SUMMARY
In this session of the Inclusive Exec Series, Jenifer Clausell-Tormos, founder of Develop Diverse, dives deep into the experiences of building a company while a female foreigner in the tech world. Despite challenges in securing funding due to prevalent biases in the investment community, Jenifer’s company succeeded with the help of public funds and perseverance. As Develop Diverse grew, it attracted prominent clients and demonstrated tangible impacts. Jenifer also reflects on the importance of inclusion, the challenges of managing a diverse workforce, and emphasizes the need for dedicated roles to cultivate an inclusive culture. We also talk about her transition from CEO to coaching entrepreneurs on achieving productivity and work-life balance.
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We do reinforce our biases through the language we use. So we need to be mindful of our language if we do not want to discriminate at the end of the day.
Welcome to the inclusive exec series where Inclusive Matters connects your D&I ambitions to measurable business results. Join us as we spotlight inclusive leaders around the world who are driving commercial success with effective DEI strategies.
Jenifer Clausell-Tormos the scientist turned tech entrepreneur who defied the odds. Her journey includes navigating the gatekeepers to the VC funding world and ultimately securing millions of Euros to build her company Develop Diverse. Major corporations across Europe use Develop Diverse’s inclusive language SaaS tool to improve workplace diversity. Jenifer’s impactful work has earned her recognition from global organizations. She has been ranked among the top Entrepreneurs of the Year, and she won the Nordic Women in Tech award and the Cartier Women’s Initiative Fellowship for Europe.
Welcome, Jennifer.
Thank you so much for having me here today.
Overcoming Biases and Embracing Diversity
So let’s just dive right in. Tell us about your path and journey to where you are now in your career.
I was born and raised in Spain. Growing up in a household where there were encouraged, traditional gender roles It was something I have actually defined me a lot. Once I became 18, I wanted to explore the world so I decided to move to France.
I’m a chemist, then I have done a PhD on the development of technological platforms for biomedical applications like finding new cancer therapies. I have always been working in male dominated fields. So even for the biomedical field, I work in the technical side of it. So I was always surrounded by more men overall. Everything from conferences to the actual workplace.
In France,basically, it was the first time I would be living. outside of Spain. And there I, for the first time ever, I faced my own biases against people. I realized that I was biased against others. Gender was something I had internalized, but nothing else. I didn’t know I was biased against people just because of their ethnic group or their age group or, uh, their religion, their nationality, where they come from.
What was it that made you realize, “Oh, I, I have these preconceived ideas here”?
I would say it’s luckily, I was working for five years in a research institute where_we were 20 people and 16 different nationalities. I was working with people, uh, different skin color, different religions, different parts of the world, different languages. and that’s where I could see all those thoughts I had, or I had internalized, I had learned in my childhood because, you know, family, but also the TV, uh, any, anything outside the world. And then I realized it’s all bullshit. Um, it’s all, and this is, it struck me a lot. It’s like, I have been always talking about gender, but here goes beyond that.
In essence, when many new differentiators in your team and work environment, and. Many were unfamiliar to you, so you were trying to find a connecting point, and that’s typically by what have we heard in the media, or what have we read in books, or what have we, you build
Correct. Very sad to say
Um, and the moment my eyes opened, I couldn’t close them anymore,
And this was just the beginning, meaning facing my own biases was just, a huge learning, but something I am so grateful for, but this was the beginning of me then seeing it. how they were experiencing those biases
whenever I would be back in my own country, I could see this also happening to other people, but I had not seen it. It was like a filter, I had something that I didn’t see, but now suddenly I didn’t have that lens that blocked me from seeing it. And then my fight towards gender equality became a fight much broader towards diversity.
For a few years, I was back in Spain, but very soon went to Denmark, where I have been living for 11 years. And there I have, myself experienced another degree of biases. In that sense, it has been still gender, even though Denmark is known as such a gender equal culture. I believe it is in many ways, uh, like on the streets, on the households, I can see more parity than maybe in Spain. However, in the workplace, where we spend most of our time, I still face similar biases. I was working,
much or even harder than some of my peers, but I was different from my peers in many ways. I was younger, I was a woman, not local, right? Uh, so many things, and I understand, right? When I am in Spain, this also happens. We do have biases towards other nationalities in many ways, but this affected me as well because I thought, I thought of the challenges I met, where I think of, uh, situations where women are not economically independent, not having enough education. But suddenly I was in a place where I had higher education, I Phd, was economically independent by far. I could see not only myself, but any other female friends. Same level of education, same level of economic independence. They were experiencing similar challenges in different countries as well, right?
The Develop Diverse Journey
How did Develop Diverse come into the picture?
Yeah, so I think there was that one last situation that struck me at work where I had been having amazing results. I have given that amazing meeting where I thought I rocked. Um, I was surrounded by the big shots of the company and when I left the meeting, one of their director managers approached me and said, ” More women should be dressing like you.” I wanted to kill him! I have given such an amazing talk. I showed amazing results that can impact the company. And the only comment you can make to me is because I’m wearing a dress and more women should be wearing dresses the same way. First time he did it, I was shocked. But I prepared an answer. If this ever happened again. And
Uh, so next time I was ready and I answered, something like, “I don’t want you to have an opinion on my address code, if any opinion you have to have about my work in this place.” He became red, he started laughing and said, “It’s just a joke. Just, you know, it’s fun. Just take it easy.” And my boss was next to him, he became red, he just vanished. He didn’t say a single thing. this started annoying me, a lot. and then eventually there was also no promotion, lots of excuses. plus I had been getting that realization, everything came together and it clicked. I say, I have, I have to take action.
I quit the job. a well paid, great career and decided to start my own company with my own savings with all the risks that this comes. That’s when I, yeah, started Develop Diverse.
Yeah. Let’s talk about the baby steps of how you got started.
The vision of Develop Diverse was creating equal opportunities in the workplace by supporting organizations to reduce bias that were causing the diversity gap in organizations.
Develop_Diverse is a software platform that HR and communication departments can use to ensure that whatever communication material or recruitment material they use is actually inclusive.
The software works like a spell checker, but rather than checking for spelling mistakes, we check for words or sentences that discourage people due to the diversity group they belong to. And not only highlight those words, like the text, but also propose inclusive alternatives so that the outcome of the text, everything from a job description, a website, career page, the output is inclusive. So whenever you post a job ad in particular, you will not be discouraging applicants just because of the words you use. But rather you would be appealing to all that are actually qualified. Research has shown that really we do reinforce our biases through the language we use. So we need to be mindful of our language if we do not want, discriminate at the end of the day.
So when I tried to sell to investors back then or even to customers a solution that would help them increase diversity and reduce biases, very few people thought that this was actually necessary, because very few people thought there was actually a problem.
So right now, the market of diversity tech has exploded. Back in 2017, I had to do a damn of a job in order to get everyone convinced that there was actually a problem in the workplace, um, and especially investors.
I think this has been the most striking because in the workplace there have always been people that acknowledge biases and the challenges especially women in the glass ceiling. Those are terminologies that have been used for a while. So, I was going to conferences about gender equality in science. The first thing I went to professors of Danish universities to present them ideas. They were, preaching about the lack of, gender equality in the, in the professorship level, And they thought it was impressive that there was a solution that it was so hard to identify our biases. So they were, they bought it in. So the moment I could see there was awareness for implementing the solution of having such a spell checker for your description for inclusive language, instead of, you know, checking programmer, then I decided, okay, trying to develop in my own way.
And eventually I got to a space where funds were important because one can run far with their own funds. And then eventually got the time where there was need for funds. I’m talking about 2018. So one year later, we had proof of concept, and customers proved that people would be purchasing it. And when I talked to investors, I met the same answer for many of them was that they didn’t see there was a problem I was solving, so it was hard for them to see the potential of the company.
The Challenges of Being a Female Founder
And who were the investors? What kind of demographic were you, were you addressing?
Yeah. They were white men, and local.
I think that’s not unusual; most investors have a certain profile and they have been the ones in the game for longer. Of course, if you don’t experience that pain, you are not even aware of what that pain looks like, that discrimination looks like, you cannot relate to it. And they couldn’t relate to the problem I was solving. And this makes total sense. So when you cannot relate to a problem I’m solving, then you don’t think there is a need for it.
In Denmark when I was starting. So what they told me is that, what was key for Develop Diverse to succeed beyond my persistence and grit and perseverance, was public funds, Danish public funds. They were key for us to keep going. Also, public accelerator programs because they opened us a door and gave us that visibility. So I have to acknowledge that. And I would like to recognize that because investment was not there, public were key to keep going up because investors would tell us, “Come back when you have proof of business, or recurring revenue. And obviously you cannot get there in the very
Ideas are based a lot on perception of the potential of your business. Actually, most startups are being funded because they check the boxes, right? the number of founders check, the profile of founders check, the type of business check. And I didn’t feel any of those checks. So I had to prove myself before they would invest, right?
Most startups are being funded because they check the boxes, right? the number of founders check, the profile of founders check, the type of business check. And I didn’t feel any of those checks. So I had to prove myself before they would invest.
I have to, like, you know, the biases I am aware of, right? Women and minorities are perceived to have limited potential, and they need to demonstrate, they need to, they are judged based on.
So we need to demonstrate that we can actually make it before acknowledged
While other groups, they are perceived to have unlimited potential because affinity bias plays a role. And it’s like, oh, I believe if you behave like that, look like that, you actually will make
They look like me, they will make it. When you don’t look like them, when you provide a solution they cannot even relate to, forget it. You need to demonstrate much more we had to, before getting the big investment on board, we had to demonstrate sales. Like we had to have huge brands in place, money in our bank to get.
I’m curious, the public funds, is there a difference in the average amount that is awarded compared to private funds?
We got it, but it’s much less
So your starting point in this game of building a business through funds, uh, with everyone else aligned, if you think of that starting point, you immediately have to take two steps back, from the starting point, because then you have to navigate another channel for the funding and when that does come through, it will be less than what the counterparts who are also at the starting line, would likely get.
Very interesting. So public funding came through what happened next?
Well, the company has been growing slowly, steady, We, we had amazing customers like Vestas, and Danske Bank.
I saw some of your statistics. You mentioned, I think Amazon, uh, took on some, uh, took on your, the product
They were the first testers, Amazon Europe. It was so scary. Uh, we got them on board, um, call, reach out,
We were the first tech, diversity tech company. In Denmark, in Scandinavia, and I could even dare to say uh, back then.
When they had the call and presented the findings, we didn’t know what we would find. they go, it was so scary. To our good surprise, they got three times more women to apply, they got three times more men to apply as overall applicants.
And regarding qualified, they got, no women, without our software,
With our software, they got four qualified women out of a huge pool. Um, But also got more qualified men, right? It’s like, uh, they could see with impact, not only women, but also men. So they were impressed.
You just named three major companies. Okay, is it time now to consider us for investment? What, what happened then?
It was not easy. When talking to investors, despite having amazing brands, numbers, impact, traction, this solution we’re building is still not being perceived as a solution that was needed for this world because we were lucky.
Oh, the words you’re using. “You were lucky”. I want to hear more about what kind of pushback or feedback they were giving.
Well, this was one. Another, was “Can you do it more? Can you even keep them for long? your software something that they will use forever? Will it be the first thing they drop, whenever they run out of a bit of cash?” It’s actually a need to have. They were questioning the need to have it all the time. They couldn’t see the market. Coming back to what I said in the beginning, they couldn’t relate to the pain of discrimination or biases in the workplace.
So even though they recommend, go get your public funds, go get some proof of concept, some revenues, and you do that, you come back and they say, “We still are thinking this isn’t sustainable.”
Correct. And, um, I can give you two examples that I remember because after that I had to punch a cushion from the anger I had. We always talk about having a punching bag in the office to hit it every time we get this type of comment. We never got to it, but I used some cushions instead. So one investor we had like seven sessions with them sharing all the data, asking, answering all the questions.
I mean, we were, you know, basically everything they were asking was saying, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And eventually he said, “Look, I don’t want to make you waste your time. You know, things look okay. They look good, but there is something in my stomach. There is something there that tells me I should not invest. I cannot put a word on it”, he would say. and I, my co-founder that was there were like, what the hell? We could see they wanted, um, they wanted a man in the room. They were missing that man in the room.
Yeah, other type of, of team, um, fortunately, which we were in that moment, we were two female, like two female co founders.
Right. I started the first proof of traction. So I am the one who built it all
for years, and then did get a co founder on board, She joined afterwards and still, we were two of us. And then, there’s still not enough. So eventually we got the third person
Who was, indeed, a man. So unfortunately, yes, this is telling me, or telling everyone, sometimes we put pressure on women led startups that they need to have a man in the team.
There was another investment fund that I knew, uh, uh. A peer of mine was also pursuing that fund. My peer was in a similar space, not diversity space, but tech space. So it was a similar type of product, software plus hardware in that case. In our case it was software. We started at the same time, and we were going to ask for funds at the same time. And when I asked for the conditions of investment, they gave me, they said, “Yeah, we would invest in you, but under these conditions.” And the conditions when looking into them, they were not good. They were valuing our company really little, little. And I was puzzled. I said, You know, we have sales, not only proof, we have huge brands on our year contracts.
We had sales proven, recurrent, which is very key for investors to say the word recurrent. My peer had no sales, They got three times better conditions than us. And he was himself puzzled. He said, “I don’t know why they gave you that valuation. I don’t know what they said. They will give you only that amount of money. While they are giving us so much more on so many levels. They are not asking us for sales proof at all.”
The Importance of Inclusion in the Workplace
Punching bag. Punching bag. You’ve shared how Develop Diverse came to be and how it had really struggled to crack out of its egg without much help. You. You have now a company and you have built a staff. Tell me about that. And then the transition that you had operating the business rather than just founding it.
Yeah, over the years we fundraised €3 million on private capital, half million euros on public funds and got even, hundred customers, international and nationally, So we have been growing and succeeding and this has allowed us to grow the team. Under my leadership the team grew to 25 people. If we focus on the inclusive part of the challenges every employee that joined the company our vision was their life purpose.
They wanted to make a difference. They really care for what we’re doing.
Very purpose driven to the points of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Okay.
Which is fantastic, right? Like you want these people to be the ones building your product, to be the ones responsible, to build a culture of the organization.
But It’s not a straight line. It’s a zigzag going backwards, challenges. You don’t know where investment is going to come. You don’t always have the time or the resources and one challenge that I can say is that I had set expectations to my own company regarding inclusion much higher than I could ever execute.
Can you give me an example of what you, what you mean?
I say I set the wrong expectations because I also took it for granted, that if we all care so much for diversity or many of us come from underrepresented groups, that we would understand everyone’s challenges. We together will be able to build that culture. But it’s not true. We are people from underrepresented groups. that can understand very well their own don’t understand the challenges of the other group. So there was a need for more workshops, for more efforts internally, for helping people to thrive together. Because people from different diversity demographics, they have different ways of thinking, of working, of solving, of communicating, right? So when you have a mix of people, we have, our team was super, like in that sense, we really focused on attracting diversity and we were good. I guess we had the right tool.
You had a great brand too.
Yeah, and a great brand and a great purpose. So we attracted diversity, but it brought challenges in so many ways I was not necessarily aware, of, I am running a business. I’m trying to get things done. We don’t have that many resources, and people have expectations.
You have a group of people that are still having to learn to work in a diverse environment. And they have to build the inclusion themselves.
Yes, I was thinking like one example of, of underestimating that, inclusion goes first and diversity after, not the because as you mentioned, we went diversity first while we thought inclusion was there. But we
We didn’t have enough level of inclusion for the diversity numbers we had, or diversity demographics we had. Uh, given this is number one, and number two, I that everyone would be inclusive, but they didn’t. So, we lacked workshops to get, you know, people to be familiar, and having someone full time making sure the inclusive culture that we think of building is the one that people need. And I thought I could drive that agenda on top of driving the company. I could have done a much better job if I would have acknowledged I don’t have the resources, I don’t have the hands, someone else needs to be hired.
But then also acknowledging that money has to go there.
It’s a big investment. If you had to give a piece of advice to any leader who is managing a staff that’s diverse or you want it to be more diverse what would you recommend?
You need a person who is going to lead the process, who is going to make sure that it goes through the whole organization, not only in HR, right? This is for sure a given for me. It’s not, it should not stay in HR, but you need one person that leads the whole movement, that is just purely there to understand how things are going in the different departments, in different levels.
I’m going to play the advocate. If I was that investor. Okay, you say we need this. I don’t really see the problem. Um, isn’t that HR? Where is this really going to make an impact? Having that person.
Back then I didn’t have an answer, but now I would answer. The success of a company is not the amount of sales you have. It’s not. You need that, it’s not. It’s the people that make those sales, the ones who are going to make a company succeed If your people don’t feel included, they are not going to perform. the culture is not going to be the culture for them to thrive. And then sales are not going to be succeeding. And the product development is not going to succeed. Things are not going to be moving forward. So of course you need great leadership. But people. are the biggest challenge for any organization. Not a customer, not getting an investor, it’s people. If people are not feeling well, nothing is going to work. Conflicts take away energy from everyone.
What happens next in the journey for you here?
This journey, uh, what I, I had been a solo founder for more than half of the time of existing of the company has been a hard one. Uh, being persistent, perseverant, having a strong grit, it was key, but not having that genuine work life balance has been a challenge as well. Running a start up as a marathon. It’s not a race. And I tell you first hand that I have been behaving as if it was a race.
I always felt I had to, uh, progress. Uh, every single day, I couldn’t postpone that progress. Uh, I also wanted to do it perfectly. And this combination is not the right combination when running a startup, especially the startup of our level where we have to fight so many odds, right? I was a foreigner in Denmark, a woman in a field which was not my field I was educated on.
Since I didn’t take care of myself, I eventually burned out. So I’m no longer running the company. The company’s been run by my co-founder. I took another path. My mission is to revolutionize the way entrepreneurs manage and lead their business so they can increase productivity threefold while keeping or reaching a genuine work life balance.
So I’m currently coaching entrepreneurs on their productivity to help from burning out. Properly organize time, prioritize properly, protect your agenda, live a balanced life. Taking care of all areas of life every week, independently of work, right?
Actually being grounded, taking care of yourself, respecting your schedule is going to make the best leader.
It’s going to make the best entrepreneur. It’s gonna help you succeed. yeah.
So Jenifer, how can people learn more about you? Where can we follow you?
You can, you can find me on LinkedIn. Soon you will be able to join or find me on jeniferclausell.com. So my, my first name, second name, dot com. This is going to be the website. So keep tuned, it’s gonna go live very soon.
Jenifer, thank you for your time. And for everyone who has listened in or watched, thank you for joining us today.
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