Andrea Guendelman is a Chilean immigrant, entrepreneur and former lawyer. She is a leading force in creating platforms for minority professionals and the tech industry. Through her own experiences as a Harvard-trained corporate lawyer and an entrepreneur, she co-created Bevisiblelatinx, Wallbreakers and most recently, Speak_ (Techstars 2025), an AI HR Tech platfrom to help recruiters find talent faster and free of bias.

Through her deep and varied background, Andrea has come to embody an inspiring and unique kind of alchemy, fluidly transitioning between the worlds of business and spiritual growth. Her strength derives from the intersection of these forces and allows her to bring a unique energy and mindfulness forged with a keen business acumen to her work, the speaking stage, and to those around her.

Andrea has curated major conferences and festivals on social entrepreneurship, technology, and diversity, drawing hundreds or thousands of individuals, and speakers and performers ranging from Al Gore to Devendra Banhart.

Earlier in her career, Andrea worked as a finance lawyer at the international law firm of Debevoise and Plimpton and at the Export-Import Bank of the United States. Andrea earned law degrees from Harvard Law School and the University of Chile. She is in the Executive MBA program at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. Andrea has received significant media exposure and is considered a thought leader in the topics of Latinx career building and creating diverse workforces.

What does your company do, and why is it important?

Speak_ helps recruiters identify real, qualified candidates — fast.

We cut through resume noise with custom scoring and detect fake profiles before they reach the interview stage. In a hiring market overwhelmed by bots and deepfakes, we restore trust and make hiring fair again.

How is what you are building disrupting your industry?

We’re disrupting hiring by tackling the growing threat of fake candidates — something traditional tools ignore. While others focus on workflow automation, Speak_ is the first to combine resume scoring with fraud detection, giving recruiters a way to trust what they’re seeing and surface real talent fast. We're not just streamlining hiring — we're restoring its integrity.

What advice would you give aspiring entrepreneurs who are just starting their journey?

Build for a real problem — and stay close to it. Talk to your users constantly. Don’t fall in love with your idea; fall in love with solving their pain. And remember: resilience matters more than perfection. The winners are the ones who don’t quit.

What has been your proudest moment or biggest triumph in your entrepreneurial journey?

Getting Amazon to use our platform for all entry-level software engineering hires was a huge milestone. Not just because of the name — but because it proved that even the biggest companies need better ways to find real, qualified talent. It validated our mission and showed that we could solve a problem at scale.

Are there any lessons you've learned along the way that you wish someone had shared with you when you started?

The biggest lesson? Stay close to your passion and trust your instincts.

There’s so much noise — advice, metrics, opinions — but the real breakthroughs came when I followed what felt deeply true to me, even if it didn’t make sense on paper. Your instincts are your edge. Don’t ignore them.

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