hiring with PURPOSE
how contextflow’s culture boosted the diversity of its team
AUGUST 2020
by Adriano Fontanari, Marta Gaia Zanchi
Nina Capital has a strong belief that startups made of a diverse team of individuals in terms of gender, background and ethnicity have a higher probability to succeed. We interviewed Markus Holzer, CEO of contextflow, a portfolio company of Nina Capital, on exactly that topic.
1. Hello Markus, thanks for joining this interview on diversity. Could you tell us your story and the mission of contextflow?
“contextflow is a spinoff of the Medical University of Vienna and supported by the Technical University of Vienna. After successful completion of the European research project KHRESMOI, we decided to commercialize the technology and founded the company in 2016. Over the last four years, we’ve been developing our platform from a research prototype to a medical device that we are now installing in fourteen hospitals across Europe. We also grew the team from four co-founders to now a team of 18. The mission of contextflow is to support radiologists using artificial intelligence.”
2. Does contexflow have diversity and inclusion policies?
“While we do not have D&I policies written down, they are part of our culture. Building a diverse team was something the co-founders had in mind since the very inception of the company, but it took a while before we began to realize it. In the beginning, contextflow did not have a diverse team…all four co-founders were male and had been living in Austria for a long time, albeit with a few different nationalities (e.g. South Africa, Mexico). Now we have men and women from 10 different countries speaking just as many languages. When we hire, we not only look for the best candidates that can support the company in achieving its mission, but we also try to go a step further and think about the value each individual’s background can bring.”
In the beginning, contextflow did not have a diverse team… Now we have men and women from 10 different countries speaking just as many languages.
3. Do you have any practical suggestions for a startup founder on how to increase the diversity of applicants for a new job position?
“Well, there’s some basic stuff there. You obviously can put a job offer on a website that is widely used in specific regions or strongly encourage different types of applicants to apply. Using your network to help find specific types of applicants is also helpful. In certain cases, you can simply decide to only hire, for example, a woman for a particular position. Still, the company should balance the probability of getting a high-quality fit with a candidate that satisfies the diversity criteria the company is aiming for with other key elements like hiring period. If the person will likely need a working visa, it will probably require time. The risk there is to hire people in key positions that are only able to start within three to six months due to bureaucracy. At least now we have individuals from foreign countries who are able to help new arrivals navigate the legal process.”
4. What is your definition of diversity?
“At contexflow, we have a broad definition of diversity that goes well beyond gender and ethnicity. For example, we believe deltas are important. So we consider in our definition differences in the cultural backgrounds, nationalities, and languages. Embracing an open culture is helping us to increase the diversity of applicants for new job positions. We recently posted listings for two new positions, and from 80 applications, I would say 80% were located outside of Austria/Germany.”
Embracing an open culture is helping us to increase the diversity of applicants for new job positions.
5. We talked with you in a previous interview about the major shift for startups towards remote working. It certainly opens up new opportunities in terms of talent and diversity, but it leads to new challenges for the company’s culture. How is contexflow evolving its culture while bringing equal opportunities to worldwide talent?
“Well, the pandemic has accelerated what startups were already doing: hiring remote workers, thereby enabling a truly global job market. There are indeed pros and cons to remote working, and I believe a key element to take into account is the stage of the company. Working together with the team in the office was necessary to establish the common culture that ultimately enabled contextflow to make the onboarding of new remote workers smooth. Remote working increases the diversity of applications; for some positions, it is still relevant to live close to the HQ of the company.”
6. Did you have any new hirings in the last months?
“Yes, one remote worker and one person from Vienna (HQ city), but due to the pandemic, the entire company is mostly working remotely as well. We are currently 18 on the team but only two to six people in the office every day.”
7. International hirings often require dealing with foreign regulations from a legal and fiscal perspective. What is your experience on this point?
“That is the trickiest part indeed. Employing someone in another country means that you also need to have a setup there as well, to align with the fiscal and social security laws that differ from the country where the company is based. With developers there is a bit more flexibility on the type of contracts though. Compliance with the laws is for sure a key challenge that does not have a one-size-fits-all solution. We also had experience with a person from China. It took her around six months from the moment she signed the contract to the moment she started to work in the office.”
8. What about gender diversity? How much challenging is it to hire a woman with a technical background in healthcare?
“It is very difficult to find talent, especially developers and machine learning experts. It happened that for specific positions only 3% of applications were women and for others, not even a single candidate identified as female. Gender diversity is easier in other positions such as marketing, regulatory affairs, and management. As a startup, we try to be as diverse as possible, but there is a shortage of women talent with strong expertise in machine learning. This is a societal problem where we can contribute little except to have a culture of equality that supports women once they are on our team.”
10. Do you have in mind a situation when you perceived diversity led to a positive outcome?
“There are many occasions that this happened. When we had the opportunity to attend international conferences, having international people talking the same language of locals was a deal booster, enabling opportunities that otherwise would not have happened. In general, it is something that we encounter a lot.”
Thanks to Markus Holzer, CEO of contextflow, for his availability for this interview.
