Joining us is Daniel Callaghan, the CEO of pre-employment screening firm Veremark and managing partner of the program; Carlos Hornstein, CEO of Niikiss, which helps businesses streamline and digitize their processes; and Helen McGuire, the co-founder of Diversely. Their platform and methodology helps hiring teams attract and close more diverse talent. How do you build a company today? That’s what we’ll talk about on this edition of PeopleTech.
Transcript
Mark:
Welcome to PeopleTech, the podcast of the HCM Technology report. I’m Mark Feffer.
Mark:
Today we’ll be introduced to Workplace Accelerator. It’s a business program that focuses on HR technology in the future of work. And it draws participants from all over the world. Joining us is Daniel Callahan, the CEO of pre-employment screening firm Veremark and managing partner of the program, Carlos Hornstein CEO of Niikiss, which helps businesses streamline and digitize their processes, and Helen McGuire the co-founder of Diversely, their platform in methodology helps hiring teams attract and close more diverse talent. Nikkies and Diversely are participants in the program. How do you build a company today? That’s what we’ll talk about on this edition of People Tech. So let me start with you, Daniel. Could you tell me about Workplace Accelerator? What is it?
Daniel:
Sure. So we think that HR technology has the force to be a power of good in the world. Obviously, there is a huge amount of time that we all spend at work and it’s a key environment that defines a lot of our life. Yet as a category, pre-pandemic, it was a little unloved and a little underserved by either the amount of attention or coverage that it got in the broader press, or the investment circles. And as such, we decided to build the workplace accelerator as a means to help HR tech businesses on a global scale, get more exposure, to be connected to a global array of senior industry practitioners and get connected to a global network of HR leaders who act as mentors throughout the program.
Daniel:
And ultimately, over the last two years, we’ve now seen close to 350 odd businesses apply to be part of the program, 15 businesses successfully go through the program and then not go on to start achieving great things whilst really, as we say, trying to impact the working world and make for a better working world.
Mark:
Can you give me an idea of how it works? How does a company find you? How do they get involved with you? How they proceed to the program?
Daniel:
So we run one program a year. It’s very simple. You can go to www.workplaceaccelerator. All one word. I won’t spell it out just for fear of embarrassment, but it’s workplaceaccelerator.com. You would just apply, and then there is a three stage application process where you’d be screened by some of the founding partners of the accelerator, a number of the operating partners who are proven entrepreneurs and exit entrepreneurs in the HR tech world. And then finally, by one of the mentors as well, to make sure that there’s a real world domain layer of verification onto it. End then, once you’re into the program, we’ll also ask you to do a psychometric test to make sure that you have the right cultural fit, and we want people to are inclusive and want to help the other people within the community grow as well, which is a very important part of it.
Daniel:
And then subsequently, there is a what ultimately becomes a 20 week program whereby you get lots of one to one exposure with your operating partner network to get extensive exposure to the mentor network, which is different from the operating partner network, but are ultimately the HR leaders around the world who will then tell you and give you an accelerated view of where your product fits in their mind or therefore your buyer’s mind. And then thirdly, ultimately we’ll connect you with a wide, HR tech specific network of investors.
Mark:
Okay. Now, Carlos and Helen, I want to ask you about your experiences, but before I do, I’d like to learn a little bit more about each of your companies. So to start with Helen, can you tell me about what you folks do just in a few sentences?
Helen:
Yeah, of course. So, Diversely is a platform that helps businesses become more diverse and we do so in a couple of ways. Firstly, by helping them to understand their current state of diversity. So specifically across five different elements, and then to help them to set goals and to achieve better diversity internally through the use of our tools. And we really focus on sourcing. So we focus right at the very beginning of the talent acquisition process.
Mark:
Okay. Carlos, how about your company?
Carlos:
Yeah, Nikkies is only one HIRS system focused on the employee experience and our target are small medium enterprises and the idea is to provide a unified end to end experience covering all the HR processes that you may need in a company.
Mark:
Now, Carlos, how did you first get involved with Workplace Accelerator?
Carlos:
So obviously Daniel explained very well how they positioned and our experience has been, and still on exceptional. We were actually looking for a very specific accelerator that actually embraces the idea of HR tech. We wanted to engaged with senior mentors and business partners and those who are willing to challenge the way we were doing things. And, we wanted also to get good conversations with investors that understood the value of HR tech for a better world. So the work that Daniel and his team are doing in screening the investors that believe in the value of HR tech has been tremendous ,and is always much easier to engage with those investors than it would be just to go out and talk to any investor at all. So as a summary, the experience has been wonderful and we’ll recommend it.
Mark:
Okay. Helen, how about you?
Helen:
So my entry point is probably slightly different. I first met Daniel, I don’t even know if he remembers this actually, but through an accelerator that I was part of back at the beginning of 2020. So, I went through Antler when I was in Singapore and that’s really where the initial idea and focus for Diversely came about. And subsequently to that, I ran into Daniel a couple of times at a couple of different meetings and places and so on, and kept him up to date on what we were doing. And I think at one point pitched to him on some kind of program or rewards that we were involved with about a year ago. And so, it was just a gradual introduction to what those guys were doing at Workplace Accelerator. I think for us, the timing was just perfect.
Helen:
We started in September with the rest of the cohort, as Daniel mentioned, and we’re probably a little bit earlier than some of them in terms of the focus on fundraising. But it’s really just been invaluable where the operating partners and mentors have been concerned with helping us to push the business forward, to really help us to get product market fit, understand the value, the way in which we sell the business actually, and talk to clients about the business has really changed through the process of the accelerator. And it just continues. The help and the support really just continues from their side as we grow, and as we progress as a business.
Mark:
I think you touched on this, but I’m going to ask you the full question anyway, Helen, is how does Workplace Accelerator factor into your business?
Helen:
So, I mean, as Daniel mentioned, it’s a weekly check-in. So we have a weekly check-in on a Thursday and that’s super helpful because all of the teams are on that. And so you get to share any pain points, any successes through the week. And obviously, generally as small teams and co-founders, or even solo founders, you don’t always have that support or that insight into what other businesses in your space and at your stage are achieving and also any challenges that they might be facing. And then on top of that, we are assigned six operating partners which we choose at the beginning, and they focus on specific areas of HR tech or business, let’s say. So one of ours was in pricing, another one was in tech, another one was in sales, et cetera, et cetera. And they are really your wing men and women, if you like, going through the program.
Helen:
So you keep in touch with them pretty much the whole way through. And then on top of that, we had about 60 or 70 requests, I think, from mentors who are from all kinds of business, entrepreneurial, coaching backgrounds even, globally to talk to about Diversely, to help us to move the product and the service forward. And indeed to talk about it from a client perspective as well, potentially talking to them about how they might be able to use it in their business if that’s relevant. So, there’s a lot going on. It’s super busy. I mean, we’re still doing it now, probably just wrapping up really. But it’s been massively impactful for us. Definitely.
Mark:
Okay. Carlos, how about you?
Carlos:
Well, pretty much the same thing as what Helen said. As an average, we spend almost a day a week focused on the accelerator program because we also have, on top of our master sessions, but also we have pitching sessions. So if someone really wants to go to a program just to listen, obviously they can do it. The most important thing is to be proactive. So every two weeks, we have meetings with the business partners and in between those two weeks, we actually try to do and test what they recommend. So it is intense. So, at least I would say one day a week is dedicated to the program.
Mark:
Now, Daniel, this is a very international program. I was looking through the website seeing a lot of the companies who were involved, and they’re in Asia, they’re in Europe, they’re in the states. Does the international factor give the program anything special or anything distinct, anything different from other programs that are in this space?
Daniel:
Well, so firstly, there aren’t that many other programs that are so hype dedicated to HR tech. I think what we do, however, also get from having such a broad view or a broad acceptance panel, is that you do get businesses from all over the world, applying. And then you get therefore, participants from all over the world applying. So Helen and her business partner are based in Dubai or in Europe in Poland. Carlos is in Spain. It’s an eclectic mix that they’re all learning from each other about the HR challenges, as well as the HR commonalities that their respective markets are experiencing. And I think that’s great. I think whereas Nikkies or Diversely have the potential, are already international businesses or they’re in their own rights.
Daniel:
So many multinationals, we like to think of them, they can understand that exposure. And again, we have a global network of 250 plus mentors that people get connected to, the more ready they are to be global and international already. Again, if you look at the client list of even Nikkies or Diversely already, there are some really big names on there that these organizations can really benefit from. We’ll ultimately ask them to start spreading out into other parts of the world. And I think a byproduct of having such a diverse set of conversations during the program means that you’re already up to speed on that when it comes down to it.
Mark:
And my last question is, how do you see the program either evolving or growing? Or to ask it another way, what are your future plans?
Daniel:
I think for us, we just want to keep on trying to do what we are doing. So Workplace Accelerator is launched in partnership with Verimark. Verimark is a global pre-employment screening platform. Again, we’re very much focused on improving the world of work. We’re helping the world trust faster by doing better background checks. We see that partnership very much continuing, only, we will stick with one program a year. The quality of the participants is very high as mentioned. It’s the top 6% of applicants each year get through into the program. And again, we’ll keep it as an ongoing basis of a tight seven participants. Because again, we think that has a nice community feel to it all. But, what we hope obviously is that with the future success of Diversely and Nikkies, or NAK or any of the other space bands, or all the companies that are going from this cohort and the already gaining success to the companies that go through last cohort. That older me again, will just continue to increase the strength of batch to batch.
Daniel:
And ultimately, what we want to do is help people build better solutions, and that’s the end goal here?
Mark:
Well, Daniel, Carlos, Helen, thanks for being here today.
Helen:
Thank you, Mark. Really appreciate the opportunity.
Mark:
You could learn more about Workplace Accelerator on their website, www.workplaceaccelerator.com. My guests today have been Daniel Callahan, Carlos Hornstein and Helen McGuire. And we’ve been talking about the business accelerator Workplace Accelerator, and this has been PeopleTech, the podcast of the HCM technology report. We’re a publication of recruiting daily. We’re also a part of Evergreen Podcasts. To see all of their programs visit www.evergreenpodcast.com. And to keep up with HR technology, visit the HCM technology report every day. We’re the most trusted source of news in the HR tech industry. Find us at www.hcmtechnologyreport.com. I’m Mark Feffer.
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