On December 4, 2014, Startup Grind Ottawa had the pleasure of hosting Tracey Clark, the CEO & President of Bridgehead in their amazing Roastery House, located in little Italy in downtown Ottawa.
Tracey shared her background and how a backpacking trip to Nicaragua helped shape her perspective on how development work doesn't need to just be charity. The entrepreneurial spirit of people in developing countries showed her how proud they were - a spirit Tracey says is just starting to be built here in Canada.
Bridgehead was originally founding in 1981 by two United Church activists concerned for the future of small scale coffee farmers in Nicaragua. In 1984, Oxfam-Canada acquired the business and formally incorporated Bridgehead as a federal, for-profit company. Oxfam-Canada, an international development agency, sought to bring more fairly traded products to market and to share the stories of the small-scale artisans and farmers who made the products.
Tracey bought the rights to the business in 2000, not wanted to see another socially minded, Canadian, enterprise fail.
Some of the most important points Tracey had to share with us about business, social enterprise and following your vision for your business included:
- The charitable side of development didn't feel good. [...] We're just starting to develop the entrepreneurial spirit here in Canada, in those countries, there's a real entrepreneurial spirit.
- I wanted to work in that sector, but I wanted it to be on the basis of respectful, dignified trading relationships.
- I tried to save it [Bridgehead]. (...) I really didn't want to see another alternative trading association fail. So we put in an offer...
- You need to build a small team when you start, and you need to have a very strong purpose, and you need to know you're going to work your ass off.
- I like to think that luck is where preparation meets opportunity. We had some good timing - when we started Starbucks was not a fair trade licensee.
- We just try to get better and better all the time.
- That sense of caring and community is a huge measure of success for me.
- It's important to think about what's the end goal for you. It's important to be thoughtful about what's in it for you? (...) What's the right size for you?
- You can't work sequentially. As your business grows larger you need to stay focused on the bigger goals. As the leader, your time gets more and more fragmented and you need to get comfortable with that.
You can watch the full video of the event here.
Many thanks to Tracey and Bridgehead for hosting us at their amazing Roastery location. Thanks to the Bridgehead staff, most notably Randy and Jen for helping with all the logistics.
Thanks to Gabriel Lowenberg of Lowenberg Investment Counsel for providing the amazing food and Bridgehead coffee.
My thanks to Invest Ottawa and Smart & Biggar for their ongoing support as well.
Finally, thanks as always to Robert Decher from RDV Productions for the recording of Startup Grind Ottawa, and to Jason Connell for helping with setup.