Clusiv's SkillSet

Clusiv has built the world's first accessible e-learning & onboarding platform built for & by the blind and visually impaired. These two products solve the global problem of blind inclusion in the workforce and society as a whole. Currently, 76% of blind Americans are unemployed. Those that are employed are almost entirely relegated to menial labor for menial wages with an average salary of $27k. This has gone on so long that our society views these statistics of a capabilities issue, it isn't.

Clusiv's e-learning platform 'SkillSet' gives blind and visually impaired people the ability to learn the skills needed for remote and technical jobs from the comfort of their own home and at their own pace. 

Clusiv's accessible onboarding platform gives business of all sizes the ability to hire & train blind and visually impaired people for positions they never could have prior. 

Currently, 76% of blind Americans are unemployed. Those that are employed are almost entirely relegated to menial labor for menial wages with an average salary of $27k. This has gone on so long that our society views these statistics of a capabilities issue, it isn't.  

The solution is a remote, self paced, and accessible e-learning platform which delivers vocation track specific content and certification. The content is created to teach the blind or screen reader user how to navigate the software and platforms necessary to gain meaningful employment. 

The platform works by relaying the actual user paths to complete tasks on a task by task basis. This to-task training of the job function provides a more through education than any traditional onboarding could and removes the barrier that currently prohibits a sighted trainer or manager from training a blind employee.  

The technology used is react, machine learning, and advanced accessible engineering standards created with our blind experience engineer employees. 

Target population:

Initially, the 7.6 million blind and visually impaired Americans. Soon after the ~46 million blind and visually impaired people across the globe.  

How they're currently underserved:

The blind population is currently relegated to menial labor for menial wages. This is largely due to the space being dominated by non-profits that have not adapted to the use of technology in almost all high growth jobs.  This has led to an almost 80% unemployment rate, an average salary of $27,000, and a less than 20% successful job placement rate of blind Americans.  For context, that means if you lose your vision and can no longer perform your job there is a less than 20% chance that the government agencies designed to help you can get you into another job even a menial one. 

How we understand their needs: 

I intimately understand this population and the struggles they face due to my blind stepdad's journey after his vision loss. On a broader scale Clusiv has an ongoing partnership with the state of Florida DBS (Division of Blind Services). This partnership has produced two successful pilots and currently provides Clusiv two blind work experience employees that Florida pays to work with us.  The two pilots produced a 100% placement rate among the 15 blind pilot students with an average salary increase of 1.8x. 

How the solution addresses their needs:

Clusiv's e-learning platform 'SkillSet' gives blind and visually impaired people the ability to learn the skills needed for remote and technical jobs from the comfort of their own home and at their own pace. This breaks down the barriers between blind people and learning by removing the need for expensive transportation, covid exposure, and lackluster training. SkillSet is job track specific, remote, vocational training that gives agency back to blind and visually impaired people.

Clusiv's accessible onboarding platform gives business of all sizes the ability to hire & train blind and visually impaired people for positions they never could have prior. Our software also decreases onboarding cost and time as one trainer records the tasks and our software interprets them into the user path and experience of the screen reader user. The tasks are saved permanently meaning that the few hours of onboarding done once can train all future employees.

Clusiv provides more equitable access to the digital workforce for all, specifically those who are differently abled, and those with undervalued talents. our e-learning platform is the first training of its kind built for and by people with blindness and severe visual impairments. This inherently reduces inequalities in the digital workforce by enabling a population that has historically been left in the dark their first access to the digital workforce at scale! Prior to Clusiv, companies driven to hire differently abled blind employees couldn't because they had no way to train them. Clusiv removes this barrier. 

We are piloting our platform in the state of Florida DBS system and the Austin Lighthouse. Our pilots at this point are refining the counselor and administrative side to determine the features, data points, and student insight that best helps the counselors for our official launch.  We currently have 35 counselors and an additional 18 students utilizing and testing the platform in a focus group type setting. 

We are the first company to hire blind and visually impaired people to create and document their user experiences on software and applications needed to enter and succeed in the modern workplace. This in conjunction with subject matter expertise on accessible engineering and a continuous feedback loop of refining the user experience of our blind clients has created a first of its kind product. Clusiv has created the first user experience designed explicitly for blind and visually impaired people. 

Hosted web applications are the main technology our solution relies upon. Our content is the true differentiator along with the structure of our web applications as the user experiences is designed explicitly for the blind and visually impaired user.  Our process of having blind experience engineers create and document the pathways of task completion and software navigation is new to the industry and definitely the startup world.  Our business model is that of selling our courses like an online bootcamp or course much like MIT does. Down the road we will have an accessible onboarding platform as well which enables SMB's to enterprises the ability to hire and train blind and visually impaired people for positions they never could have prior and promote job advancement as well. 

Our pilot in the state of Florida consisted of 15 blind students seeking meaningful employment. The pilot lasted 5 weeks and resulted in a 100% job placement rate, an average of 1.8x  salary increase, a completely favorable response from the students and state. 

This pilot resulted in a LOI from the state of Florida. 

There are no inherent risks that our product introduces. The biggest risk to the company is society not adapting to blind people entering the workforce or leaders not realizing that the blocker between the blind population and the modern workforce isn't capabilities but a historic lack of relevant training.

Right now we serve roughly 15 people at one time as we conclude our pilots. At launch within 1 year, it will serve 3.5 million blind and severely visually impaired people. In 5 years we aim to be serving 8 million + people throughout the United States, United Kingdom, and South America.

Our impact goals are to have our first 100 people placed with an average salary increase of 1.8x their previous position.  

Within the next 5 years our impact goals will be having 5000 people enrolled and placed with 3 year salary increases at an average of 2.6x that of their job prior to Clusiv.  Additionally, we will have enough revenue to create an open EDU version of our product with up-skilling course all created by and for the blind community. We will then branch into the other facets of tech that improves earnings and employment rates for different abled individuals. 

We measure our graduates, their new income, and raises they receive. 

FT: 3 PT:6 Contract: 6 Work experience:3

I solved a multinational insurance companies accessibility issues when they were facing a Title III lawsuit (ADA non-compliance of digital assets) by suggesting we 1099 my blind step dad and sitting him next to me so I could implement a fix wherever he came across a break when navigating. This worked and led me to discovering the blocker between him and meaningful employment.  The team is similarly aligned and our knowledge and community connection with our end users drives product development to deliver the best solution. 

I hire the absolute best people that apply and seek out people with different mindsets, backgrounds, and cultures then mine. This has worked amazingly so far as our team is incredibly diverse with a majority of organizational leadership being female. Within Clusiv, 3 countries, 5 races/ethnicities, and 6 differently abled team members are represented. 

I am applying because I love my company, our mission and the work that we do. My life experiences, from being diagnosed with dyslexia at 7 and shoved into a trailer behind the school, to going to college as a wounded veteran at age 21, to sitting now as the last person in the Wework to hit this deadline I've always been an 'other'. I never had the typical experience, but I did have the ability to upskill, gain meaningful employment, and find my purpose as a leader in my field.

It is my mission to remove the blockers between the the blind community and their ability to do the same.  Winning, even getting to pitch on the MIT stage and educate the world on this hidden historical problem would mean the world to me and help change the world for millions of people that are currently left in the dark. 

We are currently piloting our product and running AB tests with counselors, admins, and blind students in TX, FL, and CA. 

Our partnership focus now is on the corporate side with companies like Salesforce who have widely used software that is crucial entering many high paying and remote capable jobs.  Partnerships like Salesforce and others would enable us to create a 'Salesforce for the blind' type training which benefits both Clusiv and Salesforce. We're actively pursuing this but there are hundreds of other large companies we'd like to do the same with.  

In the same means as described above the following companies are highlighted as ideal. 

Salesforce | Hubspot| Adobe | Google | Amazon | Atlassian | Oracle |  and Federal Agencies in general.