Creating Inclusive Spaces - Élance

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Tina Pranjic, Co-Founder of Élance, located in Montreal, QC, Canada.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

My co-founder, Dahlia Jiwan, and I founded Élance. We offer diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) software to help businesses create more inclusive work environments. It's a turnkey solution offering: diversity statistics, DEI diagnostics, all-employee training, and organizational recommendations. Our target customers are businesses with over 500 employees.

Tell us about yourself

As a queer second-generation immigrant, I have always been concerned with questions regarding DEI. I realized it was a struggle for leaders to put concrete actions in place to create more inclusive work environments.

When I met my co-founder and realized we had a similar vision with regard to DEI, we decided to team up and find a solution that fit the needs of the market. With our technology, we can predict, recommend and measure the best concrete adapted solutions for our clients. Our technology also offers personalized training to each of our users.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

As a business owner, my biggest accomplishment is building a great team that makes our vision come true: building a product that is innovative in DEI and answering our client's needs. But most importantly, we do it while having FUN!

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

You have to be brave. I think people often say it is stressful being a business owner, but truthfully: I believe it's scary. You are constantly being thrown in different directions, with new challenges and doubts nothing like bravery to keep you going amidst these challenges!

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

1. Find the right support. Having support and a complementary team will get you far and hold you up in the face of these challenges.
2. VALIDATE! Validate, validate, and always re-validate. Make sure to validate your hypotheses with your customers, make sure you answer to your customer's needs, and always continue the development of your products/services based on their reviews, needs, and priority. It is easy to get lost in our hypotheses and our vision: however, our customers are the ones who should guide our development.
3. Have FUN! Make sure you know how to make the process fun because challenges are a promise. Therefore, you have to keep the fun alive. Also, just don't wait for the right moment; there is none!

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://elancedei.com/fr/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ElanceDEI

LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tina-pranjic/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/élance/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

Turn your craft into recurring revenue with Subkit. Start your subscription offering in minutes and supercharge it with growth levers. Get early access here.