For many entrepreneurs, the inspiration for launching a startup comes when they find a problem they're passionate about. Some technical founders realize they can make money out of a scientific discovery. Other people are just born with the entrepreneurial itch, and can sell Brooklyn air on eBay.
Cathy Yee, CEO of Boston-based Incluvie, found her own startup sparkle in an episode of British TV show "Downton Abbey."
On a recent Wednesday afternoon, I met with Boston native Yee in her office, an unembellished room in Chinatown co-working space Coalition. Her mobile rang; her ringtone was the main theme of "Save The Last Dance," a 2001 movie she told me she loves.
Three years ago, Yee was watching Downton Abbey with her roommates after work, in her apartment in Jamaica Plain. For the first time, the show she used to love was disappointing, as a person of color came on scene as one of the main characters' love interest—and rapidly bowed out.
"They introduced one person of color for, like, a few minutes, and they got rid of him as quickly as possible," Yee said. "I remember I got really angry. This is not the only time it happens, it's like every time... 'Yeah, we have diversity, we have one person of color!' [And then these characters] go marry someone else, or they die, or they just go away."
"'Yeah, we have diversity, we have one person of color!' [And then these characters] go marry someone else, or they die, or they just go away."
Around one year and half ago, Yee's anger transitioned into a project. Incluvie aims to be a website and an app where people can discover how any movie or TV show represents women and people of color. The Incluvie platform will allow users to submit their own ratings and reviews, too. "It's like IMDb... or Rotten Tomatoes, except with a focus on diversity," Yee said, referencing two of the most popular online movie databases.
Before working on Incluvie full time, Yee was an engineering project manager at Johnson and Johnson in Raynham, Mass., but her job was not where her heart was, she said. "Eventually I realized I was spending all my nights and weekends doing this," she said, meaning Incluvie. "Life was too short, so I decided to focus on this."
The timing ended up working as well. A 2018 report from the University of Southern California - Yee's alma mater - showed Hollywood made no progress in on-screen representation over the past decade, with women of color largely excluded from leading roles and men occupying more than twice as many roles as women in 2017 films.
"It's like IMDb... or Rotten Tomatoes, except with a focus on diversity."
On the Incluvie site, each movie or TV show is rated on a scale from minus five to positive five, with positive five meaning 'really inclusive and empowering' for women and people of color, zero meaning 'not necessarily good or bad' and negative five meaning 'it ridicules people of color,' Yee said. As an example, Incluvie has rated around 40 movies so far, including "Crazy Rich Asians" (Score: +5) and "Jungle 2 Jungle " (Score: -4). Around 70 volunteers contributed to writing movie reviews last year.
With the platform currently running as an alpha version, Yee is thinking about a few different ways to monetize the company. One way could be partnering with movie theaters to get a percentage on tickets, or exploring other alternatives based on ads and data. Last month, a private individual agreed to make a "large" donation to the platform, Yee said, declining to disclose more details.
One of the worst movies for diversity that Yee refused to watch, she told me, is "Aloha" with Emma Stone, who was cast as a part-Asian character despite not being of Chinese or Pacific Islander ancestry (director Cameron Crowe later apologized).
"I don't think producers are malicious," Yee said. "They're trying to make money, which is what any business does. But it's also worth knowing that... movies and TV shows with diversity make more money."
