A Tech Company with a Workforce Made Up of 51% Women and 48% People of Color

“We firmly believe that the success of our business and our product will be determined by our ability to recruit and retain a high-performing team that is diverse at all levels of the company. We do not look like other Silicon Valley companies, many of whom pay lip service to diversity; for us, diversity is a key strategic advantage for our business.

There is a lot riding on Hustle’s success — more than just the outcome of a single company, Hustle is out to prove that one can build a highly successful business that is truly diverse, civically engaged, mission-driven and powered by impact. And we believe that in the future, successful companies will look less like the companies that are considered iconic today, and look more like Hustle.”

— Roddy Lindsay, CEO, Hustle

As Hustle set out to dictate diversity as one of its highest and most important shared company goals, we focused on the importance of having a specific definition of diversity to be able to set goals and measure progress. As the company grows and changes, we will continue to evolve our definition of diversity, and we invite everyone on our team to be a part of the conversation and evolution.

Diversity and Inclusion matters at Hustle. Our embodiment of employee diversity and inclusion draws on Hustle’s core values:

• Authenticity: We strive to create an inclusive space where all staff can bring their full, authentic selves to work and thrive at Hustle.
• Empowerment: We are accountable for ensuring that our teammates are engaged and empowered to make Hustle an inclusive and positive workplace.
• Impact: We believe that a workforce with a diverse set of backgrounds is essential to drive the impact we seek to create in the world through the decisions we make, the products we build, and the way we approach our partnerships.
• Respect: We appreciate and celebrate each teammate’s unique way of being in the world. We embody inclusivity through respect: being proactive, thoughtful, and quick to address issues that arise over time.

We measure ourselves on diversity in terms of sourcing, hiring, and retention on specific, measurable dimensions at Hustle, including ability, age, country of origin, ethnicity, first language, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, and veteran status.

A mountain of data proves that more diverse teams outperform less diverse teams.

In addition to our company Objectives and Key Results (OKR) defining diversity, we had an OKR to measure it. We decided to do our first company survey in April 2018. While these surveys are anonymous and optional, participation can also be a strong indicator of interest and trust from the team. We are proud to say that 93% of our 100 employees completed the survey. Here are the results:

51.1% women

20.5% LGBTQ+

33.7% first time working in tech industry

42.7% first time working at a startup

45.5% first time having equity

18.2% first language other than English

9.1% have a country of origin other than the U.S.

8% have a disability

48.3% identified as POC/having a background other than/in addition to ‘white/of European descent’
Tallied from:

• 19.1% African American/Black/of African Descent
• 10.1% LatinX/ of Latin Descent
• 14.6% Asian-American/of Asian Descent
• 4.5% Native American

*Comparison based on OpenSource data found here.

The deck we presented during our All Hands is available here.

“Hustle’s diversity and inclusion report is beyond impressive! Hustle shows the rest of the tech industry that you can focus on diversity and inclusion as an early stage startup, while fundraising and growing. Also proves that D&I is great for business.” — Wayne Sutton, Co-Founder of Tech Inclusion

As proud as we are of our numbers and our inclusive culture, we are committed to find areas of improvement. We asked ourselves, “Where Do We Go From Here?”

Hustle’s next priorities:

• In our OKRs we are committed to two equity/inclusion trainings per quarter. We are starting out next quarter with trainings on 1) bias in the workplace and 2) inclusive hiring best practices
• We see the greatest room for improvement in representation in management. We will prioritize solutions that support racial diversity in management and leadership at the company. This aligns with another company goal of supporting transparent pathways for advancement for both individual contributors and managers.
• In our next survey, based on great team feedback, we plan to offer expanded options for sharing racial background(s), be mindful to not ask questions that reinforce binary genders, and ask more questions to measure “inclusion.”

Hustle’s mission is to not only make a positive impact to our clients, but to also set an example of what’s possible when building a workforce at an early stage company.

BTW — We’re hiring passionate, driven people who want to connect their work to real, positive change in their local & global communities.

Learn more: Hustle.com/careers