When Sarah Bernard’s friend Charlotte Dales told her about an idea for a startup designed to help those with disabilities find employment, Bernard was all ears.
“I was enamored with the idea of getting this off the ground, having myself grown up with family with close ties to the disability community,” said Bernard.
COVER STORY: Born without arms, St. Louis entrepreneur builds a company to make sure other disabled workers get the same chances
Today, Bernard and Dales are co-founders of Inclusively, a St. Louis-based technology startup launched in 2020. It has developed a jobs platform that helps companies connect and recruit employees with disabilities, chronic illnesses and military veterans. Its software allows job applicants to choose and identify accommodations they will need for job interviews and on the job with companies.
"Our vision is to create one front door to employment that’s open to all by unlocking the world’s hidden talent. We're a technology platform that makes it seamless for employers to access and hire candidates who need accommodations at scale,” said Sarah Bernard, chief operating officer of Inclusively.
Bernard said more than 50 companies use Inclusively, including Microsoft, Dell Technologies and Maryland Heights-based World Wide Technology. Companies sign up to use the technology through annual contracts, though most of its customers are on multiyear deals, Bernard said. She said Inclusively has had a customer renewal rate of 98%.
For Dales — who is Inclusively’s CEO and based in Richmond, Virginia — the concept for the startup developed out of personal experience. She told Richmond Inno, a sister publication of St. Louis Inno, that her cousin was the first licensed esthetician in the state of Florida with Down syndrome.
The creation of Inclusively melds together the skillsets of Dales and Bernard. Dales has experience as an entrepreneur, having previously been co-founder and CEO of financial technology startup Cake Technologies, which sold in 2017 to American Express. Bernard has a background in corporate sales, having been a senior account manager for market research company Forrester.
Through its jobs platform, Bernard said Inclusively is “reversing social norms” by giving candidates the ability to self-select accommodations they need during the interview process and on the job. In the past, Bernard said job candidates with disabilities have been coached by some to not share their accommodations until receiving a job offer. With its platform, Inclusively hopes it can help employees to take a more holistic approach to providing accommodations, as opposed to thinking about accessibility through the lens of compliance or on a case-by-case basis.
“If you create a really inviting and accommodating experience right off the bat from interviewing, everyone is going to benefit and it creates the same front door for everybody, regardless of your disability status,” Bernard said.
Inclusively, which has an office in downtown St. Louis at the T-REX entrepreneurship center, has a team of 27 employees. Bernard, who is based locally, said about 30% of Inclusively’s team — including its employees, board of directors and advisers — self-identifies as having a disability. The startup has used its own platform to source its employees,
Invisibly closed a seed funding round in 2021. It has been backed locally with a $50,000 grant from nonprofit startup funder Arch Grants.
While Inclusively has had success signing on big, recognizable brands to use its technology, Bernard said it has received considerable inbound interest from mid-market companies. The startup believes it has entered the market at a key time as more employers are putting an intentional focus on ensuring disability is part of their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) strategies.
“Disability has always been the last aspect that companies have considered as part of their DEI efforts,” Bernard said. “That is now changing.”
