Jamie Phippen
Bachelor of Commerce Co-operative in Entrepreneurship , Dalhousie University
Head of Customer Success, Talkatoo
What draws people into entrepreneurship? Is it something that can be learned in school or is it from hearing stories around the dinner table by family members who are in business for themselves? For Jamie Phippen, who calls both Oakville, Ontario, and Halifax, Nova Scotia, home - it was both.
When Jamie entered Dalhousie’s Bachelor of Commerce program, he had no clear idea of what he wanted to do. Both his maternal and paternal grandparents started family businesses, so Jamie was exposed to entrepreneurship at a young age. And although there was no pressure on him to join either family business, he chose to major in Entrepreneurship.
When it was time to look for his first co-op job, Jamie accessed Venture for Canada’s job board and was successful in getting a job as a Customer Discovery Specialist with Speaker, a local startup. The Venture for Canada Internship program not only provided Jamie with a job, but also access to training geared towards entrepreneurship throughout his work term.
Jamie knew that he was not a numbers person and was gradually taking steps towards a career path in sales. For his second work term, he worked with tech startup, Talkatoo as an Outside Sales Intern. Talkatoo is one of the resident companies at Volta, an innovative accelerator in Halifax. Volta was created by founders to provide other founders with co-working space, networking opportunities, mentorship and other resources specific to the startup community. It is a vibrant work environment where startups support each other and share in each others’ successes and failures.
Jamie worked directly with Talkatoo’s founder, and his job was to find customer’s for Talkatoo’s dictation software for veterinary medicine. Jamie attended tradeshows with his boss and learned outside sales techniques, developed his communication skills while on the tradeshow floor, networking skills and perhaps most importantly, developed confidence in his abilities. Additionally, he learned some great travel hacks while attending the tradeshows. “I feel really lucky to have had the co-op experience I had, I picked up a lot of life skills from my employer while on the road and wouldn't trade that time for anything.”
For his third work term, Jamie completed an entrepreneurial work term which was a requirement of his program. He opened an e-commerce store using Shopify and promoted his business using Google ads.
Jamie stayed in touch with Talkatoo’s founder who had become a mentor to him. During his fourth year, Jamie’s boss called him and asked him to work part-time. Although Jamie had a full academic load with six courses, he agreed to help his mentor. Upon his graduation from Dalhousie, Jamie accepted a full-time offer from Talkatoo.
The company was continuing to grow and expand into the health sector. With an increasing number of customers, Jamie wanted to focus on the company’s existing customers. Soon after, Jamie’s boss asked him to expand and lead the Customer Services team in software deployments, customer retention, relationship building and growing key accounts. In one year, he had gone from interviewing for co-op jobs to hiring new employees to help him on the Customer Services team. He is learning how to be a leader from his boss and his Dad.
Jamie encourages students to work with a startup. It might not lead to your next career step, but you will definitely learn a lot and you might meet your next mentor. He suggests that students “Be honest with your team about your skill set and share what you're most keen to learn about. Show up on time and give it your best, they'll be your next reference or possible employer. Stay persistent, ask for what you want, and work really hard.”