It's early in 2012, and Montreal-based Tara Hunt, a digital pioneer, early adopter and instrument of social networking, and founder of Buyosphere.com, took some time to chat with Jobpostings after her successful appearance at the New York Tech Meetup. We spoke at length about her career path and her insights about women working in the tech industry. But it's her mosquito quote that stuck out; we kinda dig it. And as you'll see, making an impact is what Hunt (or Missrogue, her online alias) is all about.
Starting out
Early childhood ambitions, Hunt says, included anything from princess to ballerina to movie star. A pirate came up too. But it was shortly before commencing her studies at the University of Calgary that she discovered her passion for all things digital. It was the Wild West days of the internet, 1992 to be exact. It was also a time that brought a big change to Hunt's life. I was pregnant with my son at the time. And somebody said, 'Oh, you can go on these [online chat rooms]. There's people on there so that if you feel isolated, you can ask questions.' So I got on those and really enjoyed it.
At U of C, Hunt starting coding HTML and helping friends set up websites for their various student clubs. I ended up doing more and more of that stuff. I taught myself Flash. It was always just really natural for me to work on the web, and I could see potential for the world of online communities.
Although Hunt had an almost clairvoyant sense for the power of online communities since the early days, when she graduated with a degree in communications and cultural studies, she still didn't think of the web as something she could build career around. She was quickly proven extremely wrong. I ended up being hired by the CEO of a small oil and gas firm [Maxx Petroleum], and the reason he hired me as his junior corporate communications rep was because of my web experience. ... Here I was, thinking I was hired because I would be awesome at corporate communications, and he was just interested in the web stuff. I did some temp jobs prior to that, where I'd be hired to file and type things, and then they'd find out I could work in HTML and Java and Flash and Director, and they would get me doing other stuff. It just kept coming up.
Getting into the ad biz
Max Petroleum was sold a few years later, and Hunt walked away with a buyout package that gave her the freedom to explore new career paths. Drawing upon her web expertise and existing freelance work, Hunt decided to get into something officially creative: advertising. I went into advertising because I just kept getting hired for my web knowledge, she says. Even though it was a side thing. Not everyone knew this stuff back then. To me it was second nature. Hunt then joined an advertising company in Calgary to get her feet wet, before breaking off on her own to start her own agency.
It was called Rogue Strategies, from my online moniker, [Missrogue]. It was an experimental marketing agency. I didn't really think of it as revolutionary at the time, but it was mixing online and offline and building relationships with our clients' customers. One of our big campaigns was this online world where you had second lives'this was before Second Life'where you created this avatar character, and then you went into these various [virtual] clubs. It was for Joe Stiff's Spiked Root Beer, which was a big product. Then you go offline and into the actual club, and order a Joseph's Spiked Root Beer in return for a scratch card that you could redeem online to unlock dance moves and new outfits for your characters. We won an award for that, but I think it was ahead of its time. That was around 2001.
Heading to the Valley
As Rogue Strategies took off, Hunt moved to Toronto a year and a half later to expand the business. But things changed in 2003. Hunt started a blog where she shared her ideas about how new marketing was changing, from push to pull and the growing power of community and word of mouth'typical social media marketing principles, years ahead of the curve. I ended up building relationships with other bloggers who were down in the Valley, says Hunt. And at one point one of the bloggers put up a post about one of his clients [Like.com], who was looking for an online marketing manager. I said, ÔÇÿDo you think they'd hire a Canadian?' He said I'd be perfect for it. And there I was, down in the valley, 10 days later.
It wasn't long after that Hunt's digital ideas were making waves across the Valley. I applied all my experimental theories about community marketing, she explains. It's so common now, right? It's known as social media marketing. But at the time it was unheard of to connect computers and word of mouth. So this was in 2005. Within six months we built this huge beta sign-up list, with over 80,000 people. We had been in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired magazine, before we even launched.
But when we did launch, there was over a million photos uploaded within 24 hours, and over 20,000 registered users. And so everybody was like, ÔÇÿHow did you do that? You didn't spend any money on advertising, not on PR, how did you do this? How did you create this big buzz?' I was starting to be approached by other start ups, people were asking me to come speak at their conferences, and interviewing me. ... I mean, I moved to Silicon Valley as a total nobody from Toronto, a Canadian girl, wide-eyed, then this happened, and that's when everything took off.
Shortly after the success of the Like.com launch, Hunt decided to leave the company and partner with a well known open source ambassador, Chris Messina. Together they launched Citizen Agency, an internet consultancy. The pair found themselves in high demand very quickly, advising dozens of start ups in the Valley how to make their online services more social, right at the time of the first social media boom, when businesses realized social wasn't just for angsty teenagers in bedrooms anymore. [Citizen Agency was] a little bit of marketing, but more product focused. With SlideShare, for example, it was a PowerPoint sharing application, but as far as social features went, they didn't have many. When they first launched, you put up your PowerPoint and that was it. So we helped them a bit with how they integrated social into it, in a smart way that helps them build [a] reputation.
Launching into the Buyosphere
After years of consulting for start ups, Hunt started feeling the itch to start her own. Around 2007 she began thinking of a solution to a problem that had frustrated her online for while: It was the issue of finding what you're looking for. Because the web is wonderful'you have tonnes of choice'but when you're looking for something in particular, it becomes a nightmare. There's too much choice and no clear path to your choice. Hunt decided upon a shopping browser where you could add all your favourite stores, make them searchable, and get advice from experts and peers on different products. It's a new approach to the social shopping realm.
Today, in an open concept office, in a rough building overlooking the Place Des Arts in Montreal, Hunt's idea has taken form. Called Buyosphere, the start up consists of a small but determined team that thrives on open communication. There's the three of us co-founders, says Hunt, Buyosphere's CEO. So myself, I focus more on marketing but also raising money is in my portfolio. Cassandra is the COO, she works on making sure we go forward at a good pace, and looks after our finances. And then Jerome is the CTO, and he manages all the technical team. ... We also have a marketing director that is in New York, building relationships there.
Asked what running a start up is like, Hunt says, bluntly, there is no typical day. I remember talking with a friend at her birthday and we were musing over the fact that before ... we had all this time to care about everything else that went on in the world: if we broke a nail, who's dating who, what celebrities were doing what, that sort of thing. And then you get into your start up, you become incredibly myopic, and all you care about is getting it to the next level, whatever the next level is. It's a feeling that keeps you up at night and always thinking.
Taking it all in
My dad had his own vet practice, from the time I can remember, says Hunt. And my mom is an artist. So I basically grew up with two entrepreneurs. So [entrepreneurship] didn't seem like something crazy or that risky. Clearly you can work for someone else, doing their bidding and reaching their goals, or you can go out and do it your own way.
My first company was started when I had not even three years [experience]. I worked in the oil and gas industry for a year and a half, and then the ad agency for just over a year. And then I went and started Rogue Strategies. Having to go out and find clients, make sales, and bill people was a hustle Hunt had to master both with Rogue Strategies and then Citizen Agency. That [consulting] life is so good, Hunt says, with a laugh. You get all this money coming in. ... But at the same time, I was working with a lot of start ups. I was watching them make a lot of money. I was watching them grow their business. It encouraged me to take a shot with Buyosphere.
In the tech industry, Hunt explains, I learned that if you think you're too small to make an impact, then you've never been stuck in a tent with a mosquito. I really learned that people can drive change. Corporations don't. Governments don't. But people, they drive change. And we just need the tools to be able to connect with each other to do that. That was the biggest lesson that I ever learned in entering the Valley. Then when I returned to Canada'I love it, it's a wonderful country with wonderful people'but we definitely don't rock the boat. And the US is all about rocking the boat. And it's really driven by the citizens, the people. This drive for change, this fearlessness, is what Hunt thinks people need to really stand out and make their mark, especially young women.
Of her experience in the early days of Silicon Valley, she says: When I was working with Chris [at Citizen Agency], him and I probably had the same level of expertise, but wherever we went, people would assume he was the developer and I was just a business person. Whenever we worked on something, people would give him the credit. And I think that has to do with there being so few women developers in the Valley. But it helped me too, because a lot of conferences, a lot of publications get flack for not having enough women. And so they put together lists of women [to feature]. Overall though, I'd like to be known as a good entrepreneur. Not just a woman entrepreneur, but a good entrepreneur.
One of the interesting sort of phenomena that goes on'I think Clay Shirky posted about this, in his [famous blog post] ÔÇÿA Rant About Women''he says that women tend to undersell themselves, and men tend to oversell themselves, typically, says Hunt. For me, it takes a lot of courage, but I need to put myself out there and that's gonna come up against all sorts of backlash and rolled eyes and people trying to talk nasty behind your back. But it really is the only way to get yourself out there. Yeah, build something great and people will gravitate toward it. But a lot of success also comes from tooting your own horn.