metalab logo
Startups
Pitch
Tempest
The Athletic
Notarize
The Yes
Waking Up
Leaders
Uber
Slack
VICE
Google
Headspace
Insider

Good product is relative. Equality isn’t.

At MetaLab, we aim to be honest, not perfect. Throughout our history of doing things a little differently, we’ve tried to be open about the mistakes we’ve made and lessons we’ve learned along the way. As we reckon with the realities of systemic racism and our role in it, our commitment to transparency and accountability remains the same.

2021 Company Statistics

18-24
3%
25-34
55%
35-44
40%
+45
2%
Age
Female
45%
Non-Binary
2%
Male
53%
Gender Identity
Asexual
2%
Pansexual
2%
Gay/Lesbian
4%
Bisexual
8%
Heterosexual
84%
Orientation
Middle Eastern
2%
Latinx
4%
Asian
13%
White
70%
Black
3%
Two or more
8%
Indigenous
0%
Race-Ethnicity
This data was sourced from an anonymous survey of the MetaLab team in June 2021. The response rate was 86%, so while we feel confident in the conclusions of this data, it may not exactly match the general MetaLab population. We will update this data annually.
Designing products for billions of people is a privilege that we’ve been taking for granted. Our predominantly white perspective has created blind spots in both the quality of our work and the culture of our company. To do right by our clients, our team, and everyone who uses our products, we’re taking systemic, measurable action to promote greater diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging at MetaLab and beyond. It’s our moral obligation to build products that serve people from all walks of life.

Gender Identity & Job Level

 
Male
Female
Non-binary
leadership
lead
senior
mid-level
Entry
50%
65%
59%
41%
0%
50%
31%
36%
59%
100%
0%
4%
5%
0%
0%

Ethnicity & Job Level

 
Middle Eastern
Latinx
Asian
White
Black
Two or more
Indigenous
leadership
lead
senior
mid-level
Entry
4%
0%
3%
0%
0%
0%
0%
5%
7%
25%
9%
15%
13%
17%
0%
74%
77%
64%
69%
50%
0%
0%
5%
3%
25%
13%
8%
10%
4%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%

Our Commitments

Representation, Equity, & Growth

  • We will maintain equitable pay across all roles and examine promotion and growth opportunities for BIPOC employees, reducing any barriers that may exist
  • We will shift our hiring mentality from looking for “culture add” over “culture fit” to diversify and thereby strengthen the range of perspectives that exist on our team
  • We will increase equal representation throughout the organization by focusing our recruitment and outreach efforts on a more diverse range of communities
  • We will continue to update our hiring processes and policies to reduce unconscious bias by providing training to all interviewers

Training & Education

  • We will engage an external Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion consultant to help us shape a sustainable and systemic strategy for long-term action and growth
  • We will require mandatory DEI training for all employees, starting with leadership
  • We will reimburse employees for the costs of all anti-racist educational materials

Organizational Change

  • We will establish an internal DEI Work Group to encourage employee participation and action, protecting dedicated time and resources for their involvement
  • We will support the formation of Employee Resource Groups to better foster a culture of inclusion and belonging, providing these groups with dedicated budgets and resources
  • We will invest in tools and processes that allow for more psychological safety in competing viewpoints and self-expression
  • We will conduct annual DEI surveys to understand how we’re missing and/or meeting the mark with our team, as well as define a shared DEI vocabulary to better understand the intent and meaning behind the words we use

Community Investment

  • We commit $1M in services over the next two years to Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC)-led startups and social impact products
  • We will award STEAM-focused scholarships to two BIPOC students in design and technology

Measurable Outcomes

As we continue to expand our understanding of how to get this “right,” we’re extremely grateful for resources like the one developed by Project Include. They’re setting industry standards for the tech community and beyond, and their list of recommendations is accessible and clear. Inclusion, comprehensiveness, and accountability are the path forward.

To that end, we’ll be tracking and sharing our progress internally on Notion, outlining our goals, plans, actions, and measurable outcomes. Publicly, we’ll be updating this page as well as our social media to keep everyone else up to date. Ultimately, we hope to reflect on this inflection point in history as a moment in time when we did the right thing, individually and together.

We hope you’ll join us.

Community Investment Updates

We invested in partnerships with BIPOC entrepreneurs to launch social impact products that combat white supremacy and improve representation in the tech industry.

Anti-Racism Daily

Anti-Racism Daily provides anti-racism education and inspiration through online courses, speaking events, email subscriptions, and as a Slack app we helped build.
arrow icon pointing right
Install the Slack app

Nappy.co

Nappy offers beautiful photos of Black and Brown people, for free. We collaborated with them to create the All Hands collection, a free set of photos for product mockups.
arrow icon pointing right
View the collection