On two separate occasions, at different points in her career, Jennifer Henderson was seemingly penalized for being pregnant.
She was passed over for a promotion when she was having her first child and taken out of a position of leadership as her impending leave approached for her second.
Like many founders, these personal experiences motivated her to develop a better way for companies to handle parental leave.
After 15 years in management positions in the corporate world, Henderson set out on her own a few years ago to explore better solutions for women and work.
As a first-time founder, Henderson has experienced the rollercoaster that comes with building a company from the idea stage.
“It’s been a journey not for the faint of heart, I can understand why the attrition is so high,” she said.
In 2018, Henderson officially launched TiLT, a Fort Collins-based startup changing the way companies approach parental leave.
“The best leave experiences are collaborative ones for the employees and their managers,” she said. “Our solution invites both of those key stakeholders during the process.”
TiLT’s tech-enabled solution provides guided-leave plans that help companies and employees prepare for an upcoming leave, organizing all of the required forms and releases in one platform.
It also helps managers plan for the period of time when the employee is on leave and to set a target return date.
Based on her prior experiences, Henderson said personalization and ease-of-use were key features in bringing TiLT to market.
“There are a lot of ways to have a family and typically we don’t see organizations have anything in place to support the many ways to have a family,” she said, referencing the options outside of traditional childbirth.
With TiLT, companies receive a unique URL that looks, feel and acts in the same manner as the solution already in place to enable seamless adoption and integration.
Henderson said many companies still rely on antiquated spreadsheets to plan for impending leave, often shifting the responsibility from HR onto managers. In this scenario, inconsistency can leave companies open to litigation and ultimately, lost talent.
While TiLT is designed to support employees throughout the parental leave process, it also helps companies retain their top talent.
“We want to get into as many organizations, as fast as possible, to support the parents that need help navigating these waters and to help the companies maintain those people in the war for talent,” Henderson said.
The company officially launched its solution late this year, already signing on six companies. Henderson said the general persona of customers is Series B level technology startups that are placing a priority on their people and are willing to spend money to retain them.
So far, TiLT is focusing on companies in Colorado and in California as it proves out the platform.
The three-person company is currently raising a pre-seed round and intends to double its employee count in the coming months.
TiLT was also recently named to Colorado Inno’s 20 Startups to Watch in 2020 list.
