Changemakers: Allie Fleder

It should be obvious, Allie says, but homogeneity – only recruiting people from one school or background or identity – is bad for business. “I've recommended that not only names of people and schools be removed from résumés , but names of companies too, as recruiters get so swayed by seeing Amazon or Facebook or Google that they don’t really see anything else – but of course those companies are recruiting from the same top schools, bringing in the same type of people.”

Allie’s newfound voice in the LGBTQ+ business community initially worried her family. “My mom said: ‘Allie, I don’t know if you should do this – you’re suddenly identifying yourself as LGBT across your career and this is going to be online.’” She was worried about the repercussions, that Allie would be pigeonholed or discriminated against. “My mom comes from a different generation. I told her this wasn’t something you had to hide anymore in the business world.” 

The genesis of a start-up

In autumn 2018, Allie and fellow MBA student Eliska Mallickova came up with the idea of creating luggage delivery service Sherpa. The idea came about when they were travelling in Europe. “We were students, staying in Airbnbs, but we had the same problem everywhere we went – an 11am check-out time and a flight or train at 8-9pm. So we were lugging our bags everywhere. We ended up wondering why there was there no Uber for your luggage.”

Allie and Eliska went to the LBS Hackathon fund, won the competition, and had a bit of cash to build up the idea and team. In a little over a year, they were in conversations with a company in the US about acquiring Sherpa. And after a lot of deliberation they made the decision to sell.

Over her time at the school, Allie’s identity completely shifted. “I went from doing Latin American policy to starting up. Having the infrastructure of LBS has been incredible.”

Allie acknowledges that as a white woman living in New York, she’s a privileged member of the LGBTQ+ community. “Coming out isn’t always the right thing for everyone. Some in the School’s Out in Business club [of which Allie was president while at LBS] are going back home to very different realities. They know for a fact that coming out would hurt their career, so they didn’t want to be photographed at events or listed online. It wasn’t going to go on their résumé and they needed to keep their heads down.”

But even Allie has faced discrimination in the workplace. “At some companies I’ve done consulting for, there’d be jokes about me being a dyke, when I haven’t made that joke, or about queer sex. I respond by talking to them privately about how it makes me feel.” 

Are any businesses impressing on the diversity front? “Monzo sponsored EUROUT in 2018, when 30% of their staff identified as LGBTQ+ – they’ve done so well by making diversity important early on in the recruiting process. If you do it from the beginning, it will attract people who feel comfortable in that space.”

“Since coming out and actively aligning myself in a public way with organisations by speaking on LGBTQ panels, I have elements of my resume and LinkedIn profile that say ‘LGBTQ+ leader’. The fact that it’s all out there is such a weight off my shoulders.”

Today, Allie is the cofounder and COO of SimplyWise, a fintech company in NYC. She says she has never been happier at work, and credits her career growth to her time at the School. “It was great for me in so many ways, particularly in terms of entrepreneurship and in becoming part of the LGBTQ+ community. I had a place to explore that part of my identity safely with people who, when they see I’m feeling nervous, will come up and give me a hug. The skills I built and the empathy I developed has paved the way for how I lead.”