Leveling the Playing Field: How 3x Founder Andrea Guendelman Is Helping Underrepresented Individuals Break Into Tech

May 28

Andrea Guendelman, CEO of Speak_, is building a solution for recruiting underrepresented individuals into tech roles.

Throughout her career, Andrea personally witnessed how few minority individuals were represented in the tech industry due to the lack of support, resources, and mentorship available to them. To address the minority talent gap, Andrea founded Speak_, a talent incubator focused on streamlining the interview process and enhancing the candidate experience, while simultaneously reducing bias and leveling the tech playing field. Today, Andrea is pursuing her mission of diversifying tech by creating opportunities such as free interview preparation and courses to adequately prepare potentially non-traditional candidates for the hiring process. And she’s leaning into her feminine energy as she continues to develop her business and find joy on a personal level.

We asked Andrea about the most challenging and impactful lessons she’s learned within entrepreneurship, how to lean into your feminine energy, and what’s next for her and Speak_.

Q: Tell us the story behind the founding of your company. How and why did you start working on Speak_?

A: Speak_ emerged directly from my winding career path. I came to the United States with little sense of how to “play the game” of finding a job and charting a career path. But I benefited immensely from a network of mentors. A move to a quieter corner of the country made me realize how many other Latinas desperately needed a similar network. Yet another move across states opened my eyes to the need for a better recruiting model for tech that would serve both tech companies starved for talent and underrepresented individuals hungry for opportunities.

I moved to the United States from Santiago, Chile to attend Harvard Law School in 1997. After graduation, I worked as a finance lawyer for a Wall Street firm and then for a federal government agency. After moving to New Mexico for my husband’s job in 2007, I became keenly aware of the large number of hypersmart local Latina teens who did not have any idea of the range of college and career choices available to them. They lacked mentoring and advice, not talent. I saw a surprising and sad reason that Latinas were underrepresented at the highest-ranked universities.

A few years later, I moved to Boulder, Colorado and immersed myself in the booming startup scene. I noticed there were almost no minorities. I started to ask myself how I could expose the Latino population to these interesting opportunities in tech, and I decided to create an online career networking platform for Latinx called BeVisible. After selling that company a few years later, I decided to focus on diversifying tech from the point of view of the employer. In other words, I looked at the same set of facts and the same set of challenges from the other perspective. In some ways, my career as a lawyer still comes back to me in unexpected ways. Addressing the minority talent gap as part of the talent race for tech employers created the genesis for Speak_.

Q: What problem does Speak_ solve?

A: Speak_ helps tech companies diversify their workforce while winning the talent game and making their hiring process more efficient and effective. We help companies recognize the power of diverse hiring by treating the recruiting process as an engineering problem that can be redesigned.

Tech companies face a significant diversity shortfall, as seen in the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission statistics. The agency found that, “Compared to the overall private industry, the high-tech sector employs a larger share of whites and men, and a smaller share of African Americans, Hispanics, and women.” Browbeating or window dressing won’t address this. Speak_ looks at this issue from the employer’s eyes. How does a company stop losing out on talented individuals while ensuring that it has new recruits who can contribute to teams on day one and can earn the loyalty of those individuals for long term retention—all while keeping hiring processes lean and effective?

Speak_ meets these needs by reengineering the hiring process. Based on extensive research, we have broken the challenge into two pieces. First, a large portion of underrepresented talent is rejected at the top of the hiring funnel. Research shows that many candidates remove themselves from the process too early because they lack awareness about the interview process. Second, employers often conserve time by over-relying on resumes and traditional badges of merit like degrees from Top 10 schools. This means they miss a lot of hidden gems—think of those Latinas I knew in Albuquerque. But even Silicon Valley interview techniques—like problem solving simulations—don’t spot talent when the talent doesn’t understand the game and its rules.

Speak_ addresses this issue by providing free interview preparation for candidates and developing branded courses for companies that prepare non-traditional candidates to move seamlessly through their unique hiring process.

Q: What are some of the most meaningful impacts Speak_ has had so far?

A: Speak_ has helped companies such as Amazon and Roblox convert candidates at higher rates and give them a positive experience. This increases the interview-to-hire ratio, helps companies to immediately diversify their teams, and ensures candidates land desirable positions in their field.

Transparency hasn’t always been highly valued in the workplace. Organizations kept and still keep finances, key decisions, and even the specifics of certain roles under wraps. However, as the expectations of workers shift and companies amend practices to keep up, forward-thinking workplaces are embracing transparency. Candidates are demanding transparency in every aspect of the job process, from salary to the interview process, steps, and expectations.

Not embracing the era of transparency will cost attracting ideal candidates and losing them once they are in the process. It will also lead to a lack of diversity and bad reviews. You will not get the applications; instead, you will get withdrawals and reneges.

Q: What makes Speak_ different from other, similar companies?

A: Our mission is to revolutionize the way interviews are conducted by placing a strong emphasis on preparation, communication, and transparency. We believe that the key to a successful interview is a shared understanding of goals and expectations, as well as a commitment to open and honest dialogue.

We are committed to empowering both interviewers and candidates with the tools and resources they need to succeed. This means providing comprehensive training and support for interviewers, as well as offering candidates access to a wealth of information about their target company, such as culture and expectations of the specific role they are applying for.

Q: In what ways has your upbringing or past experiences contributed to how you operate as an entrepreneur?

A: I spent my formative years in Chile during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, a time of limited creativity and freedom of expression. I was raised Jewish, which made me part of an extremely small minority in a country where Roman Catholicism is predominant. This minority status made me very aware of the importance of inclusion and fostering a sense of belonging for all.

My family was a huge factor in how I decided what I wanted my future to look like. I come from immigrants. My mother immigrated from Romania, and my father was the son of immigrants. They had to reinvent themselves in a foreign country and create something from nothing. Their stories have shaped who I am.

When I was searching for law firm jobs after I graduated, I leaned on the Harvard alum network to get me introductions and interviews with the right people. That’s when I realized the power of networks to open doors. Through Speak_, I want to make those networks accessible to everyone regardless of their alma mater—leveling the playing field, so to speak.

Q: Did you always know that you wanted to be an entrepreneur?

A: I’d say my entrepreneurial traits are ancestral. My Romanian mother and her parents fled Communism, survived the Nazis, and settled in Chile. Arriving almost penniless, my grandfather on my father’s side managed to reinvent himself and make a good life for his family. My father is a Chilean national who completed his Ph.D. at UC Berkeley. His father went from being a door-to-door salesman to founding a successful department store. Seeing my family rise above challenges taught me that I could accomplish anything as a woman and a minority.

As a young girl, I aspired to be an actress, that is, until I asked myself, “What would I want to be if I was a boy?” The answer was a lawyer. My family expected me to marry young and marry well. Instead, I chose to leave Chile, emigrate to the U.S., and pursue a law degree at Harvard. After practicing law in New York, Washington D.C., and New Mexico, and not liking it at all, I started to imagine switching careers. I wanted to try something different; something creative. But I didn’t have any idea what that “something” was.

I quit my job, and I was soon offered an entirely different opportunity back in my home country of Chile to produce a massive streamed rock concert sponsored by Verizon, promoting social entrepreneurship. I invited Al Gore, who came and spoke about social entrepreneurship and sustainability to an audience of 10,000 people. That’s when my life completely changed course and I decided to focus on building a business full-time—a business that could provide underrepresented people with the power of a network to find jobs and make big things happen.

Q: What’s one thing you wish you had known before starting Speak_?

A: When the pandemic began, hiring froze, and several contracts were canceled. I thought that it would be the end of the venture. With the intention of helping other sectors, I created a portal named My Inner Goddess, where reiki or meditation teachers, among other disciplines related to health and spiritual well-being, could offer their services online.

As an entrepreneur, I have had to rely on spiritual tools like meditation, mindfulness, and visualizations. Building risk tolerance is not easy, so spiritual tools have been important to my career growth. I wish I’d had access to this feminine wisdom earlier in my career. I have learned that being centered, calm, and grounded is imperative before making an important decision.

Q: What were the most challenging and impactful lessons you’ve learned since starting and running a company?

A: Do not take anything personally; keep going despite any setback; and to create strong relationships with people who will support you no matter what. Surround yourself with positive energy and enthusiastic people.

I have also learned that you have to separate yourself and your identity from your business and remain objective as much as possible. Finally, I have learned that cash is king. Without money, you don’t have a business.

Q: What’s been the hardest and most rewarding part of your entrepreneurial journey?

A: The hardest part was being away from my children when they were young. I had to travel a lot and attend events to scout out potential clients, and I really missed my children and they missed their mom. The most rewarding part has been clearly identifying a problem and providing a solution for candidates, especially from underrepresented backgrounds to achieve success, and at the same time providing customers a solution to their problems.

Q: What’s the biggest misconception that others have around entrepreneurship?

A: Entrepreneurship is a very masculine world; that it is exclusively about P&L, projections, and data. We think of masculine energy as inflexible, black and white, and logical. There’s a tactical plan to follow and you’re not supposed to rely on intuition. But I have learned how to lean into feminine energy, including practices that support self care, intuition, and finding flow. I ask myself important questions, looking within myself for the answers instead of looking outwards. I have been working on passing on these teachings to others, working with both men and women on their entrepreneurial processes, with a focus on developing intuition as a key tool for entrepreneurial success.

Q: What would you tell your younger self if you were to start your entrepreneurial journey all over again?

A: I would tell my younger self to follow my intuition and always do what gives me joy. If you’re not feeling joy, ask yourself what needs to change. Knowing yourself deeply allows you to make the decisions that are aligned with your best interest. Learn to trust in yourself as much as possible.

Leveling the Playing Field: How 3x Founder Andrea Guendelman Is Helping Underrepresented Individuals Break Into Tech

Tertulias — Boulder, CO