In 2016, Bobbie Racette faced a pivotal moment when she was laid off from her position as a safety technician in Alberta’s oilpatch. As a queer, Indigenous woman with tattoos, Racette knew she faced additional hurdles in an already tight job market. Her solution was to join the gig economy as a virtual assistant, a decision that quickly exposed the poor pay and lack of job security common in the industry.
Determined to create a better job for herself, Racette founded Virtual Gurus.
By 2018, revenue from the company’s skilled virtual workers, offering services from legal assistance to customer support to human resources, had reached $265,000. Eager to grow the platform, Racette sought funding and was turned down by no fewer than 170 venture capitalists before finally securing her first $1.2 million from “impact” investors — funding bodies that aim to create positive social and environmental change alongside financial returns.
Virtual Gurus now employs some 800 assistants in Canada and the U.S. and has another 50 employees in its Calgary office. By 2022 it was valued at $40 million. A leader in the Canadian startup ecosystem, Racette transformed her personal challenges into strengths to foster an inclusive work environment with a focus on supporting underrepresented communities, including individuals who identify as BIPOC and LGBTQ2S+.
You kind of stumbled into business ownership. How did you become an entrepreneur?
It sounds wrong to say this, but I was lucky. I lost a career I loved and spent 10 months looking for work. I even took a job at a coffee shop to make ends meet before discovering virtual work. It went well, so I threw up a website called Virtual Gurus.
When we were still growing in the third year I thought, OK, I’m onto something. So I kept building and learning. I knew I needed to learn how to be a leader, because now I had employees. But I also had to learn how to build a business. So I took night courses, went to groups like Startup Calgary and I took courses online. I ended up going to Harvard. But I still needed to raise money to build the tech, so I met with investors, but that’s when I hit a roadblock.
As a self-described queer Indigenous woman with tattoos, you faced a lot of hurdles when starting out. What kept you going?
I get it: I’m inexperienced, I have no education, I don’t look the way a typical entrepreneur looks. I know when I walk down the street or go into a meeting, people judge me. It’s sad, but that’s how it is. But the “no, no, nos” can teach resilience. They can be turned into medicine and give you the strength to look past negative attitudes and rise above them.
There were times when I wanted to quit. But I kept thinking that if I didn’t push through, I wasn’t going to be able to show my people how to reach success. That’s what’s fuelled me; that and a desire to prove those people wrong.
Now I’m one of the more successful Indigenous women in Canada. I’ve been able to turn other people’s negativity into resilience, perseverance and a bit of stubbornness. Tell me I can’t do something, and that’s exactly what I’ll do.
One of the things potential investors told you not to do was focus on diversity and inclusion. Why did you stay true to this value?
To make sure I can provide work to those people who are like me, people who have been told “no” all their lives and been looked down on. Ninety per cent of our talent identifies as Black, Indigenous or people of colour. We have people with disabilities or anxieties, LGBTQ2S+ community members and single or stay-at-home parents.
All these people make a good wage from the safety of their homes. They are why we do this. They are the gold mines who were never given a chance. I hire them because of all those people who said no to me, who now wish they said yes.
How did you get funding? How did that “yes” influence you?
I switched up my target and started going after impact investors who have the same values that I do. This made me realize I want to become that impact investor for others, so that I can show young Indigenous people that if they don’t give up, they can do it.
It doesn’t matter about your culture or your educational background; if you can come up with an idea and are willing to learn and to challenge yourself, you can do it. Not every time, but failure — the “nos” — are part of it.
You were recently honoured as the University of Victoria’s Peter B. Gustavson School of Business 2023 Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year. What does this mean to you?
I was the first Indigenous person in 20 years to win, so I think that’s a pretty neat feat. The other thing is there have been all these big winners: Dennis (Chip) Wilson, founder of Lululemon; Stewart Butterfield, founder of Slack … and then me. It started to sink in that I accomplished this.
At the end of the day, though, an award is an award. My biggest hope is that my success inspires other young Indigenous women. I want them to know it’s scary — I’m scared every day — but it’s OK to take chances, to be yourself and to tell your own story.
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