Danish startup Develop Diverse is one of four finalists taking part in the inaugural Impact Summit competition.

Based in Copenhagen, Develop Diverse hopes to normalise workplace diversity by promoting the use of inclusive language.

The firm works with a host of organisations to improve their recruitment pipeline and talent retention by providing them with software that eliminates discouraging language in their communications.

This, the company says, has been shown to “dramatically increase” the amount of qualified diverse talent in all parts of the recruitment pipeline.

Ahead of Impact Summit this month, DIGIT spoke with Jenifer Clausell-Tormos, CEO and founder of Develop Diverse to discuss the company’s journey so far.

Tell us a bit about yourself, Jenifer.

I am Jenifer Clausell-Tormos, the CEO and Founder of Develop Diverse. I am Spanish and worked and lived in France, the UK, Norway and currently in Denmark.

I speak five languages, I hold a Ph.D. in Technology Development and I’ve held positions both at universities and in the industry as a scientific researcher.

In my career, I first leveraged tech to accelerate the process of finding new medicines.

After 10 years, my drive for gender balance and diversity brought me to use my tech expertise to close the gender and diversity gap by founding Develop Diverse. For four years+, I’ve been a researcher, speaker, and trainer in the field of Diversity & Inclusion.

Additionally, I have been a TEDx speaker, part of the Thinkers50Radar 2021 in the UK, Cartier Fellow 2021 -Top3 Europe and nominated to the EY Social Entrepreneurship ’20 award.

What inspired you to create this company?

I grew up in a family where traditional gender roles were the norm. So, I believe that what my mom and I experienced during my childhood has been the inspiration and main driver for building Develop Diverse.

I always tried supporting one person at a time to slowly shift the diversity numbers in the workplace. However, seeing that this would not change the numbers globally in the short-term, I decided to use tech to scale the process and support more people in a shorter amount of time.

How has the company developed over time?

Develop Diverse went from being a one-person company in July 2017, to today, a team of 15 people including a three-person founding team, where Amazon is one of many other well-recognised brands being their customer.

Today, Develop Diverse is being used by more than 600 Talent Acquisition and Employer Branding specialists, in 35 different countries over five continents. Develop Diverse has helped their customers increase their number of diverse qualified applicants to their job openings by up to three-times.

The biggest bank in the Nordics, Danske Bank, has recently written an article on how Develop Diverse has enabled them to attract 81% more female qualified applicants to their job ads.

What have been the biggest challenges the company has faced so far, and how have you overcome these?

One of the biggest challenges we have faced is the lack of interest from private investors. Up until the end of 2020, our vision was not seen as visionary and profitable, but it was seen rather idealistic and worthless.

We were told that we should become an NGO instead since the problem we were trying to solve was not a real and profitable problem in their eyes.

Our experience was that impact investment started to be perceived a worthy investment opportunity only in the last year. We overcame this challenge by putting a strong focus on raising public funds and getting customers.

What have been the biggest challenges for you on a personal level during this journey?

During this journey, on the personal level, I have a few challenges that I constantly have to keep an eye on.

One of them is being myself, being authentic and not trying to fit in. Entrepreneurship is still a male-dominated field with very pre-conceived ideas (with no scientific grounds and no correlation to success) of what the personality traits of a successful entrepreneur are.

So, one feels pressured to fit in to avoid having one’s competences are questioned.

Another one is to find work-life balance. I love my job but it is a myth to say that if “you do what you love, you will not work a single day in your life”.

It is very easy to overwork as an entrepreneur since it is “our baby” and we want to succeed. Additionally, it is a tough journey with lots of ups and downs.

Thus, not ensuring a work-life balance can affect our emotional state and therefore negatively affect how we lead and manage our team members; and eventually fail at running our business.

What advice would you give to entrepreneurs or founders embarking on the same journey?

The biggest advice is, if possible, start your business with at least one more person. Find a co-founder, with complementary skills and a shared passion, to start and run the business with you.

Being an entrepreneur is fun and fulfilling but also very lonely, and doing it alone is very tough. One can do it, but it is going to take a lot of energy and time, especially if it is the first time the person starts a business.

In my case, I did run Develop Diverse for the first three years completely by myself. I did have amazing advisors and a small team, but ultimately, it was my sole responsible.

Now, I have two more people in the co-founding team, and I can see that the process is more sustainable and more fun, and it is possible to have a better work-life balance.

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What are your ambitions personally and for the firm looking ahead?

My personal ambition is to become a thought leader in DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) beyond Denmark, meaning Europe and worldwide.

The firm ambition is to grow fast and sustainably to achieve our vision of normalising diversity in only a few decades, rather than waiting another century.

Our goal is that our software is used by every single person, for any text type and for any communication channel; so that each person communicates inclusively and unlearn their own unconscious bias through the language they use daily.

What other tech startups do you most admire, and why?

Yourlocal and TooGoodToGo- both are local startups centred around eliminating food waste. Yourlocal alerts subscribers of discount food available to them and TooGoodToGo connects customers to restaurants and stores that have unsold, surplus food and the food is given at a much lower price at the end of each day.

I admire them both because every part of their model rejects the idea of the world being zero-sum. They’ve created a system where users benefit, companies benefit, the environment benefits and they benefit. Everybody wins by being a part of their system.

I think we need more thinking and execution along these lines in the startup world.

What do you hope to gain from the FutureX Silicon Valley programme?

Though the topic of diversity is a popular one right now, we find that information is lacking on what can be done to improve it, what is most effective, and really the science of diversity as a whole. We have that information, we just need it to reach the right channels.

With FutureX, we hope to gain access to those channels. We hope to gain wider access to like-minded investors, entrepreneurs, philanthropists and others who are interested in finding an effective, scalable solution to normalising diversity.

Why are initiatives such as these important for providing opportunities to entrepreneurs and startups?

So much of the startup world is based around raw earning potential. If that’s the only thing you and your investors agree on, then it’s very easy to end up with a board that either doesn’t understand the long-term vision, or steers you away from that vision in favour of short-term gains.

This isn’t an ideal situation for anyone — so these kinds of initiatives, ones that connect impact-driven entrepreneurs and startups with impact-driven investors, are critical if we want to stay focused on impact and not pivot to short-term gains.

Impact Summit 2021 | Register Now!

Held on the 19th & 20th May, Impact Summit is Europe’s leading purpose-led business event.

Hosted online, the 2021 summit will feature talks from a range of speakers, including:

• Chris Gale, Head of Social Impact at eBay UK
• Christian Kroll, Founder of Ecosia
• Thandi Dyani, Head of Strategic Partnerships, Girls are Awesome
• Rebecca Baron, Head of Activism & Sociual Mission, Ben & Jerry’s Europe

Impact Summit 2021 operates a ‘pay what you can’ policy, with ticket information available at www.impact-summit.org