Arsh Haque knows firsthand the shifting world of DEI as budgets have been slashed but people are still reaching out for help to do the work.
Haque is director of the Portland State Business Accelerator where they lead the center with a DEI lens. This ensures founders from marginalized and underrepresented identities can be successful. They consult with teams around the university and others on diversity, equity and inclusion.
Now they are adding entrepreneurship back into their title as founder of the Henna, a platform for building AI-powered DEI consultants. They remain in their leadership role at PSU.
Henna is a web app that lets users ask the same questions and go through the same process they would if they worked with Haque. It starts with creating an account and then having a conversation with a chatbot that has been trained on the Haque’s work. Haque noted that early users have said talking with the chatbot reads like talking with Haque.
Users introduce themselves and identify their values and the conversation distills what the user cares about, said Haque. The chatbot can help users understand what they mean when they talk about inclusivity and how to shape policy or shape their work.
Haque noted that this is a similar workflow they have when working with clients though listening sessions and emails seeking input. Haque has been honing his own DEI consulting working with teams within PSU.
“My bandwidth has been such that I need to recommend other folks to do this work. I saw the market gap,” they said. “DEI budgets are different this year. So those referrals (would come in over budget).”
Henna launched earlier this month. Haque’s co-founder and the company’s CTO is Joel Porter. The duo received support from 4.0 Schools through the Tiny Fellows program to fund building this initial version of the product.
Haque added that PSU has also been an important collaborator as they have built the Henna platform.
So far, the startup has had the first 25 users of the chatbot onboard. The team is gathering feedback and testing the system. It’s designed to work on the team level, said Haque. So individual members can work through their own questions and discussions.
Haque noted it's designed to work at scale but have granular impact on what people are doing in their jobs.
With these early users the team is watching “how it changes someone’s relationship to DEI burnout and enthusiasm for the work or how personal values align with the values of the team,” Haque said. “It’s the same variables I look at as a consultant.”
Haque is going down the investor funding path and in talks with various organizations.
