Corporate America is spending billions on diversity, equity and inclusion.
But one Buffalo startup believes there are gaps between the energetic discussions a DEI consultant can oversee and real change in an organization.
Team Real Talk is a tech-enabled way to deliver training, generate suggestions based on employee feedback and then monitor that progress over a period of time.
That model convinced a panel of judges that Real Talk was deserving of the top prize Wednesday in the University at Buffalo’s Panasci competition – the region’s premiere collegiate entrepreneurship challenge.
Real Talk won $25,000 cash and another $30,000 worth of in-kind services such as office space and professional services.
Founders Sonja Tareke, Malkijah Griffiths and Janelle Fore have spent two years working on a way to create a more meaningful model of DEI training. Now they’re ready to hit the market and start getting feedback from customers.
“Oftentimes when we go to a town hall, there’s all this energy and no action,” Tareke told the crowd. “We bridge that gap by considering what employees want to see.”
A packed room of onlookers at UB’s new Incubator @ CBLS space watched five student-led startups pitch their companies, revealing just how much the student entrepreneurship game in Buffalo has evolved in recent years. Gone are the hobbies or side-projects from the top levels of the Panasci competition – each young entrepreneur presented a polished presentation and distinct go-to-market plans. Panasci is a validation point, rather than an end-goal, these days.
Case in point: $10,000 second-place winner RHM Innovations is deep into a pilot project with Rochester-based Cloverwood Senior Living, with co-founders CJ Burris and Brandon Davis planning to start working at the company full time this year upon their graduation.
RHM has developed a shower chair for the elderly and disabled. They plan to hit the market with a fully commercialized version of the product this year, looking for early adopters in western and central New York before they target faster-growth through distributors. They plan to join UB’s Cultivator accelerator program sometime over the next year.
Real Talk got its start in 2020 and is in the second phase of the UB Cultivator program, through which UB has invested $50,000 (a figure which doesn't include the Panasci prize). Through the market research and testing in Cultivator, company leaders have moved away from the idea of a classic consultancy to an ongoing feedback mechanism for private businesses. Real Talk’s clients receive a dashboard and the startup is built to engage them over a period of years, instead of one-off events.
Griffiths plans to join the company as its first full-time employee this summer once he completes his master’s in business administration at UB. Sales will be at the top of his list.
The idea is to turn one customer into two and, eventually, two into two hundred.
“We found that one-and-done wasn’t an effective way to do business, which is why we built our six-step framework that includes employee feedback,” Tareke said. “That’s the crucial piece. It’s where awareness meets action, and action leads to programming based on employee suggestions.”
