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About Vicki Knott

Vicki is the CEO and Co-Founder of CruxOCM. Vicki is an expert in heavy industry and energy, with a background in chemical engineering and extensive work experience. Starting out in a pulp and paper mill to gauge how things work before engineering solutions, Vicki then moved on to train as a control room operator for a major pipeline company, which led her to soon-to-be co-founder, Roger Shirt.

During her time there, Vicki quickly realized the rigid, archaic methods in place created an opportunity to make this process more efficient using automation. Despite being in a line of work made up of just 15% women, Vicki set out to change the energy industry by bringing diverse perspectives and better, safer standards to the field through automation. She co-founded CruxOCM to deliver tools to control room operators that have a meaningful impact on heavy industrial operations.

Through its trademarked technology RIPA™ (Robotic Industrial Process Automation), CruxOCM is future-proofing oil and gas control room operations to run efficiently and safely, achieving a 99% reduction in control room operator workload when applied to oil pipeline gathering systems. This ensures that the front-line people (control room operators) can operate energy sector assets in the safest, most profitable way.

Episode Highlights

The power of cross-pollinating ideas – origin story of an innovative startup
The difference between working and selling in the same industry – powerful founder lessons
First steps – why accelerators matter in your startup journey
How to select the right accelerator program for your deep-tech startup
Why location matters – and how to make a smart location decision
The surprising power of financial acumen – from fundraising to selling
How to build financial acumen one day, one step at a time
How to navigate the challenges of selling complex software solutions to large, traditional industries.
Valuable do’s and don’ts in the journey to financial fluency
How to build confidence and overcome imposter syndrome as a female founder in a male-dominated field.

Links and resources

CruxOCM: A company automating pipeline operations, inspired by autopilot systems for planes, to improve efficiency and safety in the oil and gas industry.
Techstars Accelerator: A program offering mentorship, networking, and resources to help startups accelerate their growth, with a specific energy-focused cohort in Norway.
Y Combinator: A startup accelerator providing seed funding and mentorship, particularly suited for B2C-focused ventures.
Platform Calgary: A hub for startups in Calgary offering resources, events, and networking opportunities to foster innovation and entrepreneurship.

Interview Transcript

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: Hello Vicki. We’re so happy to have you here today on Invisible Ink. Thank you for being here.

Vicki Knott: Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: I think you’re the first oil and gas executive engineer we’ve had on the podcast, so that’s a first. Let me kick things off by asking you. Just tell us about CruxOCM. It’s so out there and so unique. What problem are you trying to solve and what exactly does your company do?

Vicki Knott: Yeah. So, the problem that we are solving, it’s easiest way to describe it is pilots and planes with autopilot software. So, in terms of our heavy industrial ecosystem and the energy that powers our homes every day. So pipelines are operated by people sitting in control rooms – so think about pilots.

But they don’t have autopilot software. So 83 percent of our energy globally flows through pipelines. And yet we have people that push buttons sitting at desks 24/7 operating it. So we wanted to get these folks much better tools to operate these assets.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: Interesting. I know your background a little bit. You worked in the oil and gas industry for quite a while. What sparked your specific interest in this problem and what prompted you to even start going down that path?

Vicki Knott: Yeah, so I started in pulp and paper actually, funny enough. I worked labor and I just really enjoyed the complexity of the heavy machinery. So like these are multi-billion dollar assets, right? These are big machines like I was on a paper machine the size of a gymnasium.

It was just pretty cool. So after having done that, I decided to study chemical engineering. And then in Canada, a really big industry for us of course is natural resources and oil and gas. I wanted to go into oil and gas and I ended up getting a job with at the time the Keystone pipeline. I trained as a control room operator there.

I also did a bunch of commissioning in the field on that pipeline. So it’s a multi-billion dollar asset. It’s the biggest batch pipeline asset in the world, moving over 600,000 barrels a day from northern Alberta to Texas. So after having operated for about 8 months on the console there training, it was really evident that the 100-year-old pulp and paper mill actually had more sophisticated heavy industrial automation than the most modern pipeline in the world.

Founding CruxOCM

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: That is eye opening. So then have a problem, then what happens? Like, how do you figure out the solution?

Vicki Knott: The solution was based on an idea we had seen in pulp and paper. We thought we could apply here. At the time, I was a junior engineer. I met my co-founder, Roger Shirt, who had been doing process control work in pipelines. I wanted to get to know him. I started pitching this concept to him. I believed we could develop more sophisticated automation. The technology already existed.

The idea was to streamline how control room operators manage assets. This would simplify their work and generate top-line revenue. Roger agreed. He said, “I think you’re right. I think we can.” At that time, being a junior engineer made it challenging. In a large corporate organization, there wasn’t much room to innovate. So, it became a crossroads. What do I do?

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: So then what happens when you’re at the crossroads?

Vicki Knott: At the crossroads, the company that I was at reorg-ed. So it was all of a sudden my job changed and everything and I realized I wasn’t really happy. I didn’t really like it. And I was like, okay, I’m an engineer. That’s what I studied but I don’t really like it. What should I do?

So I got a career counselor and with them for about six months and my aptitude assessments and strong interest assessments all pointed towards that I should really be pursuing this idea that me and Roger had and that I do have the right personality and aptitude to actually pursue entrepreneurship which for me was a surprise. It wasn’t something that I had really grown up being like, I’m going to be an entrepreneur. That wasn’t something I’d ever thought about.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: Interesting. So then, now you know you’re set to the direction and you want to take the next step, right? This is not something where you can build it. I don’t assume you can build it in your garage. I assume you actually need a pipeline to test things. What were the initial steps and what were the definitive turning points or inflection points? How did that process work out for you?

Early Challenges and Techstars

Vicki Knott: So the early steps were like I had never heard of Silicon Valley. I’d never heard of venture capital. I pretty much took off some coveralls and work boots and was like , “all right, we’re going to start a software company”. So the first two and a half years were very rough for us.

We had a fantastic minimum viable product showing lots of top-line revenue in a historically accurate simulation environment which is how we do these types of installations anyway. So it’s one of those things where it’s like, this is 99 percent proven already. Does anyone want to just install it on their pipeline?

And two and a half years, nobody. But at the time, I’d never heard of a sales pipeline. I didn’t really understand what procurement was. So, like, how to sell to big B2B, multi-50-billion-dollar-plus companies is a whole skill set all on its own that I had never even seen.

So that was something that was really challenging. What we did is we ended up getting into Techstars, an accelerator. And this is where deep tech founders—I know there’s lots of mixed reviews on accelerators, but if you’re a deep tech founder, you need an accelerator. It’ll help so much with the connections, everything.

It was phenomenal for our business. So coming out of Techstars, we ended up meeting a bunch of fantastic angel investors. One of them was like, Hey, Vicki, I’ll invest an angel check on the condition that you meet with me every Friday, and I teach you how to raise venture capital for the next six months.

I was like, let’s do it. Then it turned into—it went from almost we’re going to stop and quit to like, maybe this is the thing. That’s when I entered the accelerator. I started to understand the importance of capital strategy. As a deep tech engineer, the financial side of it is just kind of lost on you at first.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: So there’s lots of gold in here that I want to dig into. But before that, I want to touch on this accelerator question a little bit, right? So you talked about needing this accelerator. Awesome that you got into Techstars—congratulations! Clearly, they’re one of the best.

Who did you consider within the galaxy of accelerators? How did you make that choice? And how did you feel confident that Techstars, obviously, is a brand, but in case you didn’t get in, what was that process like? What criteria did you use?

Vicki Knott: Yeah, so ours was a little different. I had never heard of those accelerators. I was looking for a lawyer to help us with our early-stage paperwork and stuff and I met a lawyer who actually was Shopify’s lawyer in Canada. He was like, Vicki, you really need to do an accelerator. And I was like, Okay, what’s an accelerator?

He said, “Here, I’m going to introduce you to Y Combinator and Techstars, and I think one of those will be a good fit”. So it wasn’t that I applied cold so much as I actually got introduced to the MDs and then put the application in. Y Combinator was really not a fit for us. At the time, it was very much structured towards more B2C. And I just didn’t see what they could bring to the table or how in that three-month span, we could have accomplished something meaningful, whereas Techstars was specifically an energy program and it was actually in Norway. So we knew that the way the whole program was being set up was for B2B which was a much better fit for us.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: So it was a three month program which is typical for accelerators and for Techstars. What would you consider the biggest transformations or the learnings that happened to the viki that went in before and the wiki that came out after this process?

The Importance of Storytelling

Vicki Knott: Yeah, the Vicki that went in before did not have an appreciation for sales, capital strategy, or storytelling. The Vicki that came out after had an extreme appreciation for all three. Probably the biggest delta was in the storytelling—realizing, Okay, this is something I am weak at, and this is something that is obviously extremely important. Techstars really helped me get better at that.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: So, there’s storytelling—it’s the buzzword of the day, right? I’m about financial storytelling but it’s specific. It’s a technique, a method, something intended to produce an effective outcome. How would you characterize storytelling and what were the specific, maybe component skill sets, that you picked up that you think make up great storytelling?

Vicki Knott: I’m still working on that every day. It’s probably the easiest thing to work on actually. I work with a coach on that because it’s a challenge but it’s really about in terms of the Techstars thing and interesting people—it’s not just for your pitch. You kind of want to do it in all aspects, like sales too, right?

So, it’s about getting that hook—what is that hook to catch people’s attention? And then, what is the value you can really provide from a story? What is the story? What is the value, right? Because you’re telling a story about your business, and then how can you deliver that? Those are the kinds of stories I think of in terms of our product, our company and the market.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: And is there an example of something that you can tell us in 30 seconds or a minute of how that played out in a story?

Vicki Knott: Yeah, so I think, probably exactly how I started chatting with you all. It’s like a potential hook could be something like, 83 percent of our energy industry is still oil and gas and growing, right? And we don’t have autopilot on the pipelines that operate and move that energy every day. And you get a response, like, “Really? No way.“

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: I know we talked about this when we met earlier. I was like, wow, that is exactly the reaction you got. So for what it’s worth, it worked for one person, right? So, I don’t have any pipelines handy to give you an order, but it worked.

How to Select an Accelerator

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: So then, to wrap up this whole accelerator conversation, what advice would you give to other founders, particularly women founders or those in deep tech/STEM? I think, obviously, rightfully so, you had an easier path because you got that warm touch. But if you didn’t, what advice would you give founders in selecting?

Vicki Knott: I think apply for these programs. Don’t be afraid to apply multiple times. I think some people get discouraged quickly. Like, it’s okay. Apply multiple times for sure. It doesn’t have to be Techstars or Y Combinator. There’s lots of other fantastic programs.

So do your homework and if you have to apply multiple times. But I think if you’re wanting to go with that venture route, like just make sure it’s big enough. And female founders, it’s like, I’m sure your idea probably is big enough. You just may not have articulated it big enough.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: Got it. And in the whole accelerator space, they’re exploding, right? And clearly where there’s lots of people and so much money, there are good people and there are bad people. Through your journey, have you picked up any pointers in terms of what to look for and what to stay away from in selecting an accelerator? Anything that you want to comment on?

Vicki Knott: I wanna think like, in terms of the well-known brands. I know some folks don’t like their equity amounts but they give you cash and it’s at a point where you’re not VC fundable. Right? So, those I think their terms are standard. Their stuff is great.

But words of caution with some of the smaller, maybe newer accelerators is to make sure that you understand exactly what the deliverables and what the outcomes are that you should be receiving for that equity exchange or whatever that exchange is. There’s advisors to help you or there’s connections. But they’re not like tactically deliverables of this is what you will achieve that will move your business forward by XYZ. I think that’s probably what you really want to push on if you’re not with one of the brand accelerators.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: I love that. Not heard that yet. And what would be an example of a good deliverable?

Vicki Knott: So if you’re going to go into an accelerator and you have some early traction and you know that coming out of the accelerator, you want to raise your pre-seed round, right? So then you can say, okay, well, this is the goal that I want to achieve. In order for me to do that, what are the things in your program that are going to get me there?

Where’s the pitch practice? Who are the folks that are going to hold me accountable? What’s the time frame to actually get this done with your resources? Right? Asking those kinds of questions. You can almost even, as I didn’t do this, but as a suggestion, you could almost set up a work plan with them.

Funding Journey and Financial Acumen

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: I love that. So tons of stuff here on accelerators but I want to pick up on one other thing which you talked about which is this whole funding journey and getting that angel investor training you in this concept of financial acumen. But before we do that to set up, what was your funding process like? How did you get the angel investor? And did that happen pre-Techstars, post-Techstars? Can you just walk us through that?

Vicki Knott: That was post-Techstars. So I met the angel investor through Techstars which was great. So then post-Techstars, we did a small angel round. One of those angels wanted to help me raise the pre-seed round. We worked together for about six months, prepared the deck, financial model, made sure the cap table was ready, and any sales materials.

So that was about it. Then we started outreach. We put together a warm list with the existing angel investors of about, I think it was 86 investors for the pre-seed round, and then we started, like, I lined them all up and I started outreaching or getting warm intros to all of them.

So for that first round of capital, we started doing that and just kind of keeping the machine going. Every Tuesday, you follow up with the ones that you had meetings with the week before. And then after nine weeks, we got to a term sheet for that first round, but it was very much like a sales process and highly focused on only that outcome for that time.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: Got it. And then I want to bring back one thread that you mentioned with Techstars, which is you said this importance of a capital strategy, right? So is it fair to say that coming out of Techstars, you actually had a much more concrete capital strategy and if so, do you have any outline of what that capital strategy looked like or what features it had or what it had to cover?

Vicki Knott: So it was more like understanding the importance of it because I was like, oh no, we should be able to bootstrap this business. And then I was like, wait a second. There are so many things here that need to happen concurrently that it is not possible to bootstrap this business. Therefore, I’m going to have to raise funding. And what does that look like? And how do I do that? And that’s what the angel investor helped me do.

So we ran the process, got the term sheet, but in terms of what that was going to look like, we had the conversations up front and started modeling out the business. I model like an engineer, not like a financial person. But we were able to get through that to be like, okay, we believe a $2 to $3 million raise will be sufficient to get us to the next stage.

So we wanted to raise enough capital that we could essentially accomplish securing those first clients and getting like a proof of concept. That was what we really needed to do in that first round. And that’s what we thought we’d need to get it done.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: Awesome. So is it fair to say then that the angel investment that you got with this individual was almost like a bridge that helped you prepare for your actual pre seed of the two to three million? Is that a fair statement?

Vicki Knott: Yeah, sure, I guess if you want to call it a bridge but it was more like we hadn’t raised any capital except the Techstars capital. We actually had five angel investors approach us asking to invest. So we’re like, “well, let’s do an angel round”. We didn’t raise any friends or family money either.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: Awesome. So then, you have this angel investor. Did a light bulb go on and say, “hey, I really need this whole new set of skills that are as smart as I am quantitatively being an engineer. I still need to learn a new language”, so to speak. Walk me through that process, like the six months, the weekly meetings, like what happened?

Vicki Knott: Yeah, I guess the easiest way to start. We’ll start with the deck. I put together a pitch deck and I sent it over and of course, I was coming at it from an engineering perspective. My angel investor just said, “Vicki, this is crap. Please go try again”. And after three times of that, he’s like, “You know what? I’ve got a train ride, a two-hour train ride on Monday. I’m gonna do it for you.” And so that was me learning just how big the gap was in terms of speaking to VCs and investors. It was a much bigger gap than I had realized.

And then, on the other side of it, it was like working with him. He gave me examples of how to structure financial models and, like I can build models, mathematical models, no problem as an engineer but then trying to structure it, he showed me how to structure it so that a VC could interpret it. Mine weren’t perfect or beautiful. Like they’re not going to be like a financial person’s, but they were definitely usable. And I think that most any technical founder can absolutely do that.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: Got it. And then, in these weekly meetings, there’s clearly the aspect of the pitch, right? But were there other aspects that you kind of either picked up by osmosis or had discussions where you maybe more explicitly learned from him to say, I need to speak this language or I need to understand these concepts?

Vicki Knott: I think at the time I was more just like absorbing it. I think like when I started to really understand, “okay, my financial acumen is not where it needs to be, was post the pre-seed, and we’re getting into the seed round and in board meetings. And it’s okay, now I need to be able to present and talk about my budget and I need to get my budget approved.” And what I was finding is, I understood the mathematics and how the numbers flowed, but I didn’t have the language to then quickly iterate back and forth with investors on the right points. So that run a seed round, I started to realize I had a significant gap there.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: And was the angel still helping you, kind of coaching you on the side or how did you then pick up those new skills?

Vicki Knott: So, I had a number of mis-hires on the financial side because I was in a position where I knew I had a gap but I wasn’t able to communicate exactly what that gap was. And so I should have had more help with those hires. Because it’s like, I didn’t speak the language. I’m interviewing someone. They’re telling me they speak the language. I don’t know the difference.

So that was an interesting gap where I should have had more help because it resulted in two mis-hires on the financial side. But my plan was to hire someone since this is not a strength of mine. I need to get better at it, but it’s not reasonable for me to be the best at this, right? I’m the CEO and the founder, so I have to hire someone and make sure I hire the right person. I got it wrong a couple of times, but now we’re getting there. We’ve been through that process, and I’ve gotten more up to speed on it. But there’s definitely no silver bullet. It’s lead bullets. It’s been a constant need to learn more about this acumen, this business and this financial acumen. I think it’s more of a constant.

Hiring Challenges and Lessons Learned

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: Got it. Not to go into the details but do you feel comfortable commenting on what exactly didn’t go the way you wanted it to and how you fixed it going forward?

Vicki Knott: Absolutely. The mistake I made was thinking that finance people in oil and gas would be a perfect fit. Since we service oil and gas, it seemed to make perfect sense. I assumed these people were perfectly qualified, and to their credit, they assumed the same. There was no ill intent or anything wrong on their part. It was just that software finance is fundamentally very, very different, and that skill set didn’t map the way I had hoped or thought it would.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: So there’s a domain issue in terms of you’re now a software business that’s servicing the oil and gas industry and therefore the skill you need is a software financial skill. I don’t know if this is true, but was there also an element of big company versus startup culture?

Vicki Knott: Oh yeah. Love that too.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: How did that play out?

Vicki Knott: Yeah, it was an over complication of systems, right? It was like this assumption that we needed big company infrastructure and big company processes that actually was burning through cash in our early stages with that mindset, as opposed to like, “okay, we’re really early stage. What is good enough for now?”

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: Got it. And then how long did you take to realize it? Because they say hire slowly, fire quickly, right?

Vicki Knott: Oh yeah. I failed miserably on these ones. So, the first one was almost two years. The second one was about a year and a half.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: And going back, how would you handle the same situation if you had to start over?

Vicki Knott: I wouldn’t have hired either of them. I would have gone software you know, and I was also looking in a geolocation in Canada. This skill set isn’t predominant but I didn’t know that. So, knowing what I know now, it’s like, okay, unfortunately for that skill set, if I wanted to hire in Canada, it probably would have to be Toronto or Vancouver because that’s really only where those skill sets are or I need to hire in the U. S. for the skill set because it’s just not something that’s as available as I had thought.

The Role of Geography

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: And this is slightly tangential but it kind of sparked a question in my mind. It’s like, now you’re based in the West coast, right? Obviously you’re in the heart of where all the entrepreneurship is. What triggered that move and how critical do you think that move was or is, to the success of your startup?

Vicki Knott: Yeah, I think as a Canadian entrepreneur, I think super and some of the Canadians won’t like it but I think super critical to our success. The way that I like to tell entrepreneurs and if you’re in the US that’s great. It’s a lot easier but if you’re in Canada or a smaller country and Canada’s geographically big but like we are 10 times smaller, right?

So there are 10 times less opportunities. So that’s just the reality. And that’s where if you want to build a global business, you may want to get to the Bay area because that’s where people are building global businesses. That’s where the talent is. So you just increase your probability of success because you increase your probability of getting the right talent.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: So did that move happen before or after funding? Do you think it had anything to do with your funding prospects?

Vicki Knott: So both it has to do with the funding prospect. So I did two rounds of funding, both rounds investors wanted me to move to the US at the time. My life situation didn’t really make any sense. I ended up getting divorced. So then I was like, “You know what? My investors have wanted me to move to the Bay Area. I know by itself that this is going to be better for the business”. I now can, I don’t have to fight this fight anymore. Like “I’m going”. So I went.

Financial Acumen in B2B Sales

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: Awesome. And obviously it turned out very well in terms of being in the right space and the right time and all of that good stuff. I want to pick up one other thread on the financial acumen piece, right? So you mentioned earlier that you didn’t know how to sell to big businesses, even though you came from the oil and gas business. So my guess is that the acumen piece would have definitely helped, not just with funding and running your startup, but also what are the impacts outside of just pure funding and running your company.

Vicki Knott: Selling to the C-suite and B2B, right? We were very successful with a bottom-up sale, starting with our end users—control room operators. But to truly capture the market and understand our pricing power, we need to focus on a top-down sale, as we generate top-line revenue for our clients in the magnitude of hundreds of millions.

Learning financial acumen is helping me now to find the right person with the expertise to have these discussions with the C-suite. It’s not just about running the business; if you’re in B2B and want to sell in B2B, you must be able to have conversations at the C-suite level.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: Can you give some examples of maybe either specific concepts that you’re able to sell better a specific angle to your sale, like just something tangible that can help me?

Vicki Knott: Yeah, definitely. So to share with our business, a pipeline. If you think of a pipeline, the way that these assets are built is they’re underpinned by long-term 30-year contracts. So they’re essentially just like paid rent the whole way through. And so the way that they look at the economics of it is they assume that there’s a certain amount of throughput that can go through the pipeline all day every day.

What our software does is it increases that amount. So technically, since you already have that asset underpinned, that’s free capital or like free money, right? So being able to explain that this is top-line revenue generation. Here’s how your contract structure works for the client. Because of your contract structure, our product will generate top-line revenue for you, which has a positive impact on your margins. In a commodity business, that’s huge, right? I couldn’t have said that three years ago.

Challenges and Strategies in Sales

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: Congratulations. Does that also help you because I assume with a 30 year tenure and so forth there, it’s not a single executive sale, right? You’ve got to have the CFO or some C suite finance.

Vicki Knott: It’s well and what we do is we touch the actual operations. So, in software when people say operations, they usually mean the back office. In oil and gas, when we say operations, we mean the metal—it’s the actual operation. And so we touch the actual operations.

Our sale is extremely complex because essentially we’re coming in and saying, “Okay, the way you’ve been doing this—running the heart of your business—has been fantastic, but we promise you can do it even better.” And that is a challenging sell.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: So, and I have to ask this, answer it as you feel comfortable. But you know, for you as a woman going in and selling in a very male dominated field like oil and gas is tough to begin with. Obviously, your industry creds matter. I’m just curious personally, what do you feel about how much easier it has made or has it made the sale easier at all that you’re able to speak the language of finance?

Vicki Knott: Yeah, definitely. It’ll make it easier. We’re still testing that theory because our goal is to get the top-down sale this year in 2025 but it absolutely makes a difference, right? Early on, when I’m trying to sell—like, I’m an engineer, right? And unfortunately, in big B2B, those executives just don’t look at me like an equal, right? Female or male doesn’t matter. So I have to learn that acumen to be able to get into those rooms, right? Otherwise, they just don’t really have anything to talk to me about.

In terms of being a female, I think the credibility game was definitely tougher for me. But the way we tackled that very effectively was by aligning ourselves with advisors, investors and folks that would just continually jack up our credibility. So I think that is the best way to handle it.

What we are finding now, though, is that we have the technical credibility. I’m a very unique face and vibe in the industry. So now that I’m seen as more technically credible, I’m actually a force in terms of lead generation and opening doors for our sales team because I’m interesting and not something they usually see or hear from.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: Good for you. I’m rooting for you on that success. So, any other comments in terms of financial acumen? So, those of us who are the founders who may not have this today may find it a little intimidating. They may not have the engineering background that you do. What kind of actionable counsel would you give for them to start that process, regardless of where they are? Like, how do they start? What do they do to get more financial aid?

Vicki Knott: I think I had and I not had folks who were actually teaching me, I think I actually would have taken some online free courses just in general, like how to build a financial model or something like that. Just take some. I don’t think you need to go to university to learn it. I think you can take a few, like, one to two six weeks courses and you would probably launch yourself one to two years ahead in terms of your learning.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: So, I’m hearing like a one to two year ramp up to get to the place where you feel confident dealing with what I’ll call the money types or the suits, right?

Vicki Knott: Yeah, and if you can do that with a couple of courses faster or at least get comfortable. Part of it is being comfortable with it too, right? Like, I can say these things, I am comfortable, right? And having a few iterations on it, like getting with people multiple times to say it over and over.

Impact of Financial Acumen on Fundraising

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: Got it. And before we leave this concept of financial acumen, just a couple more points I found interesting. Clearly, there are benefits on the B2B side, right? The sales are absolutely critical, right? And I know you’ve raised like 27 million so far in funding. How has financial acumen impacted you through the fundraising process—when you’re reaching out to investors, dealing post-investment, managing investors? Can you talk a little bit about that?

Vicki Knott: It’s helped tremendously—fantastically, I would say. I think we don’t realize we speak different languages, but we do. What happens is you may think you’re using the right words, but the other person interprets them differently than how you mean them. The conversation falls apart for no other reason than just acumen. So, it is extremely, extremely powerful. One thing that I did do because I was struggling with this enough. So in terms of example, it took me a while to find a good one because again, I didn’t have the acumen to find someone, but I did hire a part time CFO to help me. Like, structure the board deck in a way that the financial acumen story narrative resonated with the board.

That was something I wasn’t able to do on my own. I had tried for almost two years, through five or six board meetings, but the narrative just didn’t come together on the financial side. As soon as I hired a consultant, it was interesting how, with just a few tweaks, it suddenly made sense to the board. What I thought was almost the same content, when I presented it, didn’t resonate.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: And is there an example that pops in your mind of something like that?

Vicki Knott: It’d be like, just this budget summary, right? We have the budget summary, and before I presented and tried to discuss it as soon as the first question would come in, I just got confused and just be lost. But after hiring somebody who prepared it for me and walked me through, this is what you’re going to say for each, I felt much less lost. I still wasn’t as comfortable and still needed the financial support. I have to be like, okay, I’ve got to take this question away or that question away. Yeah, having someone actually kind of handhold me through that was extremely powerful on the board side and the financial acumen side.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: But what I like and what I’m taking away is that, regardless of how much support you had, it sounds to me like you were still the front-facing person from the company side as you were dealing with investors. Because you were dealing with the board, and you actually took the hard pill, so to speak, of learning the language, as uncomfortable as it felt and didn’t just put the CFO. I’ll have the CFO talk to this, right?

Vicki Knott: Yeah, pretty much. And I couldn’t really do that. Because like, I think that I wouldn’t have come across as credible. I had just always deferred to CFO and I was in a position where I hadn’t hired software CFOs. So I really wasn’t in a position, like, I had to. I had almost no choice. I kind of screwed myself.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: So it sounds good. So just around that conversation out looking back, do you think there’s some misconceptions maybe that founders have about what financial acumen is or things that you feel that you can dispel now that you’re a little bit on the other side having gone through that?

Vicki Knott: Yeah, I think it’s easier than you think but more time-consuming than you think, right? Like, it’s going to take a lot longer than you probably think to get fully comfortable because you’re not in school, you’re not studying this all day every day. You’re gonna fumble it up a few times.

You don’t want to make 100% of your focus as CEO financial acumen, or you’re going to drop the ball elsewhere, right? So be okay with the fact that it’s going to take a while for you to get really comfortable with it, but the more you can practice, the better.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: And practice meaning. I’m just trying to make it a little clearer for listeners. So I’m hearing a piece around the structure and the language being one part of financial acumen. The actual manipulation of and being comfortable with numbers, I feel like that wasn’t a big challenge for you, just given your background.

So it was more that you were comfortable with the numeracy aspects of financial acumen—you could talk through the numbers, you could work through the numbers—but clothing them in the language of finance was a challenge. So it’s almost like learning, like having flashcards saying, Okay, what does cash flow mean? What does budget variance mean?

Vicki Knott: What is your cash flow statement? What is your balance sheet? What exactly is the balance sheet? What’s in it? Yeah, that’s the stuff that I really like, and it still is a bit challenging for me because it’s like this is just me, my personality. I’m like but it’s that number. Like, why does it matter what we call it? We know that it’s that number, right?

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: But they’re like, No, we need to know what the number is. Is it the efficiency percentage, gross margin percentage, things of that nature? Right? So, if I had to tease it out, I’d say what I’ve heard you say so far—and tell me if this is right or wrong—is:

Part one, the substance of it is really the numerical fluency, right? Being comfortable with numbers and knowing what percentages and those relationships are. And the second part, importantly, is the language—how do you say it in words that make sense to a financial type? Thank you, that was super interesting.

The Role of Gender in Deep Tech

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: So, what I want to close out with for the last part of the conversation is this: clearly, you’re a woman in deep tech. That matters, right? I just want to maybe have a little bit of a conversation around your experience as a woman in deep tech—especially out on the oil rig. This is about as anti-stereotypical as it gets.

You already talked about being kind of a different face and the advantages and potentially some disadvantages of that. But from an internal point of view, what perspective do you think being a woman in deep tech brings you as a founder that gives you any kind of advantage as a startup founder?

Vicki Knott: Yeah, I love that question. Actually, I think as women and men, we have biological differences. And I think women are a touch more sensitive. Despite not being exactly a nurturing person, we’re a touch more sensitive and a touch more in tune with what’s happening around us.

In deep tech, it’s been so extremely male-dominated for so long that opportunities are being missed by being a bit softer actually. In terms of what we’re doing, we’re really tackling a problem that’s been solved in other industries but with the wrong end user.

So, me being maybe a little more on the feminine side, I’m like, okay, but that’s the wrong end user. Why aren’t we taking care of the right end user? Right? If we align with the right end user, that aligns with first principles and value creation. That makes sense, right?

I think those types of opportunities are something we can be really good at. People will say to me, How come this doesn’t exist? This has to exist in this industry. It just has to. I don’t know why not, except that everyone’s been thinking about the problem the same way, and there just hasn’t been much opportunity in there for different types of folks.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: So it’s really that nuance and the ability to come down and say, what’s really happening here and to kind of observe it without the lens of this is how it’s always been done and it’s fine. And why should we change anything feels like a lot of it.

Vicki Knott: Or even just thinking about it differently as opposed to an incremental innovation all the time. Like in our space, everyone does a lot of incremental innovations, but there’s the step changes are very few and far between.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: So what’s an example of an incremental innovation, a step change, obviously what you’re doing is a step change?

Vicki Knott: So in the energy supply chain, you’ll have teams of engineers working really hard in a refinery to optimize 1 refinery unit. And that’s great. But if you think of it and you zoom out. If that pipeline is bottlenecked and it can’t get more throughput, doesn’t matter how amazing the work is that you do on an incremental innovation because it doesn’t make a difference.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: So it’s the local optimums versus global optimums, right? And having the systems, I love it.

Vicki Knott: And I think women can do that a little easier from what I’ve seen.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: So I’ve seen it myself when I have approached problems, so that definitely resonates with me. So, you’ve kind of come a long way. Clearly you got other mountains to conquer and we’re supporting you all the way.

Advice for Aspiring Female Founders

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: So what advice would you give even looking back on your journey so far to other women in deep tech so that they can improve their chances of successfully steering a startup?

Vicki Knott: I think it’s a personality type, right? So really, I think the biggest one for sure is knowing yourself. And then, if you’ve identified that you are this personality type, just have confidence in yourself. I wish I’d had more confidence because I really did know what I was doing.

We really are building something absolutely extraordinary, but you’re never told, as a woman, that you’re doing that. You’re told to behave and stay in line. So, owning that confidence is something I wish I had done and I would love to see more people do.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: That you bring up this whole concept around imposter syndrome and confidence and the difference between women and men. So being more confident. Yeah, I get it. But I’m going to push a little bit on that and say, how can I be more confident? Like, what is the action I need to take?

Vicki Knott: I hired a communications coach. He was a former professional actor. One of my board members wanted me to hire him. He is fantastic. What I found is if I’m pitching an investor or whatever, how do I need them to feel and then how am I putting myself forward in that way to get that outcome?

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: And this may or may not be easy for you, but is there like a pre acting coach Vicki who would have maybe pitched something, some small thing versus a post?

Vicki Knott: I’ll try it. Okay. So I think what I would have done before is it would have been like Prex has developed, has leveraged model predictive control machine learning algorithms to fully automate control room operators activities for pipelines, starts, swings, strips.

I probably would have said something like that in a bit of a monotone and kind of got right into the details. Afterwards, it’s more like yeah 83 percent of our energy mix is still oil and gas and we do not have these assets fully automated. Right? The difference there is it’s the same message I’m trying to get to, but the difference is no, this is a huge problem and I know that and my actor’s intention is that I need you to hear that. Right?

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: So it’s funny because we use the same example for storytelling. But it’s almost like telling the story from a perspective of having that land with your audience is also giving you confidence.

Vicki Knott: Yeah, exactly. It gives the confidence. It’s an interesting little tactic. It’s like, well, an acting coach or maybe some improv classes can just help me with that little spot that I can get over.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: I’m kind of making an inference which is that when you’re doing the non storytelling aspect, you’re more worried about you and how you’re coming across. Therefore less focused on them which is your audience but now flipping that and saying, what story am I telling helps to take some of that self consciousness away.

Vicki Knott: What do they need to feel? Which they need to feel. Right?

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: So take away the self consciousness, but then what comes in is the natural confidence because now your competence can shine on its own without you telling yourself, Oh, I shouldn’t do this, or I shouldn’t do that, or I should be small and I should kind of fit into this space and be nice or whatever.

Vicki Knott: Yeah, you’re right. I love how you summarized it. The tactic is really like creating a set you’re focusing on the audience to essentially if nothing else, just distract yourself from your own awkwardness.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: Awesome. And are there other things? So I love the acting coach. Maybe I should get one myself. But what are some other tips that have helped you maybe increase your confidence? Are there other things that come to mind? .

Vicki Knott: So this would be the “no silver bullets, only lead bullets” thing again. It’s just iteration, hustle, hustle. You know, I got some comments at an investor event I was at. They were like, “Oh, Vicki, the way you present your value prop, you’re just so positive and confident that it’s there.”

And my memory then just goes, I’ve stood in front of dozens and dozens of teams of technical people telling me how dumb this idea is. I’ve done that so many times, and I still know it’s not dumb. It almost set me up for, like, No, this isn’t dumb, right? So it kind of helped build the confidence, but it’s not a fun way to get there, I guess.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: This has been at the back of my mind, so I’m just going to come out and ask it, like, you come across as such a positive person. I am blown away. Very energetic and committed, passionate, all of that good stuff. Has there ever been a time or have there been times and you’ve doubted yourself in the dark times how do you get through that?

Vicki Knott: Yeah. So I think this is where I think entrepreneurship is a personality. So part of it and this is maybe more on the not-so-positive side of it. But part of it is like, I don’t think I could do anything else. Like, I love the problem-solving, the intensity, the excitement of it all.

So that makes it a lot easier. Yeah, so I think it’s like, you really want to, as long as you’re a personality fit for it. Yeah, you’re still chewing glass and staring into the abyss and getting punched in the face all the time, but you’d rather do that than sit in a cubicle. So you’re like, no, this is the punch I choose, right?

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: It’s like, which flavor of whatever sandwich.

Vicki Knott: Yeah, right. It’s like, you’re gonna choose your pain. Well, I like this pain more.

Final Thoughts and Reflections

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: So then kind of to wrap things up, if you had to go back and start over, what would you, now tell the pre-startup Vicki that maybe she didn’t know?

Vicki Knott: What I didn’t know at the time is I was in a smaller city, Calgary in Canada. Get out as soon as possible. So, if you want to build a global business, get out as soon as possible. I think I wasted too much time not thinking big enough there. So, that’s something for entrepreneurs that are in different centers. Like, it might not be comfortable but that’s a reality—you might have to go somewhere else.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: Although I have to tell you that I love Calgary. I’ve been there a couple of times.

Vicki Knott: I love Calgary too. I love it. I think that’s why I stayed so long because it’s a beautiful city and people are so friendly.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: Yes. So then kind of building on that, what advice would you give other deep tech women founders who may be a little bit earlier in the journey than you are today. What are the top three pieces of, I don’t want to say advice but observations to consider?

Vicki Knott: Number one, you know it is on you. Keep hustling, keep learning. If you can be as lucky as I was—I know I was really fortunate to find those male sponsors. If you can find female, fantastic, but if you’re in deep tech, you might not. Find the male founders who just tell it like it is, right? Or the male coaches.

You know, the angel investor, he said to me, he’s like, typically I tell pre-seed founders that they need about 50 but you’re a female founder, so let’s go for a hundred in terms of like which VCs. So that’s okay. He’s just telling it like it is, right?

So find people you can align with like that. They’ll just kind of dust away the cobwebs and help you see really clearly, if that makes sense. Then you can move forward faster. For the two and a half years that we really didn’t get anywhere, that would be getting out faster. Could I have done anything at the time to get more involved in a startup ecosystem that would have been extremely valuable as well. And I didn’t do that at the time because I didn’t know it existed. That’s something I’d really recommend.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: Which means like, what? How do you get involved?

Vicki Knott: It means like events. So, most cities have some sort of startup hub. So, Calgary has Platform Calgary, right? And especially if you’re not in the Bay Area, other cities have these centers. Figure out where it is. Maybe go check it out. Like, how can you get involved? Are there any events where you could make some connections that could help you move forward? That’s something that I really wish that I had understood, that it was even there when we had started, getting out, leaving Calgary sooner.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: And is there, not to beat this up too much, but what would have accelerated for you now looking back, do you think?

Vicki Knott: Getting out. That would have been the really big one.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: The critical one, right? So that would have made the gap more obvious so you’d have acted on it sooner versus being in a bubble. Makes total sense. So, you’ve covered a ton of stuff. Amazing depth. Thank you for that. My last question to you is, is there anything you wish I had asked but I didn’t?

Vicki Knott: I don’t think so. I think you’ve captured them all but let me see if there’s anything else that’s interesting. No, I think I got them.

Shubha K. Chakravarthy: Fantastic. So thank you very much. This has been an amazing conversation and a very enlightening one. I really appreciate it and I think our listeners will have a blast as well. Thank you so much, Vicki.

Vicki Knott: Great, thank you.