual processing and errors (Repurchase, docs).
• Trustees and fiduciaries: Must verify valuations and decisions and are accountable for accuracy/compliance; they require auditable, defensible outputs and clear trails for any automated work (homepage, docs).
• CFOs/finance and HR at ESOP companies: Need to plan cash for share repurchases and communicate implications to employees; they want scenario forecasting and simpler participant experiences to reduce administrative burden (Repurchase, homepage).
• Valuation firms and ESOP legal advisors: Produce and review lengthy, detail‑heavy documents and repeatedly move the same data into models and disclosures; they want faster, reliable summaries and data extraction with provenance for audit/review (docs, YC).

How would they acquire their first 10, 50, and 100 customers

• First 10: Founder‑led pilots with ESOP advisory firms and TPAs via YC network and direct outreach; run initial jobs (document ingestion, model edits, repurchase scenarios) at low cost and capture quantified ROI and testimonials to address fiduciary skepticism (Peninsula, Repurchase, homepage/docs).
• First 50: Turn pilots into reference accounts and ask for introductions to trustee/valuation/TPA peers; offer referral discounts and co‑branded workshops and use a standardized onboarding playbook to reduce implementation risk and time to value (Peninsula, docs, advisory).
• First 100: Pursue TPA integrations/reseller agreements, sponsor ESOP conferences, publish audit/compliance whitepapers to build trustee trust, and launch a paid self‑serve tier for smaller advisors; pair channels with agent templates/connectors for repeatable onboarding (docs, homepage, Peninsula, Repurchase).

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

There are roughly 6,358 ESOP companies in the U.S., which bounds the core market for ESOP repurchase forecasting, administration, and related tools (NCEO).

Bottom-up calculation:

Using Village’s public prices: a one‑time repurchase forecast at $10,000 across all ESOPs ≈ $63.6M one‑time; annual software priced between $36k (3-seat minimum) and $100k (team license) across all ESOPs implies ~$229M–$636M per year (Peninsula pricing, Repurchase pricing, NCEO).

Assumptions:

• Each ESOP company is a potential buyer; prices used are list prices without discounts.
• Repurchase forecasting sized as one forecast per plan; many plans would need updates but not assumed here.
• Advisor/TPA channel concentration may cover multiple plans per license, reducing per‑plan revenue vs. direct sales.

Who are some of their notable competitors

• Blue Ridge ESOP Associates: Large independent ESOP TPA and recordkeeper with scale (claims 1,600 active ESOP plans) and proprietary tooling like ESOPHorizon for repurchase studies—directly overlaps with administration and forecasting needs (source, ESOPHorizon).
• The Menke Group: Long‑standing ESOP administrator and advisor (claims to administer nearly 1,000 ESOPs) with online participant access—an incumbent for ongoing admin and participant communications (source).
• ESOP Partners: ESOP‑focused TPA with proprietary admin software (My ESOP Dashboard) and repurchase/sustainability studies—positions as a one‑stop admin solution (source).
• Principal Financial – Telescope: Offers ESOP advisory and the Telescope software for forecasting repurchase obligations—competes with repurchase modeling/forecasting use cases (source).
• ESOP Analytics: Specialist provider of repurchase obligation studies and forecasting—targets the same planning need for ESOP companies and advisors (source).