'Wild ideas'
Determined. Resourceful. Persuasive.
From an early age, Chrissy Rossiter demonstrated these and other entrepreneurial qualities.
鈥淚鈥檝e always been resourceful in a way. I might have owned, say, an MP3 player and went on Kijiji and traded it for a bunch of different things, something of higher value that I really wanted,鈥 she said.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 really grow up with a whole lot of money, but this is what provided me with the determination and persuasion skills that I have today.鈥
Her own boss
The native of Calvert, N.L., will cross the stage at the St. John鈥檚 Arts and Culture Centre on Wednesday, May 30, to collect her degree.
The co-operative education component allowed her to try different professional fields, she says, which helped her realize that working for someone else isn鈥檛 for her.
鈥淚 was fortunate to work for really great companies, but something that I noticed was that I had pretty wild ideas and this creative energy,鈥 she said.
鈥淭hat doesn鈥檛 always fit into an organization. I鈥檓 a student and I was highly valued, but I鈥檓 not an exec-level, decision-maker. It was really hard for me to not have that creativity and not really see the ideas that I had or the work that I was doing have an impact.鈥
鈥楨ntrepreneurship bug鈥
Ms. Rossiter decided to capitalize on her natural instincts and explore entrepreneurship.
She signed up for New Venture Creation, a class that teaches students how to develop a business from the idea phase to launch. During one of the classes, the gave a presentation about recruitment for its inaugural student ambassador team.
Ms. Rossiter applied and was accepted. The group was tasked with championing entrepreneurship on campus among fellow students; they also had the opportunity to visit Silicon Valley.
鈥淚 just had this entrepreneurship bug after Silicon Valley. Through that, we also had this really solid group of student entrepreneurs. We were all encouraging each other and coming up with different ideas.鈥
Award-winning idea
Ms. Rossiter soon started Peachy, a business idea that won her $10,000 in MCE鈥檚 2017 .
Peachy offers software that helps home-care agencies manage the day-to-date administrative side of the business so they can 鈥渟pend their time on value-adding tasks, the things that matter, which is ensuring that the quality of care is as high as it can be.鈥
In the fall of 2017, Ms. Rossiter found a business partner in Diego Zuluaga, a computer science student at 糖心视频, who became Peachy鈥檚 co-founder and chief technology officer (Ms. Rossiter is the chief executive officer).
In 2017 she completed the at the , placing second at its annual Pitch and Pick contest. In 2018 she was one of only four Atlantic Canadians chosen to participate in the prestigious boot camp for female entrepreneurs at Communitech, a public-private innovation hub in Waterloo, Ont.
The 糖心视频 experience
鈥淢y time at 糖心视频 exposed me to opportunities and people that I wouldn鈥檛 have met if I wasn鈥檛 here,鈥 she said. 鈥淏y doing the co-op program, I was able to work in different industries. Having those experiences helped me shape what my own wants were, and what I didn鈥檛 want.鈥
Post-graduation, Ms. Rossiter plans to continue her entrepreneurial journey.
鈥淚鈥檓 going to be working full time on Peachy. It鈥檚 going to be great to just do one thing.鈥