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DEIB for Startups

Overview

2025 refresh coming soon!

Entrepreneurs start businesses to tackle challenges that impact different parts of society. But achieving these big goals isn’t just about having great ideas; it takes a strong team working together. The people you bring on board need to understand the complexities of the issues and share a passion for making a real difference.

At the same time, we can’t ignore the business side of things. Companies and investors want to see a return on their investment, and team members expect fair pay and chances to grow in their careers for their hard work. Join us as we talk about challenges commonly associated with building your workforce. We’ll walk through how to attract talent that mirrors the customers you serve and creating an environment where everyone can thrive and succeed together.

This 3-course, 6-hour program includes the following:

  1. Intro to Building Up your Workplace (2 hours)*
  2. Inclusive Hiring Practices (2 hours)
  3. Inclusive Workplace Culture (2 hours)

Note: Intro course is a prerequisite for Inclusive Hiring Practices and Inclusive Workplace Culture. If you have any accessibility needs or concerns, please contact us at twi@kaporcenter.org

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"If you believe the strength of a startup is in its people, the Kapor Foundation’s DEIB workshop will show you how to build a healthy, dynamic culture from the top down."

- Program Participant

"What a great team, what a great course. SO pleased to have these tools going into a building a team in my early-stage startup."

- Program Participant

Audience

Pre-seed and seed-stage tech companies

Class Format

Live courses via Zoom

Class Structure

Instruction, breakout discussions, and whole group discussion

Homework

None, but we have plenty of resources for you to learn more and apply what you learn

Course 1:

Intro to Building Up your Workplace

Understanding DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging) to help you distinguish between terms and better positions you to ensure that each are present within your workplace.

Valuing DEIB within the current social climate to help you recognize distractions to DEIB that can compromise a strong workforce.

Aligning DEIB & business interests to help you understand how DEIB principles can advance business interests.

Developing a DEIB mindset to help you evolve from a position of DEIB consumption (eg, “tell me what to do”) to being able to initiate and drive DEIB initiatives

Course 2:

Inclusive Hiring Practices

Developing your Recruiting Muscle to offer a holistic overview of recruiting to best position you to build an amazing team

Writing a Job Posting to offer insight on what to include and exclude in a job posting to attract a diverse candidate pool

Sourcing Talent to empower you with strategies to identify great sources of talent from historically excluded backgrounds

Interviewing & Assessing Talent to help you recognize and interrupt bias so that candidates from historically excluded backgrounds are not treated unfairly

Enticing Top Talent to provide insights on benefits that can help you attract a diverse workforce.

Course 3:

Inclusive Workplace Culture

Defining culture to introduce different aspects of workplace culture and help you identify the characteristics that you want reflected in your workplace culture

Workplace culture and business advancement to empower you to make decisions that lead to a workplace culture that supports your business goals.

Consequences of a poor work culture to help you avoid practices that lead to a workplace culture that can be detrimental to your business.

Historically marginalized communities and negative culture to help you understand unique experiences that some populations face in the workplace so that you can void them.

Laying the foundation for a positive workplace culture to help you identify and implement strategies that promote a positive workplace culture.