In this conversation with MFN, Brent Filson, Director of Product Research and Innovation at the AI Workforce Operating Platform workforce technology company UKG, shares his insights on UKG’s approach to supporting startups. Brent spearheads UKG Labs, where he helps early-stage founders build solutions for the Workforce and Human Capital Management sectors.

Q: For those unfamiliar with UKG, can you give us a brief overview of the organization and what your role is there?

A: UKG is the industry’s first AI workforce operating platform, built to help organizations manage the most complex and time-sensitive part of their business: their people. We support 80,000 organizations across more than 150 countries, bringing together HR, payroll, time, scheduling, and workforce management in one platform. Our advantage is the frontline — we operate where work actually happens, helping leaders and managers turn workforce data into real-time action. Put simply, UKG helps organizations move beyond systems of record to a true system of action for the workforce.

I lead a team called UKG Labs. We partner with early-stage founders and introduce them with our UKG product teams and UKG customers to test bold ideas against real workforce problems. My work is about turning early signals into evidence to help drive real innovation, so UKG can make better decisions about which opportunities to build, buy, partner with, invest in, or bring into the broader UKG ecosystem.

Q: Why take this approach to supporting startups? And, if a company wants to work with UKG Labs, what does that process look like?

A: We take this approach because workforce innovation is entering a new era — and the hardest problems to solve are not theoretical. They live inside complex, compliance-heavy, frontline environments where work changes in real time and where trust, scale, and execution matter.

That is what makes UKG Labs unique. UKG has deep customer relationships, workforce expertise, and visibility into the operational challenges organizations are trying to solve across HR, pay, scheduling, time, compliance, and frontline execution. For early-stage startups, that kind of access is incredibly difficult to get on their own. For UKG, it gives us a powerful way to see emerging ideas early, validate where the market is headed, and accelerate solutions that could create meaningful value for our customers, especially for frontline-heavy organizations that need to operate in today’s real-time business environments.

The process starts with a strategic opportunity area that aligns to UKG’s priorities. From there, we look across the early-stage startup ecosystem, primarily at pre-seed and seed companies, and identify founders building in spaces that are strategically relevant to the future of work. When a company joins UKG Labs, we help them sharpen the problem for which they are solving, connect them with customer feedback through interviews or pilots, and give them access to the credibility of the UKG Labs brand.

UKG Labs is intentionally focused on learning, validation, and product-market fit. We do not require equity or provide capital through Labs, although UKG Ventures is our separate corporate venture capital fund and we partner with them when the timing is right. The goal is to create a stronger path for founders, faster insight for UKG, and better next-generation solutions for the organizations we serve.

Q: What is the application process for a company that is interested in participating in UKG Labs?

A:  The application process is intentionally simple because our goal is to hear from more founders building interesting things in workforce technology — especially early.

Companies can apply through a short online application on the UKG Labs website, which takes about 15 minutes to complete. We use it to understand the company’s stage, the problem they are solving, the customers they are serving or hoping to serve, and where they believe the workforce market is headed.

Founders should not feel like they need to have everything figured out before reaching out. We are focused on pre-seed and seed-stage companies, so we expect many startups to still be refining their product, customer base, and go-to-market strategy. What matters most is whether they are working on a meaningful workforce problem where UKG’s customer relationships, market perspective, and operational expertise can help accelerate learning.

From there, we evaluate fit across a few dimensions: strategic alignment with where UKG sees the market moving, the feasibility of the solution, the viability of the business opportunity, and the desirability of the problem for customers. But the first step is simple: we want to know who is building, what they are seeing, and where they think the future of workforce technology is going.

Q: Are there any success stories that stand out to you as startups that completed UKG Labs and then jumped to glory and fame?

A: Mo.work is a great example, but the bigger story is what it says about the UKG Labs model.

We are not just looking for interesting startups. We are looking for early signals of where workforce technology is going and where customers are going to need help next. Mo stood out because it was solving a real customer problem that aligned with where we saw the market moving, and ultimately, UKG chose to acquire Mo to launch UKG Beacon.

Through UKG Labs, we were able to validate that opportunity with customers, pressure test the problem space, and build confidence that the solution had real market pull. By the time we acquired Beacon and launched it within our Ready product line in December 2025, we were not operating from a hypothesis — we had evidence from customer conversations, pilot feedback, and market validation. That is a very different starting point for bringing innovation into the market.

For founders, that is the value of UKG Labs. We can help promising companies understand whether the problem they are solving is urgent, whether the buyer is ready, and whether the market is moving in their direction. Beacon is one success story, but it reflects a broader capability: UKG Labs helps us identify trends earlier, anticipate customer needs sooner, and accelerate the solutions that can create meaningful value for the workforce.

Q: What’s the endgame for UKG Labs? Is there a graduation of sorts, or once a company is in the UKG network, they’re a part of it going forward?

A: The endgame for UKG Labs is to build a long-term innovation network around the future of workforce technology.

We are not trying to run founders through a fixed cohort and send them on their way. We are trying to create an ecosystem where promising startups, UKG customers, and UKG’s market expertise can come together around the workforce problems that matter most. That could lead to a pilot, a commercial partnership, a deeper product conversation, a venture discussion, or, in some cases, acquisition, but the real value is the relationship and the market learning created along the way.

So, no, there is not a traditional graduation moment. Once a company enters the UKG Labs network, we want that relationship to stay open. Market timing matters. Customer readiness matters. Product maturity matters. A startup may not be ready for something bigger today, but 12 or 18 months from now, the problem they are solving may become much more urgent for customers.

That is why we take a long-term view. UKG Labs gives founders access to customer perspective, commercial validation, and strategic feedback, and it gives UKG a front-row seat to emerging ideas that could shape the future of work. The goal is not to force an outcome on a deadline. The goal is to stay close to great founders, understand where the market is moving, and help bring the right solutions to customers when the timing is right.

Founders interested in joining UKG Labs can learn more and apply on the UKG website.