“Don’t support me—change the room that I walk into.”
Tom Sebastian opened with this provocative line from an entrepreneur with a disability. It reframes inclusion as systems design, not charity: changing the rules, formats, and incentives so people, regardless of gender, disability, geography, income, or identity, can participate fully and fairly.
In practice, that means redesigning what sits behind every program: how you hire, how you recruit, how you screen, how you deliver content, how you evaluate, and how you support founders after the cohort ends.
Seedstars described their approach in three layers.
Layer 1: Build inclusion from the inside out
Internal practices shape what you design externally. Seedstars started by examining and adjusting their own systems first.
- Use skills-first hiring. Reduce reliance on pedigree and expand pathways for talent from emerging markets and underserved regions.
- Run global hiring panels. Include interviewers from three or more regions so every candidate is assessed through multiple perspectives—not a single-market lens.
- Standardize salary bands. Remove negotiation penalties that can amplify inequities for women and early-career hires.
- Rotate facilitation roles. Distribute airtime and decision power in meetings to increase psychological safety and surface ideas that might otherwise be missed.
Layer 2: Treat inclusion as a growth strategy
Inclusion expands deal flow and can improve founder outcomes—not by “adding diversity,” but by removing filters that unintentionally screen out strong entrepreneurs.
Seedstars shared several program design changes and what they observed:
- Offer alternative application formats. After adding video submissions, Seedstars saw a 22% rise in women applicants across Asia and Africa.
- Make pitch environments accessible. Captioned pitch rooms and flexible timing helped founders with disabilities participate on equal footing.
- Screen for evidence, not performance style. By shifting screening questions toward evidence of demand (rather than “pitch strength”), Seedstars surfaced founders who had been overlooked because the system favored a particular communication style—not capability.
Inclusion isn’t about optics. It’s about identifying talent and innovation your current system may be missing.
Layer 3: Use structured, accessible evaluation
Seedstars emphasized evaluation practices that reduce bias and increase fairness for everyone—scorecards, blinding, and accessibility adjustments.
Based on internal evaluation, they reported outcomes including:
- Evidence-based scorecards were associated with a 31% increase in acceptance of women-led startups.
- Blinded early-stage reviews reduced the influence of name and gender cues and lowered reviewer disagreement, keeping focus on the substance of applications.
- Multiple evaluation formats (text, voice note, or video) doubled completion rates among rural founders, recognizing that founders communicate and connect in different ways.
The SEED Inclusivity Program: learning from lived experience
Tom described Seedstars’ first program, which was built around founders with disabilities and those leading assistive technology companies. A key design decision was to hire a Program Lead with lived experience of disability—ensuring that accessibility and support were built into the program’s day-to-day decisions, not treated as an add-on.
Map barriers, not just demographics
Demographics tell you who people are. Barriers tell you what they need. When you design for barriers, you create systems that work better for everyone.
Examples from Seedstars’ approach:
- Connectivity barrier: A move to asynchronous, mobile-first content (including WhatsApp and Telegram) resulted in 40% increased participation in rural areas, reflecting uneven access to reliable high-speed internet.
- Network barrier: To address investor access gaps, Seedstars created “warm intro days,” matching 140+ women founders with investors in 2024.
- Confidence barrier: Pricing clinics helped address systematic undervaluation; Seedstars reported higher average contract value as founders strengthened pricing and negotiation.
- Accessibility barrier: Deaf founders needed sign-language support; Seedstars added interpreters alongside captioning to enable full participation.
Make accessibility standard
Integrate accessibility into every program element. When you design for accessibility, you often improve the experience for everyone.
- Use WCAG-compliant materials. Make slides and PDFs usable across ability needs.
- Caption live sessions by default. Captioning supports disabled founders, non-native speakers, and anyone joining from noisy environments.
- Provide offline options. Offline modules reduce dropouts where connectivity is unstable.
- Offer sessions at multiple times. Scheduling flexibility helps caregivers participate consistently.
Build mentorship around founder’s needs
Pair founders with mentors based on barriers and lived experience, not just sector expertise.
From their mentor community (1,150+ mentors), they shared practices such as:
- Match mentors to specific founder challenges. Women founders often sought coaching on negotiation and investor dynamics; investment readiness scores improved after targeted support.
- Recruit mentors with disability-community experience. Disability-founded startups benefited from mentors who understand assistive-tech and disability communities beyond theory.
- Brief mentors on inclusive support. A short training video improved founder satisfaction by clarifying how to offer relevant guidance.
- Use structured debriefs. Regular check-ins help detect mismatches early and correct course quickly.
Support founders beyond program end
Create a continuum of support through alumni, capital, and advisory. Building a business doesn’t end when a program does.
Reported practices include:
- 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-ups to identify issues early and offer targeted support.
- Alumni peer groups (e.g., WhatsApp communities) for fast, founder-to-founder problem-solving.
- Post-program investor office hours, which supported founders who needed more time to become investment-ready.
- Links to corporate procurement to create revenue opportunities—not just pitch practice.
Reported results
The 15 companies in the cohort generated $3.4 million in revenue. They raised $12.8 million in investments. They created almost 1,200 jobs, supported 6,400 SMEs, impacted almost 750,000 people with disabilities, and reached 2.97 million people in 6 months.
These results surpassed expectations. The broader takeaway: when programs are designed to remove barriers—across recruitment, evaluation, delivery, and follow-on support—more founders can demonstrate what they can do, and systems become better at recognizing talent.
How Seedstars uses Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning to reduce exclusion while programs are still running.
- Implement structured scorecards to reduce bias
- Offer multiple application formats to welcome different communication styles
- Add captions and accessibility features as standard practice
- Track attendance and performance by demographic to identify patterns
- Use barrier-based segmentation (not identity-only) to understand what people need
- Provide mentor training on inclusive support
- Allow non-linear participation (recordings, flexible timing) to accommodate schedules
- Create alumni pathways from day one to build lasting community
- Use weekly pulse surveys to catch issues before they become crises
- Partner with local organizations representing target groups (e.g., disability organizations) to learn from lived experience
Our ANDE Asia Access & Opportunity Learning Lab is designed to facilitate active learning, experimentation, collaboration, and problem-solving, allowing participants to gain practical skills and knowledge through real-world scenarios with a primary focus on implementing disability and gender inclusion measures in an organization.