The Superpowers of Intersectionality: The Success Story of Virtual Gurus

[00:00:00] Calan Breckon: Need a few hours of support or a full time assistant to power your productivity. Virtual Gurus gives you your time back so that you can focus on what truly matters, growing your business. Now I want to be clear, this episode is not sponsored by Virtual Gurus, but I absolutely love Bobbie and she was kind enough to extend a $200 savings to listeners if they visit thevirtualgurus.com/vip. Virtual Gurus creates employment opportunities for traditionally underrepresented communities. Their gurus bring unique perspectives and experiences to your team while helping you meet your diversity, equity and inclusion, and environmental, social and governance goals. When you choose Virtual Gurus, you’re contributing to a larger mission: That mission is being a world where everyone belongs. Now, again, you can claim that $200 by going to thevirtualgurus.com/vip. Now let’s get into today’s episode.

Welcome to the Business Gay Podcast where we talk about all things business, marketing, and entrepreneurship. I’m your host Calan Breckon and on today’s episode I have Founder and CEO of Virtual Gurus, Bobbie Racette.

Bobbie is a Cree-Metis 2SLGBTQI+ entrepreneur with an unmatched ability to drive change and empower historically underrepresented communities through equitable remote work opportunities. Her passion has created a community of diverse talents where “no” is not an option.

Virtual Gurus is North America’s Largest Talent-place platform that harnesses the power of machine learning to match freelancers with businesses of all sizes. Bobbie was named Indigenous Entrepreneur of the Year 2022, EY Entrepreneur of the Year finalist 2023, and has been bestowed the Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year award by the University of Victoria’s Gustavson School of Business 2023. She is also the inaugural Chair of the Board of Directors for the Indigenous Prosperity Foundation and a board member of the Telus Future Friendly Foundation.

Before we start today I’d like to acknowledge that this episode is being recorded on the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples and is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. We Honour the nations who have called Toronto home and encourage you to learn more with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at nctr.ca And with that, let’s jump in with Bobbie.

Welcome to the show, Bobbie. I am so excited to have you. How are you doing?

[00:02:41] Bobbie Racette: Hi, Calan. I’m great. I’m so excited to be here.

[00:02:45] Calan Breckon: Yes, queer. Well, when we were at QueerTech, and I saw you. I was like, yes, I have to talk to Bobbie. This is the perfect opportunity. So thank you so much.

[00:02:53] Bobbie Racette: No problem. Anything to support my fellow queers.

[00:02:57] Calan Breckon: Yes. All right, so I want to jump right into it. You’re indigenous. You’re queer. You’re a woman. It’s kind of like the triple whammy when it comes to the intersectionality of folks who usually struggle in getting funded as entrepreneurs.

Most people would take that in the negative route. I’m actually really curious. How did you end up using these as your super superpowers when building virtual gurus?

[00:03:23] Bobbie Racette: You know, I love that question. A few years ago, up until a few years ago, I should say I actually never used my, we’ll call it trifecta as a superpower. In fact, I shied away from it. And virtual cruise was still kind of growing, but we weren’t growing to the needs into where we knew we could go. We weren’t growing there. We weren’t getting there. And then some of the media and some of the people started catching on. Hey, wait, you’re. You’re an indigenous woman in tech? Like, that’s. That’s really unheard of. In fact, I think I’m one of the first indigenous women in tech CEO’s in Canada. And I. I started thinking, wait, you know, I should. I shouldn’t shy away from telling my story. And so I started kind of playing with it a little bit more and then doing some. Some podcasts or some media interviews and. And then I started realizing that all of the people like me who have been told no. Have been told to not talk about their identity, have been told all of that their whole lives, including me, including my moms, who are also lesbian.

And then that’s when I thought, you know what? I’m going to do this. I’m creating a platform for people who are from the underserved communities, for people who have been told no. So if I’m not going to shout it out to the world, then how do I expect them to, and how do I expect them to feel safe? So ever since I kind of, you know, opens that door a few years ago, it’s just been explicitly loading. And virtual gurus is now one of the top 100 fastest growing companies in Canada, according to the Globe and Mail. And now we’ve just exploded. And it’s amazing to see because it actually is medicine for me to speak my true truth, to say, hey, this is who I am.

And so now a lot of people call me a trifecta. And I’ve learned to love that name.

[00:05:10] Calan Breckon: Nice. And the old adage is true, like, be the change you want to see in the world. You have to walk that path and be true to yourself. And we always tell that to people. But then doing it is a whole different story.

[00:05:22] Bobbie Racette: It is. It’s scary. It’s scary, right. Um, you never know what’s on the other side. And, um, that’s one of the things where it’s, uh. You know, you got to be a risk taker sometimes, but at the same time, if you’re living your truth, you should never be shy of it. That said, some people can’t live their truth, and that’s okay. Um, you know, and don’t. I don’t want to pressure or make anybody feel bad for naught. My only hope with all of who I am and how out I am about who I am is that maybe I’ll just inspire one person a day. And my motto is, you inspire one person a day. You inspire a nation.

[00:05:52] Calan Breckon: Yeah. And you’ve inspired me. Like we were talking right before here, I actually applied to virtual gurus back in 2020, so you had already inspired me back then.

You were saying you’re the first indigenous queer woman to close a series a round and virtual gurus is now valued at over $65 million, which I don’t know if that’s the most accurate, but that’s a very impressive number.

What did you used to believe about yourself before all of this happened that you now know is completely false?

[00:06:27] Bobbie Racette: You know, that’s a hard one, but it’s a good one. Thinking, which I love.

You know, I would say, say that I have struggled with my confidence for years, for my entire life, ever since I was small.

One of the things is, when I was four years old, my mom came out as lgbt, and my entire life, I had two months. So going to parent teacher activities, I had two months. And back in the early eighties, it was a lot. And then with that, I ended up actually getting, as soon as severe skin disease, which I obviously have still now, and it’s called polymorphous light eruptions, so I’m actually severely allergic to ultraviolet lighting in the sun.

And then I was such an introvert because I was bullied a lot because of that and being from a queer family, and so I really lacked a lot of confidence. I thought I wasn’t confident at all. I thought I wasn’t going to be able to do it. I had major imposter syndrome. I didn’t think I could do it. So I went online and actually hired a CEO and literally put in Kijiji be my CEO because I didn’t think I could do it. And six months after hiring that person, I took the company back and said, wait a minute, there’s nobody better to do this but me. So I’d have to say it’s confidence. Confidence was a huge thing for me to try to overcome. I think I’m more confident now because I’m living my truth. But I struggled with confidence to the point where it could have been crippling to my business, for sure.

[00:07:58] Calan Breckon: Yeah. Would you say that that was kind of like a huge shift shifting point for you where you. There was a click that happened inside of yourself where you went, hold on. Like, what, what was that internal experience.

[00:08:10] Bobbie Racette: Like, you know what it was is it started with the 170 investors that had started saying no to me.

You know, I needed to raise money. I bootstrapped virtual gurus to 1.8 million in revenue with no funding.

And I was raising for two years, and I kept getting told no. I kept being told, don’t talk about your indigeneity, don’t talk about that you’re queer, and that you’re providing a platform for those that are doing it. Just do it. And I was thinking, wait a minute, I need to do that. And when I started feeling more and more confidence was when I started realizing that I have to do what everybody’s telling me not to do. Because if I do that, then I’m creating my business based on what they want, not based on what I want and what my needs are in this platform. Ultimately, it’s based on my story. It’s based on my upbringing. It’s based on my experiences in life where I’ve been told no and I’ve been struggling. And so I needed to kind of turn that off, and I needed to say, wait a minute, and not listen and put that wall around me of not listening and saying, you know what? I’m not going to do it your way, I’m going to do it my way. Once I started doing that and I started seeing more and more stories coming out of people that were finding safety and working in the platform to people who, they would just hear my interview online to anything, you know, and seeing people come and talk to me and cry and tell me their stories, you know, I think that was my turning point. And then the investors that were starting to say no a lot in my raises, my first raise, especially, I let it feel my fire and I let it motivate me and I actually let it lift me up more for me to be more stubborn and to stand up and say, yo, you’re not going to say no to me. I’m going to go forward and I’m not going to let it beat me down like I did my entire life. And I think between that and everything, that’s where the switch went on. And I was, I knew I was onto something and you know, I kind of pushed through. Contrary to what people wanted me to do, I still did it.

[00:10:04] Calan Breckon: Do you think that as part of that experience of being more yourself, standing out there being loud and letting that happen, you built even more community around you that it was like naturally attracted to you because of that, you know.

[00:10:19] Bobbie Racette: Yeah, Kelvin, let’s be real. Everybody likes vulnerability. Vulnerability is, is, is key. Vulnerability sells.

And I’m not saying that, you know, it’s for everybody. I mean, you know, again, it was to the point where I could either choose to go through the vulnerable door or go through not the vulnerable door. And I chose the first because I thought if I’m not going to, then who’s not, who’s going to?

And so certainly I do think that that emotional hook and that personality to my story, you know, like I’m a woman in tech, that’s very rare. A queer person in tech and I’m a queer indigenous woman in tech, that is very rare. But you know what is, if I don’t shout it out and I don’t come out, then how are we to not inspire the next generation to come and be that now? There are so many people in tech, there’s so many indigenous folks in tech, there’s so many queers in tech and it’s just amazing to see. And I mean, you know, sometimes that’s the thing. Sometimes you have to be a first and you have to be the one to show that we can all do it?

[00:11:17] Calan Breckon: Definitely.

In and amongst all this, was there any other kind of pivotal moment that happened for you, whether before this one or after this one, that also shifted something in you, whether that be a person telling you something or an experience you had that pushed you even further along that journey?

[00:11:37] Bobbie Racette: I mean there’s many, many points, but I think a few stories that stand out for me are some of my virtual assistants that have come to me.

And one of them was on a morning radio show in Calgary.

There was, I think it was on like the, after the traffic news or whatnot. And there was a lovely woman who couldn’t be themselves at their job.

They were trans. They were forced to dress in a suit, and they just wanted to be themselves. And she just wasn’t allowed. And she was driving home and was really struggling with life and where she was going to be. And she heard my ad about were hiring virtual assistants. She turned around her car and came to me, and she was able to work with us for a few years, and now she’s successfully being who she is. And, you know, those kind of stories is what is my why. That’s my north Star. That’s my why. That kind of stuff inspires me, and that kind of stuff just gives me that boost. So every day I hear stories. Today I got a message on LinkedIn from a fellow that I met at Rez conference in Vegas two months ago, and a gentleman was walking by, and he said, look, I just need to hug you. I don’t know why. And I said, sure. Gave him a hug. And he sent me a message today saying, you know, two months ago, I came to you and was like, I don’t know why, but I’m just drawing to, and I need a hug. He’s like, I found out that you’re actually my daughter’s idol out here in Texas. We’re rooting for you. And I was like, what? And I screen captured it. I’m going to post it, and I’m like, this is that stuff that’s inspiring. That is showing people that, okay, you know what? Live your story. And now you’re helping so many other people live their story. And that. That’s my why. That’s what carries me on every day.

[00:13:19] Calan Breckon: That’s the goosebumpy stuff. Like, I’m getting, like, a little teary out of, like, yes, do it for the community because I’m such a community proponent type person that anytime I can see somebody, like, doing something, I just cheer them on. There’s too much negativity and too much that we already do to ourselves in our own minds from whether that be our background or our raisings, that we already, you know, talk ourselves down, that we need to be so loud at cheering each other on when those happen.

[00:13:46] Bobbie Racette: Absolutely.

[00:13:47] Calan Breckon: Continuing the cheering on. Like we said before, you were the first indigenous queer woman to close a series a. You went from kind of your seed round to raising your series A and series B rounds all pretty close together in terms of timeframe. How did you mentally manage that rapid company growth, and how were you able to keep yourself grounded through. Through that process?

[00:14:11] Bobbie Racette: Good. So we’re. We’re raising our series b now. Like, we’re just jumping into it right now.

But yeah, so when you go from in 2020 rate, when the pandemic hit, I closed 1.25 million of a seed round after trying to raise for two years and nobody would give me money. So I was bootstrapping, finally was able to close 1.25 million, which is really small when we’re the revenue that we were at that time, not even two years later during the pandemic as well, I closed the 8.4 million, which is the series A round.

And that was a huge feat because trying to close during the pandemic when everybody’s at home, it was crazy.

It was awesome. It was accelerating, but it took me only five months to close.

Whereas now, less than two years after that, we’re now realizing series B. So mass skill or hyper growth skill as we call it.

You know, you can either snowball and be a bunch of hamsters running in a wheel and just kind of throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks and try to figure it out. Or you could kind of go in a little bit more strategic and as you get further and further along, you’re able to be more strategic. You’re able to really build your company on outcomes focused and KPI’s.

And so being able to do that was easy because of the team I built.

You know, the team that I have now is just, they’re available, they’re ready, they’re pumped, they’ve got the drive. In fact, we just brought on the, as our new chief operating officer, the old, he’s the co founder of startups.com dot. That’s a $260 million company. And he also created fundable and helped companies raise over $750 million in startup funding in the US. He’s based out of the US and I was able to bring him onto the company with that. I also have an ex marketing manager at Twitter now doing our marketing. We have a lot of really good people on our team. And they’re here because of the story, they’re here because of their drive, they’re here because of the impact. I mean, it’s a different story when you have your return on investment, but your return on impact is what really drives everybody. And that’s what we focus at virtual grooves, is we’re focusing more on the return now on impact than anything. And it’s driving us. We’ve had to take down the team a little bit, focus on KPI’s, dropping a little bit more okrs. And then here we are. Now we’re just again going straight up hockey stick growth.

It wouldn’t be possible without the team I have, though, that’s for sure.

[00:16:38] Calan Breckon: How did the mental aspect for your personal growth in that, like, how did you keep yourself together and grounded during that? Because that personally is just like, this is a lot.

[00:16:50] Bobbie Racette: Yeah, I’m tired. All this gray hair that’s over here is like, I mean, I’m getting, I’m getting a little bit tired, but I do see the light at the end of the tunnel, you know? And again, it’s motivating once you start seeing growth, it’s demotivating when you’re not seeing growth and you’re going backwards and things aren’t working well. But, like, in any business, you have to pivot, you have to make some changes, you have to do certain things, and then once you just do that one small tweak, and then you start seeing the growth again, it motivates you. But what’s more motivating to me is my staff seeing them being pumped. So that helps my mental health a lot more. I won’t lie, though, Kellyn. Like, I’ve hit rock bottom on my mental health.

I’ve struggled with mental health because of being in this eye of this scale and everything. So my mental health is super important to me. I recently lost about 150 pounds, and I’m actually focused on being more healthier.

Our team is healthier. We have healthier people at the company.

I’m surrounding myself with more healthier people for those reasons. I do a lot of work life balance. I shut down at 530 unless I’m traveling for conferences. I take off weekends. I camp three, four days a week now in the summer, I have an rv. Like, I do a lot to make sure that I’m staying focused.

[00:18:13] Calan Breckon: I thank you so much for saying this, because all we’ve heard for generations is just hustle life. Hustle life, bro.

[00:18:21] Bobbie Racette: Life.

[00:18:22] Calan Breckon: Hustle life. And like to hear somebody who’s building such an amazing, phenomenal company still managed to build in that mental health balance, that personal life balance, into the structure of the company and still having it grow at the level that it’s growing for you. It gives me hope for what I’m doing and building to be like, oh, I can still be a human being through the process.

[00:18:45] Bobbie Racette: Yeah. I mean, somebody had said it to me a couple of months ago when I was speaking on a panel, and they said, you know, you, you can’t fill up the cups of other people if you can’t fill your own and keep your own filled. And that was something that kind of resonated with me because there was a point in my company and in the journey of virtual grizzly scale, where we didn’t have the right employees, and maybe we did, but we also weren’t really in the right frame of minds. Like, the company was kind of. There’s some toxicity, there was some animosity in the company. And so I’d realized that, you know, in all in all, that was because I wasn’t in the right frame of mind. And so it takes a lot to figure that out, and it takes a lot to realize what you got to do. And in order, if you want your company to be healthy, you have to be healthy. And so that’s something that plays on me every day. I read a lot of books.

I travel. I do things to make sure that I’m filling my cup first.

[00:19:36] Calan Breckon: Good.

Speaking of reading books, I’ve heard you speak before about getting 1% better every day. I’m not sure, but I thought, did that come from the James clear? Atomic habits, getting 1% better every day, incrementally.

[00:19:50] Bobbie Racette: Yeah. Yeah. And so when you read atomic habits, make sure you follow up by reading atomic actions.

You know, because then your. The atomic actions is, okay, the habits are great, but what are the actions to hit those habits and to get to those habits? And so I’ve been reading atomic actions. I’ve done it now, and I learned a lot from that book. But, yeah, that’s my number one thing after that is, you know, you gotta be 1% better every day. I mean, I’m gonna make mess ups to tomorrow and the next day, the next day, but all I can do is just aim to be 1% better. And so that’s all I do. I don’t aim to be 1.5%. Just one.

[00:20:25] Calan Breckon: Nice. Yeah. And I absolutely fell in love with that book, and I took. That was my big learning away from that, as well as the 1% better each day, every time, just, like, a little bit. You don’t need to be the best and be everything all at once. You can just do one little thing now and move along the journey.

[00:20:42] Bobbie Racette: Yeah, yeah. And I think that’s one thing that I had to realize. So when I did gain all that weight, I was really unhealthy. My mental state of mind wasn’t okay.

I realized that that’s what I needed to do, is it’s a sprint, it’s not a marathon. And I remembered I had to be a little bit more kinder to myself, and it didn’t help that I’m kind of all over the media and all this and seeing pictures of myself online and, you know, and it really bothered me. And again, it was my confidence and it was this. And so I had a lot of work to do there.

But I think that’s the number one thing about being a startup founder or being a founder of any sort, is you can leverage it as medicine to make yourself a better person always, you know? And that’s kind of one thing that.

[00:21:26] Calan Breckon: Is, pushes me every day, definitely. And as part of that journey, did mentorship play a big role for you in supporting you and helping you go along this journey?

[00:21:36] Bobbie Racette: Yeah, I mean, I’ve had a few mentors.

I haven’t had a lot of mentors that really supported me in the way I needed. They did support me mentally to give me a lot more of that feedback, and that was great, and I’m super thankful for them. But who are more of my mentors would have been the programs that I’ve been involved in, like the EY winning woman. We’re kind of a sisterhood to the international women’s fellowship. I was the first canadian woman in 2022. 2023. I was the only canadian woman in the cohort of 30. So the government paid for you to go and get, like, it’s like a scholarship, essentially, for Harvard. So I ended up going to Harvard and getting a degree during the COVID during raising money during all of it, while I was doing it. And I was only canadian in the program, but that was 29 other sisters that I now have. And so then with that, I also made a personal board of advice advisories through that, and so then I’m able to talk to other sisters that are founders, and we just talk to each other and be like, okay, what are we doing here? Like, I’m struggling with this. What are your thoughts? And, you know, there’s nobody better to talk to than other people that are doing it.

[00:22:46] Calan Breckon: Yeah. The entrepreneur journey can be a very lonely, isolating journey, and a lot of people don’t realize that.

[00:22:53] Bobbie Racette: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:22:54] Calan Breckon: So, well, I’m glad that you found your sisterhood and you can bring people together and you have those. That’s why I like to have other people on the journey.

I always thought I wanted to do things alone and be the lone wolf, but I’ve realized through my years, no, no, no. I actually like having, like, co founders or other people involved, because you can help bounce things off each other and help support each other and grow together. We grow in community. We don’t grow in isolation.

[00:23:19] Bobbie Racette: Exactly, exactly. And that’s why Covid was so much for everybody, right? Because even for me during the pandemic, like, I gained over 200 pounds during that time. Like, it was crazy and. But I wasn’t healthy because all I would do is just focus on the business. The whole time was great. We were scaling over 300% year over growth during that time, but it wasn’t great because snowball grew and that’s not the right way. So, yeah, it all just. It’s like a ripple effect, you know? It’s crazy.

[00:23:46] Calan Breckon: Yeah. Right.

What exciting things do you have on the horizon, either for yourself or for the company that you can share with us?

[00:23:54] Bobbie Racette: Yeah, well, we’re starting to jump into our series B funding round.

And so there’s another lady. And I wanted to say, actually, for being the first indigenous woman in Canada to close the series A in the US, I got to go for dinner with the first indigenous woman in the US to close the series A. And she made a successful exit, which is awesome. Her name is Betsy Four. She’s just amazing.

And so I’ve been talking a lot with her and kind of getting involved in a lot of different areas. So native rising. I’m now a mentor where we’re building and creating more indigenous entrepreneurs and helping them launch their businesses.

But for virtual gurus right now it’s series B funding room. So we haven’t quite started. We have a lot of interest already, but we haven’t fully started because I’m a huge firm believer on making sure my numbers look and tell a good growth story first. And they are telling a good growth story, but I want it to be where I want it to be before I hit it because I want to close it fast and take a break.

And then other than that, we are actually launching our new AI virtual reception agent. It’s a bot AI bot that will go on people’s websites and it essentially pull out all the leads from your sites, talk to people automatically, and text you their information and everything. It’s actually super cool.

We’re launching that in the next couple months here and there’s going to be a lot of traction around that. I think we have like 300 people on the waiting list for it already. And yeah, it’s going to be big. We’re really excited about that.

[00:25:25] Calan Breckon: Nice. That sounds very exciting. What about you personally? What do you have on the horizon that you’re excited about?

[00:25:32] Bobbie Racette: I’m getting married in November 30 to December 7. I’m going to Cancun. We’re having a destination wedding.

My wife and I seem to be wife and I are pretty excited about that, really just enjoying life and just being who I am. I also think after, during my wedding or after my wedding, I’m going to take a little break, take about three, four weeks off and just enjoy and just live life with my new partner. My new wife, I should say, not my new partner.

And, you know, I fully trust that my team will scale the business regardless with me there. So.

[00:26:08] Calan Breckon: Yeah, well, big congratulations on that. That is amazing. And it’s also, it’s, it’s that work life balance of like, yes, you’re doing amazing big things, but then you need to give that big thing time and space to breathe in order to come back and continue that growth. Everything in life breathes, so it does.

[00:26:26] Bobbie Racette: And, you know, you need to let your employees do that as well. You know, for us, like, we just had like, our EvP of revenue and growth went back to his hometown of Singapore. He’s been gone for four weeks and it’s like, just go. Go and enjoy, have life like, and then come back because, you know, he’s going to be feel so refreshed and ready to rock because we’re going into high growth right now, you know, and another few things that we’re doing with our employees is we’re going to try to start creative days or joy day, you know, where once a quarter they could take a day off and then they can, you know, go and do something, spread joy or some sort of creativity, whether it be painting, whether it be, I don’t know, doing flower or gammy, even, whatever you want to do, as long as it’s creative. And then share it in the slack channel and then just, you know, because it’s all about, it doesn’t have to be all about work. It’s about that life and that balance as well.

[00:27:14] Calan Breckon: Yeah, I love that. Thank you so much for that. That’s amazing. Where can everybody find out more about you or virtual gurus?

[00:27:23] Bobbie Racette: I’m on LinkedIn under Bobbie Racette and you can go to our website, www.thevirtualgurus.com on there we have everything. So you have access to our AI VR. You can have access to become a virtual assistant if you want. You can have access to become a client if you really want. You can actually go to www.thevirtualgruse.com/vip and you’ll get $200 off your first monthly package.

So you can do that and you can add me and yeah, you know, just follow me and tell me, you know, what inspires you every day.

[00:28:04] Calan Breckon: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for sharing that with everybody. Thank you so much for being such a phenomenal guest and for such an inspirational person just by being who you are in the world.

[00:28:14] Bobbie Racette: Thank you.

[00:28:16] Calan Breckon: I am absolutely so grateful that Bobbie was able to make the time to be a guest on the podcast. She is just such an inspiration and I’m so grateful for the work she is doing and just for the work she’s doing. Just being herself and championing the community and the communities that she’s part of. I’ll make sure to have all the links in the show notes for you so that you can grab that VIP package that she was offering. Thank you so much for tuning in today. Don’t forget to hit that subscribe button. And if you really enjoyed today’s episode, I would love a star rating from you. The Business Gay podcast is written, produced and edited by me, Calan Breckon. Thank you so much for your time today. Peace, love, Rainbows.