On dominant professional networking platforms such as LinkedIn, minority talent can face a problem of visibility.
Atlanta entrepreneur Jonathan Cornelius is looking to solve that problem with his startup Stratos. The company is raising an initial round of $750,000. By the end of the year, it looks to close up to $2 million in seed funding on a valuation of up to $10 million. Cornelius targets July as the launch of his startup.
The company has five full-time employees and looks to have 25 by the end of the year, following the closing of its seed round.
“There's over 10 million Black and Latinx professionals in the U.S.,” Cornelius said. “We’ll not only be a recruiting portal for companies to find Black and Latinx talent, but also where those demographics can see others similar to them thrive.”
Stratos is attempting to confront the challenges of companies identifying and recruiting diverse talent even in Atlanta, a city with a reputation as the Black Mecca. It could help build and draw more attention to a burgeoning network of talented, minority professionals.
"Finding diverse talent is still an issue in 2022," said Joey Womack founder and CEO of Atlanta-based tech nonprofit Goodie Nation.
On the platform, users of Stratos can build their profile based on where they are, the company they work with and their job title. From there, they can interact with other professionals on the platform’s Layers and Careers pages.
Much like chat rooms or forums, layers are industry- or interest-specific groups where users can have conversations about job opportunities or issues facing Black or Latinx workers. Stratos distinguishes itself by partnering with companies looking to increase their inclusive hiring practices.
In January of 2021, Cornelius founded the company under the name “Meet and Innovate." Later that year, he was featured as one of Atlanta's next generation of innovators in Atlanta Inno’s Inno Under 25.
The initial idea for the company was for Ted Talk-style events to be held for minority professionals. During the pandemic, Cornelius’ mission shifted to help workers of color find jobs. The company name then changed to Stratos, short for stratosphere, to align with its mission: giving Black and Latinx professionals an upward mobility.
By November, Stratos partnered with 10 companies to help them identify and recruit talent. Now Stratos has twice as many partnerships. By the end of the year, it aims to partner with 120 companies, add 20,000 users and help companies fill 1,000 positions with Black and Latinx workers.
Those companies are primarily startups raising Series A funding such as car rental company Kyte and software development firm Pendo.IO. Those funds will be used for growing its team. The hires will be for marketing to its key demographics of Black and Latinx professionals, in addition to research and development.
Over the next five years, the biggest ambition for the company is to expand its reach internationally including into the European Union market.
“We want to take the platform to places to show that representation isn’t just in your city, it’s everywhere.” said Cornelius.
