Invisible Strengths: A platform for jobseekers with invisible disabilities

Editor’s note: At the start of the year, we look at which young companies have caught our eye for hitting a milestone, bringing in funding or growing its revenue base. This company has made our list of our Startups to Watch for 2023. See them all here.

In 2019, Mariah Barber was diagnosed with keratoconus, an eye condition that dramatically altered her vision. She had been working in public health, as a project and grants manager, for eight years when her sudden change in circumstances forced her to figure out how to navigate human resources and advocate for the accommodations she needed to do her job.

And that, she said, was a painfully cumbersome process.

“I wanted to make it a better experience for the next person coming behind me,” Barber said, “that they could access a more seamless way to figure out what accommodation options there are out there and how to get started on figuring out which one could best support you and your role.”

She partnered with Lauren Mills, whom she’s known for 17 years and who went through a similar experience when she suffered from preeclampsia, a pregnancy disorder. Together, they decided to create an infrastructure to address disparities against those with disabilities, chronic diseases and short-term conditions. Thus, Invisible Strengths was born.

It’s a mobile app and online support network that uses AI-powered technology to suggest work accommodations for business applicants and diversity, equity and inclusion training tools for companies looking to improve their culture. It goes beyond your traditional definition of disability.

“We focus on those who are intersectional,” Barber, CEO, said about apps users. “So again, women, those in the LGBT community, BIPOC community that have chronic conditions or disabilities. This is the first time that we’re doing inclusive design in this way, so the whole application from beginning to end has been created with us in mind, by us.”

This year, Invisible Strengths plans to launch a pilot subscription service model with 10 businesses — a growth opportunity Barber estimates could yield more than $350,000 in recurring revenue — and a freemium model for up to 150 job seekers. Across the company, she forecasts upward of $4.2 million in revenue by 2025, as it looks to help fill jobs equitably in the financial services, private education and health services sectors.

The startup is a serial student itself, having graduated from both the BIPOC Cohort Accelerator run by 2Gether-International, a D.C. nonprofit that supports entrepreneurs with disabilities, and Halcyon’s Opportunity Intensive incubator in Georgetown. With those in the rear-view mirror, it plans to leap into its next stage of growth with plans to raise a $1.5 million pre-seed round and expand its two-person team to 10.

The basics