Welcome to this week’s Midweek Memo. In this issue, learn about Nadia Tatlow's journey as a woman in the Victoria tech community, the multimillion dollar investment co-led by a local firm, and the seaweed company in your backyard that's been making headlines.

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Nadia Tatlow on breaking down the boys’ club and building a career in Victoria

When Nadia Tatlow was eyeing a move to Victoria 10 years ago, her friends were worried for her. She was leaving Toronto for life on Vancouver Island, and from the perspective of the bigger city, it didn’t seem like there was much going on here. Yet in the years that followed, Tatlow would rise up the ranks of Redbrick, from running marketing off the side of her desk to an official job in marketing management. Tatlow grew into a role where she could pilot startup ideas, and one of them stuck: today she is CEO of Shift, or as she calls it, "the browser for work."

“If you can be creative and innovative, there's so much opportunity because there's so many people who are here and they're like — you know what, we're gonna have to make our own job,” she said. “That conviction, I think, really brings a whole other level of energy to the kind of entrepreneurial and tech community here.”

Tatlow is especially passionate about advancing women in tech. But while others may advocate for the importance of women in management roles, she wants to see them in positions of power further up the chain. “I want to see a lot more women at the cap tables with significant ownership, because those are often kept in secrecy,” she said.

Tatlow credits Women’s Equity Lab for setting the stage for non-male leaders in decision-making positions. The group is composed of investors who are all female, and who put money into startups as a community, indiscriminate of the founders’ gender. Shift received an investment from the collective, and a number of years later, Tatlow joined as an investor herself. “I love seeing the other side of the table," she says, "because it just all comes together, but we need more awareness and education opportunities to level the playing field.”

Tatlow highlighted the policy in California which mandates that at least one woman must be on the board of publicly traded companies. “We need to take a lot more action than that,” she said. “We need to take action at an earlier stage than that, because by the time a company's public, a lot of money has already been made. And in Victoria, especially where it's still the pretty early stages of the tech community, I just look at the exits that have happened and the wealth gap that's being created, and there's just a huge gap in terms of diversity.”

Tatlow, who is also on the steering committee for Scale YYJ, is eager to open opportunities beyond those typically seen in leadership roles in tech and business. “We need more female investors," she said. "There really is a boys club that needs to open the doors.”

#VicTJtalks | Victoria: On the Climatetech Frontier | April 12

We've announced the full lineup for our first #VicTJtalks event! The evening will feature speakers from Audette, Ocean Networks Canada, Open Ocean Robotics, and the provincial government, and will bring together entrepreneurs, execs, talent, investors, and the tech community to network and learn.

Local innovators are tackling climate change head on with technology to face a warmer world. From using the ocean to remove atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions to creating a climate-friendly built environment, there’s something special about the climate solutions in made in Victoria.

• Space sponsor: VIATEC

📰 More Victoria innovation news

🫶 Centering love, truth, and respect: Jeff Ward, CEO and founder of Animikii, shares how Indigenous values shape the company's hiring, operations, and strategy.

👩‍🌾 Hello from our local kelp farmers: Cascadia Seaweed took visitors on a tour of its James Island farm site, and you can check it out on LinkedIn.

🍙 Seaweed for our economy and the planet: Mike Williamson, CEO and founding partner of Cascadia Seaweed, dives into how seaweed can be an economically viable restorative venture.

🌎 Funding more climatetech: Emend Vision Fund co-led a $1.4 million dollar round for Carbon Neutral Club, a Toronto-based climatetech venture bringing climate action into the workplace.

🕴️ Tech jobs of the week

Find your next career:

First Light Technologies is hiring for a number of positions, including the ones below:

• Technologist

• Electronics Engineer

• Sales Development Representative

• Accounting Clerk

Hiring in Victoria? Reply to this email and let us know!

📅 Upcoming events

April 12: #VicTJtalks: Victoria: On the Climatetech Frontier

March 29: Growth Capital Webinar: Learn how to increase your financing as your company expands

March 30: Compensation Trends with Benchmarket

April 5: Cash Management: Strategies to Extend your Runway for SaaS Founders and CxOs

May 4: Life Sciences British Columbia Showcase Series: Vancouver Island

Have an upcoming event? Reply to let us know.