Making Energy Efficiency the New ROI!

Megan McCarthy, President and Co-founder ROCarbon Labs

From an early age Megan was dubbed Captain Planet by friends and family. She was passionate about environmental sustainability; always teaching others and thinking of ways to reduce waste and save money. She continues to do this today through her work with Edge Energy. After completing three years of an engineering degree and spending 10 years in the energy industry in Calgary, she relocated to Halifax, Nova Scotia and completed a Bachelor of Management, majoring in Environment, Sustainability, and Society at Dalhousie University. At that time, she completed a thesis under Dr. Larry Hughes in collaboration with the electric utility in the City of Summerside, PEI. The overarching goal of the project was to use wind turbines to heat homes using Electric Thermal Storage Units for the first time in the world. This research saw homes using 90% wind power to heat their space while saving an average of $900 annually on their heating costs and netting the utility an average of 65% extra revenue per customer. Combined with her thesis, Megan studied Master’s classes focusing on Energy Security and Energy Systems Analysis.

What are your thoughts on using a business growth platform to help take your business forward?

I used to draw out these diagrams I would call ‘mind maps’ for my co-founders to help decipher what was going on in my head and to show how all of the puzzle pieces fit together. Imagination has nailed an extremely simple and visual model that has helped me to sort and organize this ongoing chaos in my brain. Compared to my mind maps, however, there is also a carefully structured approach for scale-ups to follow to ensure we have all of the tools we need while mapping to catapult our businesses forward.

What are the barriers to women entrepreneurs? Have you faced any struggles or barriers in your pursuits of success throughout your career?

I have experienced it all from being threatened with an NDA from a tech accelerator if I spoke to anyone about their shockingly poor treatment of women, to being fired from a C-level position a week after reporting sexual harassment. Being a data person though I look for patterns, and the biggest barrier is one of the most consistent and insidious things women encounter: Gatekeepers.

These are individuals in positions of power: over funding, access to networks, and acceptance to accelerators who flex their decision-making powers as they please. I have seen this manifest when women turn down sexual advances, when women outwork their male counterparts, and when women speak up about unequal treatment. Coupled with having a harder time accessing the resources we need, is that time is our most precious resource as entrepreneurs.

Studies have shown it takes much longer to find a woman credible than a man and to be willing to collaborate with her. This can be a killer for so many women-owned businesses simply not being able to keep up with male-owned companies, with all of the added hoops we need to jump through, let alone the other barriers we face. I hope investors and diversity heads can remember what we’re up against when they continue to look around and ask where all of the women in STEM are while scratching their heads.

What is the power of building a network? Do you have any success stories about finding new business through your networking?

The power of building a network is everything for women entrepreneurs as we often have to break off from traditional networks and build our own to find success. After not feeling safe at the local accelerator, I got together with other female founders and we started a shared office space together for sustainability entrepreneurs. We started hosting networking events to meet others like us and leveraged one another’s contacts to start doing tours of sustainable buildings. One such tour was at IKEA where I happened to notice they had some of the top-of-the-line equipment in my field. I asked them how they were using these devices, and they said they didn’t know how to best incorporate them in their day today. This led to me signing IKEA as one of my earliest clients, enabling us to build our credibility quickly.

How can women entrepreneurs maintain wellness and achieve work/life balance?

Finding balance and maintaining wellness has seemed like a nearly impossible task at points as I have had both freak accidents and immune disorders to contend with while running my company. Startups can take on a life of their own, so I’ve found that wellness needs to be something that is made a big priority for the culture of our company. For example, we don’t have a number of sick days, we hire passionate people who want to work and take breaks when they need to heal. This can help ensure we have the stamina for success as I have realized through health issues what the phrase ‘you’re nothing without your health’ truly means.

Reflections on a journey, important moments, and realizations.

It may sound odd but one of the biggest things that have helped me succeed is humor. Business is all built on relationships and certain groups of people face more assumptions than others. I have found on many occasions, if I am able to come up with a quick and witty response, it can not only help me to build these relationships more quickly, it can also help earn respect when used carefully. For example, at a tech dinner with all men, a waitress didn’t bring a man what he ordered and so after she left he elbowed the guy next to him and said ‘no surprise, women never listen to me. I quickly hollered down the table, ‘What’s that, Jack!?’ Everyone laughed, but what’s more important is that they involved me more in the conversation after that, despite me pointing out some of Jack’s outdated language.

Encourage others: Share your know-how on developing a female-led enterprise

When I was first starting off my career, I showed up to absolutely every startup and cleantech event I could find in the city. After a year or two, I would end up knowing more than 80% of the people at the average meet and greet. This not only positioned me as a permanent fixture in the scene, but I was also able to establish a large network of key players early on in my career. This has served as the backbone of access to crucial resources for any business I have operated over time.