Startup Stories: Featuring MemoryKPR

Today we are excited to be featuring Jessica McNaughton, CEO & Founder of memoryKPR, a digital solution to save, store, design and protect all the elements of your story: text, audio, voice, laughs, pictures and video.

Earlier this year, Jessica won the Valhalla Investment Summit Saskatchewan organized by our partners at Valhalla Angels! Prior to this, memoryKPR had been 100% bootstrapped, and the Summit awarded them their very first investment. In Jessica’s words, “We got investors thanks to the Summit. Our investors span across Western Canada and we’ve also got some incredible mentors, people who have built and exited multiple companies and are just a wealth of knowledge.”

The Valhalla Investment Summit (coming to the Fraser Valley this fall!) focuses on investor and founder education and network-building, and, awards one company $100,000+ in seed funding – we wanted to take this opportunity to introduce Jessica to the Volition community, and celebrate this milestone for the team at memoryKPR. 

Hello, Jessica! First off,  we’d love to learn more about the startup ecosystem in Saskatchewan – what is it like building a startup where you are?

I’m based in Moose Jaw in southern Saskatchewan. I am part of an accelerator in Regina called Cultivator (Powered by Conexus) and we have another accelerator in Saskatoon—Co.Labs. Both really incredible accelerators. 

In Saskatchewan we have a lot of small businesses in the farm industry, it’s very heavily populated with entrepreneurs and both my parents had their own companies that I was involved in. The whole culture of this area of Canada is very entrepreneurial by nature. 

At the same time, we lacked a technology perspective here, so these two accelerators worked really hard with the government, who has made some great innovation programming to start us going down that path. 

I think we have a great advantage in the sense that we have a ton of people who are entrepreneurial-minded and it’s in their DNA to  support other entrepreneurs. 

I’ve also found that you can almost go to any event, and you are going to find a link back to Saskatchewan. The first conference I went to was the UP conference (Uniting the Prairies) and it was hosted by Co.Labs with incredible speakers. They were founders with hundreds of millions, lots of exits, and they all had Saskatchewan roots. Most of them still had their parents here. 

I think a lot of business people appreciate that there’s some really humble, down to earth, hard working people here. Then you start to develop and cultivate technical competence and connections and I think Saskatchewan is really going to be on the map when it comes to this space and the future.

Sounds like! And earlier this year you had the Valhalla Investment Summit Saskatchewan, of course. Can you tell us a bit about your experience in the Summit?

It was an incredible experience! I was beyond thrilled to win the Valhalla Summit and to get Valhalla Angels as my first investor.

It was probably a bit early for me as I was still getting my data room ready, but I thought it was an excellent way for me to make sure I had all my documents in order and I could answer the hard questions.

The pitching itself is always a joy. I have so much fun with it! When you’re chasing your own dream and talking about a product that you created because you really feel the value and the need, pitching is the easiest part. The hard part came with the details. 

We  had some offline conversations about the due diligence they need to do in order to invest. Things like the financials, the projections, the technology, and ensuring the foundations are there. 

The events were 100% virtual, which I think was good, as it opened up the playing field for more people to be there.There isn’t quite the same energy as in a face-to-face event, but that’s also your job as a Founder and seller: to bring the energy with you. 

Absolutely! And sound like you did a great job of that, as you won the competition! Did you have any expectations coming into the competition?

I was definitely not expecting to win! I was competing against some incredible companies, and some that were further down the line. I really looked at this as a great opportunity to get quizzed and to get to answer all the questions.

I had already competed earlier in the year in the Okanagan Valhalla Summit as it was a remote event, and I got to the semi-finals there. I was pretty pumped to get to the finals in Saskatchewan, but I thought I was a little early to win something like this. 

Winning the summit really helped with the conversations with the rest of the investors, not just because I had all of my stuff in order—I needed to do that for the competition—but also having your first investor takes a little bit of the edge off. 

After the Summit, other investors were a lot more willing to say, “oh, okay we’ll be your second or your third.” The first one, I think, is always the hardest.

Had you dealt with investors before this?

Not as the founder. 

I’ve dealt with private investors because I’ve worked in corporate my whole career until now. This was the first time I experienced that moment when you say to someone, “believe in me enough to give me your hard-earned money and trust that I am going to make it worth more.”

And now that the Summit is over, what does the next year look like?

We’re working really closely with a lot of users to better develop the product and we are starting to do some campaigns with social media influencers and building this network of storytellers across North America. 

Next year we will be working on partnerships, marketing, and customer acquisition, and then continuing to make our product better and better every day. 

Sounds like a plan. Do you have any tips for other companies going through one of the Valhalla Investment Summits?

Firstly, I think it is really important to have skilled people in your back pocket. By that I mean have someone who does know terms and conditions, financials and legal aspects of helping a deal come together really well who is on your speed dial. 

I have people I trusted enough that I could say, “I don’t have a clue what this means” or, “can you help me understand it in layperson’s terms?”. 

Second tip, go big! Tell your great big audacious goal right from the beginning. Show your passion for it and almost everything else will be forgiven. 

Also feedback is important, but you also can’t rely on it too much, you have to find what is right for you and your company first.  Everyone said to me that I had to have an exit strategy, because you have to be able to speak about it, but when I was asked that question in the competition I was honest and I said, “I don’t have an exit strategy, I am focused on building a great company, that is my focus.” 

I worked for years in mergers and acquisitions and I understand the concept, but for me the goal was to build an incredible company that allowed people’s stories to stay alive and be protected for years to come. 

I’m focusing on my entry strategy and building the best company I can!

So, take the advice, but also sit with what feels right for you and what doesn’t, and what feels right for you has to come first.

Great tips. So, it sounds like you took a lot from the Summit itself, but I’m sure there have been many other lessons learned along the way. What has been your greatest challenge as an entrepreneur?

Not being able to make it all happen at once and taking the time to really listen carefully to your users. 

Another challenge is marketing your product when social media is so congested. It is so easy to get out there and so hard to get people’s attention.

And what would be one piece of advice you would give to someone just beginning their startup journey?

Know your why and keep putting one foot in front of another.

Also remember you are doing this for a reason, it is part of who you are. It gets hard, but never let it feel like punishment. It is a great gift to get to wildly chase your dreams – cherish it, the good, the bad and the ugly.

Well said. So–what is your ask today? How can the Volition community support your vision?

One of the neat things about our platform is you can invite other people to contribute to your memory keeper, and what we have seen is real organic growth from people who’ve been invited to contribute to someone’s else’s memory keeper, liked it, and then went and started their own. 

So, try memoryKPR out, tell your friends, tell your family, share your stories with us and build incredible, beautiful archives of all those moments of your life, for the you of tomorrow but also for the people who come after you, stories matter.

Will do! As you may know, we define Volition as ‘the will to do what you want and to get it done’. What is your volition?

There has always been a small fire in my belly, I’ve always chased positive energy. I’ve always thought of joy as my navigation tool, building memoryKPR brings me immense joy. 

I started this business because of the people I’ve lost and the pieces of them I wish I still had, and that is what propels me forward daily.

Is there anything else that you would like to share before we sign off? 

The wisdom that I gained from the experience with Valhalla and the bootcamp is pretty incredible. 

I would strongly encourage people to enter these summits, also if you don’t think you are quite ready, because that’s part of being an entrepreneur: you may never think you are quite ready but you have to keep going. 

Enter the ones where you see the valuable minds are, where you’re going to get the right network and the right advisors. You may or may not get investors, but you will learn and the fee is pretty affordable. 

Thank you! So, how can people best connect with you?

Follow @memoryKPR on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn 

You can visit our website us at www.memoryKPR.com