Calgary-based tech startup Virtual Gurus has become the largest and most trusted virtual assistant (VA) marketplace in North America. With the rapid advancement of technology and the accelerated digital transformation of industry, the demand for virtual helping hands is on the rise.
“We’ve found the ecosystem to be incredibly supportive around startup organizations. From anybody I’ve spoken to, they just have so many good things to say about the city and how it enables people to work and be successful here," said Margaret Glover-Campbell, Chief Operating Officer at Virtual Gurus.
The Virtual Gurus team matches businesses and entrepreneurs with onshore (North American) freelancers and virtual assistants. It uses a stringent vetting and onboarding process and leverages its proprietary matching algorithm to ensure business owners are matched with highly-skilled Canadian and U.S.-based freelancers.
As an Indigenous, LGBTQ+ businesswoman, founder and CEO Bobbie Racette’s identity has helped shape the social mission of the company: to create employment opportunities for marginalized individuals for whom a nine-to-five office job isn’t accessible.
“What we truly focus on is, how do we provide employment or entrepreneurial opportunities for people from marginalized communities?” said Glover-Campbell. As of January 2021, 91 per cent of the company's VAs are female, with 40 per cent identifying as a member of a marginalized community (BIPOC, Indigenous, LGBTQ+ and alternately-abled).
With a commitment to contribute to society in a meaningful and sustainable way, the company’s success also lies in the slick tech that keeps Virtual Gurus running, all managed by tech talent recruited in Calgary. A best-in-class example of Calgarian teams harnessing digital technology to solve real-world problems – a hallmark of the community’s economic strategy Calgary in the New Economy.
The Virtual Gurus team launched askBetty in 2021, an app that runs on Slack and is designed to help users with one-off personal or administrative tasks. Operating on a pay-by-task model, requests made through askBetty are broken down into 15-minute increments and gives users instant access to a live personal assistant.
For the full article on Virtual Gurus and more stories about game-changing companies in Calgary’s innovation ecosystem, visit Live Tech, Love Life.