Driving WinTech Community Conversation Recap in Sudbury
By Shahbano Zaman
Driving WinTech’s Canada-wide tour made its way to Greater Sudbury where its Community Conversation was held at NORCAT. The panel of trailblazing women sharing their experiences included Melanie Morin, CEO and President of StaffStat and Kelly Scott, Co-owner and General Manager of Barrydowne Paint. The panel was moderated by Hailey Short, the Marketing and Communications Coordinator for the Greater Sudbury Airport.
Questions to the panel included:
Thoughts on the current state of the tech ecosystem in Sudbury?
How did you get started in tech?
What was your biggest learning opportunity?
What resources have you encountered in your career?
What is the greatest advantage of being a women in tech?
What advice you would give to women in tech?
Kelly shared her learnings from her perspective of one in the coatings and paint industry. Her new, independent company embraces technology in order to expand and endure while competing with larger companies. They use technology for marketing and customer engagement purposes and have a vision to create digital tools like ‘chat bot paint experts’ making it easier for people to interact with their brand. She recounted her greatest learning opportunity as ‘the moment we realised we were DYI-ing it’ when the company could not afford to hire and relied on existing members. She described Sudbury as a place with multiple resources and highlighted NORCAT in particular. She noted that mentorship can be non-formal and as ad hoc as simply picking up the phone to ask a quick question. Finally, she advised to stay true to one’s vision and not give up because over time nos turn into yeses.
Melanie Morin entered the tech industry while working for Sheri Tomchick. While coordinating for work they realised the need for an automated messaging system. With nothing available in the market that fit their precise needs, they reached out to a local developer to code this vision for them, and the tool was created! It gained popularity and soon after StaffStat came into being with Sheri as Founder and Melanie the CEO. She stated that ‘Running a start-up is the best education you can never buy’ as one is forced to learn an array of skills very quickly. She noted the growth in Sudbury’s tech ecosystem attributed to its funding support, mentorship opportunities and connections. She recalled approaching mentors when they were most needed and reaching out to multiple sources. She reassured that being while a women in tech meant being underestimated at times, it also draws attention. Finally, she advised women to take advantage of their inherent intuition and to ‘Never dull your shine’.
Sudbury’s tech community is a growing one and we thoroughly enjoyed our stop there. Driving WinTech would like to thank NORCAT for providing us our venue, TimeHero for the donation of food and beverages, and our community partners: Regional Business Centre, Sudbury Chamber of Commerce, PARO Centre and the Young Professionals Association of Greater Sudbury. Without your support we could not have made this research tour a success. And a big thank you to everyone that came out to share their thoughts, ideas and experiences.
Recommendations :
Melanie:
Received funding support from: Fedmore (?), NHSC (?), Ontario Centres of Excellence also support such as mentorship, connections, contacts, in NORCAT and the greater Sudbury chamber of commerce.
People are surprised when they hear their company is from Northern Ontario – people generally assume they are from the states and southern Ontario. Proud to be from here and intend to keep this the base. It’s definitely moving on up!
Quick story of Staffset. May 2012, joined Sheri Tomchick who was founded planning health care staffing solutions agency which was growing. They were working together coordinating and on the phone all the time. Realised there HAD to be a better way to do this. Looked for an automated messaging system that they wanted their staff to use that included lots of options. Couldn’t find something that fit their precise needs. Reached out to a local developer and asked them if they could code this vision into reality. They agreed. At first it was just a trade secret within their company for about a year and a half. The long term care homes using their tool to reach their staff wanted to use it for their own staff. Sheri pitched her idea ‘Staffstat’ and won the people’s choice. Then she pitched it at the inaugural pitch event for NORCAT. Asked the question: is this happening? People love the idea, but will they BUY the idea? They went ahead with it. Melanie was told that she would be CEO and they launched in NORCAT in 2014 and people bought it! They’ve got organisations onboarding, they spread the word. So she found her way into tech representing this product. Non tech -> tech
Greatest learning over the last three years! ‘Running a start-up is the best education you can never buy’. Launching the company from ground up has taught her everything from: marketing, customer service, understanding and meeting customer needs, development, projections, understanding reconciliations.
Resources: Mentorship opportunities across Sudbury. Used them for many different people when they’ve applied most to the company. Not necessarily mentored by same person from beginning to end of the journey. Learning from valuable people through NORCAT and also just heard of them and reached out to them. Conversations with people across Canada and large entities that work in the same field but are not direct competitors. Their parent company planning is a resource because StaffSet services the healthcare industry via feedback. Also made the need apparent to them. ‘Pulling from whoever we can’ and learning along the way.
Tech is male dominated whether its programming, C level or sales. Her team was all women until recently. So a team of 5 women stood out during trade shows. ‘While you may be underestimated at times, you have the capacity to bring people to your booth just because they are curious. Just because they are wondering, ‘What are these girls doing?’ They are blown away twice over once they find out that they are in tech and from northern Ontario. 1. You stand out 2. Tend to be more intuitive which helps in relationship building with customers.
‘Never dull your shine’. She said this in a keynote elsewhere and someone responded saying that they don’t want to necessarily stand out. Wanted to program, and not do the makeup bit and attract attention. She said if that’s you, you do that! Represent yourself comfortable in your own skin.
Kelly:
Her company just got started. Took advantage of mentorship opportunities with NORCAT, get ideas. There are more resources than you think in Sudbury.
One of her company’s biggest challenges is: they are an independent paint company – small in a big industry against those dealing in billions. Working on the vision for ‘chat bot paint experts’ (AI machine learning). The venture in tech started behind a paint counter looking at consumer behaviour and people based trends – looking at how they could change the way they do business – ‘technology applied’ in a way.
Her involvement with tech originated from a need rather than an early interest or involvement in computer science.
Engagement with brands and companies is changing in a huge way and the need to keep up with that and getting ahead of it. Not a very ‘traditionally’ tech person (no coding) but more its application.
Learning opportunity: They were having trouble communicating how things flow in their industry. It was clear in her head though. Realised the vision involved reinvention and also that they cannot afford to hire anyone for this at the moment – so she’s going to do it herself. Along the way discovered that people already on the team were very good and they added more to the team. ‘The moment we realised we were DYI-ing it’
Picking up in Melanie’s point: Mentorship is not the same person from start to finish. It could be picking up the phone and asking a quick question – Sudbury is particularly good for that since people here tend to inherently be willing and helpful. Given the fact that they were so busy mentorship in the form of quick checks was very helpful. Coming up with a tool that helps sell people paint but big competition from ecommerce industry.
The paint industry is full of men – hasn’t personally felt or faced challenges with that fact. Acknowledges that it’s different for ladies learning code some key pieces can be missed if there are not enough women involved.
Advice: Going for it, making those cold calls, not letting the ‘no’s’ bring you down. Because in her case, after they’ve had time to think about it, they come back with ‘yes’ - it takes time. Stay true to your vision and don’t give up.
Q/A with audience:
Q. Not clearly audible in the audience but pertaining to being a woman, standing out and being underestimated.
Kelly: was recently at a forum where a male speaker said something impressive and followed by Kelly who made a mediocre point but still attracted attention and got a reaction because being a woman she looked, sounded and appeared different. Probably because she was underestimated.
Melanie: Her team feels the underestimation daily. They make calls to CEOs who are men 9/10 times and have the same conversation. Need to be confident and at a place where you know you are relevant and competent with a worthy product/service. Be prepared with stories, examples and numbers. If you know and love what you are doing – it will translate. So even if you are underestimated, you can prove them wrong every time. She has felt the underestimation just by walking into a room.
Q. How to you negotiate and navigate competition?
Melanie: know your competitors but don’t waste all your time and energy on them. Know what’s out there and know your differentiating factors. Your product might be replicable but not your team nor what you have done and your experience. Recognised that building a sales team and getting their product out to as many people as quickly as possible is crucial.
Kelly: At the moment there is no other paint company doing what they are, that said, she spends a lot of time connecting with people and having friends in all fields (at conferences and elsewhere). Helps her know what people are doing, what’s happened, who is where and/or at what level. Her company was the first to launch what they are doing and now they are waiting and welcome what other companies bring out (that’s similar) so they can learn from them and do better. Often companies hire developers and the problem with that is that they don’t have the same perspective as someone from the paint industry with paint under their nails – their competitive advantage.
Q. Do you think it’s the responsibility of individual companies or the government to solve the inequity of women in tech?
Melanie: if the government takes an interest in equity, which she believes it does, then the issue of policy should follow that. Doesn’t completely think that it’s the government’s responsibility though. Thinks women should take the responsibility to ‘push the envelope’ and study computer science if that’s what they want to do even if they stumble and fall (disclaimer: she didn’t take it!). If events such as this are happening, clearly there is an interest in women in tech. If women in tech is a new idea that they want to make the norm then policy should support that.
Kelly: Agrees with Melanie but notes that times are different. She has a precocious 7 year old daughter and notes that this ‘crop of 7 year olds’ will do exactly what it wants to do even if that’s tech – they are unstoppable. Thinks we do need to push ahead and make these opportunities available bit isn’t AS worried.