In the hiring process, for example, Giant Leap uses a platform called Applied [MP note: Giant Leap is an investor in this company]. We don’t look at CVs, we don’t look at names when reviewing candidates, we simply look at their responses.
We just hired an analyst. We asked, for example, what’s the market size of one of our portfolio companies. And so candidates would step out their workings, and provide that answer, and we’d review all those answers at once with no prior knowledge of who that candidate was. That kind of mechanism helps to remove the unconscious bias from the process like hiring to then try and create a more balanced investment team.
We’ve foundationally set a diversity, equity and inclusion policy, which outlines all of our processes and targets around what we want to see from an investment team perspective, and operational perspective. So coming back to your question around what can be done – I think that being very intentional about a fair and inclusive processes, and also setting targets and being transparent. And as you note, 60 per cent of our portfolio are women-led businesses.