The Top 3 Takeaways From our Discussion With Caron Hawco

Caron Hawco has spent 20 plus years in the oil and gas industry as an independent consultant. She has worked with multiple startups, with many in the oceantech space. She was kind enough to share a few insights from her experience with our Marketswell CMO Accelerator cohort last week. Thanks Caron!

Here are our top 3 takeaways:

1. Blending online and real world relationship building coming out of the pandemic.

Many companies had to embrace online relationship building when the pandemic hit and travel ground to a halt. For the companies who had already embraced content marketing approaches prior to the pandemic, to this transition was a somewhat easy one. For those who hadn’t - many traditional resource-based industries fell into this category - the switch had many of them learning from the ground up. Now that we hopefully are approaching the end of the pandemic, what will the blend be between online and offline? Caron reminded our cohort that being some of the first companies to get back to reigniting relationships face-to-face, and in informal settings, could be a key differentiator.

2. Government can play a number of key roles.

For startups selling a product or service that could be utilized by a government department - whether municipal, provincial, or federal - being able to line them up as a reference customer could help a startup get off the ground, especially in the early days. Understanding the procurement process or working with someone who does is key to making sure that the effort spent is balanced with the possible opportunity.

Another avenue often forgotten is the use of trade commissioners to help get new export business. Trade commissioners are there to help make introductions part of their role. Consulates have developed networks in their host countries and are often happy to connect you to possible leads. A suggestion would be generating a list of desired leads, sorting them by country, and sitting down with your regional trade commissioner to develop a plan.

3. Keep an eye out for smaller, fast growing markets.

History shows that startups often tend to focus first on the largest markets like the US, Canada, Australia, the UK, and major EU countries. This is often the best strategy. However, depending on the type of product or service a startup is selling, sometimes smaller markets provide opportunities to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond. For example, Caron mentioned that Guyana is one of the fastest growing, oil-based economies in the world. At the same time, they are also a rapidly developing nation, meaning the requirement for expertise and corresponding solutions is quite high. Caron mentioned that with her help along with others, a large number of Newfoundland companies now do business in Guyana and are experiencing healthy growth because of it.

Thank you again Caron for taking the time to share your experience.