Richmond-based Inclusively was founded on the idea of helping people with disabilities navigate the workforce and identify opportunities to accommodate their needs.
Co-founder Charlotte Dales was inspired to start Inclusively after watching her cousin become the first licensed esthetician in the state of Florida with Down syndrome.
“I just think there's a complete disconnect between the capabilities and the potential that people with disabilities have, versus the opportunities that they're given,” Dales told Inno. “This company was really born to close that gap that exists between employers and people with disabilities.”
The team launched the candidate portal for the platform on July 26, coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Formerly known as Ligilo, the company was previously in a Beta testing period and launched alongside their official name change.
Dales and her co-founder, Marios Politis, an award-winning neurologist who heads the neurology department at Exeter College in London, were introduced by a mutual acquaintance who would go on to become the company’s largest investor. To date, Inclusively has closed on $2.4 million in funding, primarily through angel networks.
The startup has eight companies onboard to begin posting job listings, including major tech and financial players like Microsoft, JP Morgan Chase and VMWare. In addition to job searching based on past work experience and qualifications, candidates are able to search for jobs based on accommodations they may need in order to be successful at that company.
“They're able to search and find opportunities based on what they need from the employer, not just what they can give to the employer,” Dales said.
Dales said that the platform includes jobs that companies have also listed elsewhere, just with the added criteria of accommodations that could be made for a candidate with a disability. The job listings range across industries, and Dales said the variety of jobs offered on the platform continues to grow.
“In our minds, someone with a disability, any disability, could do any job at any company,” she said. “I think that's one of the things that has prevented people with disabilities from penetrating the workforce as quickly as people without disabilities: people want to pigeonhole what people with certain disabilities can do."
"That's why we really put in a really granular level search criteria so that it really just matches them to the job based on their capability," Dales added.
The platform already kicked off a pilot of Microsoft’s Autism at Work program, which incorporates opportunities with JP Morgan and VMWare. Most of the jobs are geared toward UX and engineering. Dales said workers with Autism have had much success within those types of roles.
The team at Inclusively includes six members on the business and marketing side and five members from local Richmond development agency Mobelux on the tech side.
The company's next step is to launch its employer portal, which Dales said is planned for the end of the year. With this side of the platform, they hope to also launch their newest project: a clinical algorithm that maps physical and mental characteristics back to functional skills and abilities that then map to ideal job opportunities for an individual.
“Our main focus right now is to get as much quantity and variety of jobs on the platform as possible so that we can make as many placements as possible,” Dales said. “The clinical algorithm will allow a candidate to input things about their physical and mental characteristics into the job search so we can further prioritize and target opportunities where they will be successful.”