ReadySet’s Origin Story

When it comes to origin stories, there's something almost magical about hearing how a person or organization got their start. Origin stories allow us to connect with others on a deeper level and understand the trajectory that led them to where they are today. They provide context for why someone or something exists and often reveal the values and aspirations that underlie their work.

At ReadySet, we believe that every individual and organization has a unique origin story that deserves to be shared. Check out the video below to learn about ReadySet’s origin story from Y-Vonne Hutchinson, ReadySet’s Founder and CEO.

Y-Vonne Hutchinson, the Founder and CEO of ReadySet, shares the origin story of the company. She founded ReadySet in 2015 as a diversity, equity, and inclusion firm that has since evolved to serve clients in a variety of ways through strategy consulting, learning and development, and executive coaching.

Transcript (Y-Vonne):

“Yeah, okay, so ReadySet's origin story, you know, I like to say there's kind of the official version of ReadySet's origin story and then the unofficial version.

And both are true, you know, two things can be true at once.

The official version is, you know, I spent 10 years working as an international human rights lawyer and labor rights advocate, and I started my career in war zones. I was working in Afghanistan and then I was working within in refugee camps on the Thai-Burma border, and I really kind of thought about, violence and justice is something that was exceptional, you know, and in those terms and that framing of exceptional circumstances.

But gradually, my career moved me towards these protracted human rights emergencies. So, in the last role I had, I was working with sugarcane workers in Nicaragua who were dying of occupational disease. And there, I really saw the kind of two-sided nature of work where people were working for opportunity but they also knew that work was what was killing them, right, and they made that conscious choice. And it sort of, it woke me up to the real power of structural violence, you know, in that situation.

I like to say in the kind of the--the, the town where the largest sugar cane plantation was headquartered, you couldn't get like lunch, you know, after like 1pm, like places just shut down during the day, but there were 24-hour coffin shops, right, because of the scale of violence that was happening and, at the same time, I was seeing that workers were really being impacted in what we were calling the future of work, right, the rise in technology, greater, you know, casualization or third-party employment, and so it just really became clear to me that that was the issue, it was the issue that affects all of us is, is how we work.

And, when I came back to the U.S, it really became apparent to me that DEI was the future of work issue. What kind of opportunities people got to have, how folks were treated at work, and the kind of physical and psychological impact that had on them, and then the overall social impact that these companies that weren't diverse or inclusive were having on the world. And I have to say, it was 2015 and so this was like the rise of Big Tech and we were seeing that influence everywhere and so that's kind of what--what got me to start  ReadySet. That is the official story for the sake of time.

I will tell you the unofficial story  very quickly. I was working in a toxic environment. I was a Black woman working in a toxic environment, and I wanted to take charge of my own destiny, and I wanted to make it so that other people didn't have to experience what I was experiencing.

I think, you know, at the end of the day, you can think intellectually about the future of work all you want, but that--that unofficial story is really what continues to drive me today.”