Founder Friday with Bobbie Racette of Virtual Gurus
After being passed over for jobs again and again despite being more than qualified, Bobbie Racette founded Virtual Gurus to help workers from underrepresented communities find high-quality employment and match employers with skilled virtual assistants (VAs). Virtual Gurus is a talent-as-a-service platform that finds, hires, and remotely trains qualified North American VAs—especially those who may traditionally have faced barriers to employment.
We caught up with Bobbie to hear what’s new for Virtual Gurus, what’s coming up next, insights into what’s happening in the industry, and advice she would give to her past self and up-and-coming women founders.
What’s New
Heading into 2024, Bobbie is thrilled to share how the Virtual Gurus exceeded their revenue targets in Q1. In this macro-economic environment, the team has been drawing in and focusing on their high-level growth.
Contributing to that growth, they are also excited about the development of VG OnDemand: a by-the-task platform providing on-demand admin support that aligns with a business’s unique rhythm and needs.
Bobbie and the team have seen fantastic traction with many people using it—consistently raising the bar for highest sales month after month. People are seeing the value of a quick, task-on-demand, pay-as-you-go service.
And the cherry on top of it all: while there’s a growing number of competitors in the industry, Virtual Gurus has made the list of top 100 of Canada’s Top Growing Companies (with an impressive growth of 512%) and was named the highest revenue VA platform in North America.
What’s Next
The Virtual Gurus platform has been fully developed, and the team is now working AI into it for full automation. Through all these updates and integrations, though, Bobbie underscores how their main product truly is their people, which they have realized now with how Virtual Gurus has structured their operations and client success department.
And they have the results to back the success of their approach, with 8 out of 10 of Virtual Guru clients reporting being very happy with their services.
Bobbie and the team are excited about the upcoming quarters and extending their services with a Virtual Reception service.
After conducting a recent survey, 64% of respondents said they needed a call answering service. Listening to that feedback, they are working to deliver on it and make it happen.
What’s Going On in the Industry
With her finger constantly on the pulse of trends and what’s going on in the landscape, one thing that has regularly come up in Bobbie’s research is that none of their competitors actually have a tech platform that is custom built like theirs at Virtual Gurus.
Great news for their team, this propels them forward as they work toward global domination with their platform. Many of their competitors are turning to offshore talent, whereas Virtual Gurus are more about keeping all their operations and support onshore in North America in their own economy.
A few key reasons for this being:
Onboarding and communication is much easier
Onshore assistants know how you work and understand your markets
Working with onshore assistants and freelancers means you get to keep your personal and professional information onshore
Virtual Gurus provide employment opportunities and living wages to Canadians and Americans
Advice to Your Past Self & Other Women Founders
“Don’t be afraid to listen to your team,” Bobbie says. “It's important to leverage your team's ideas and hear them out because there could be some gold nuggets in there!”
Bobbie goes on to share how at Virtual Gurus, the team is very collaborative and values ideas over hierarchy.
It's crucial to foster an environment where every team member feels safe, heard, and valued when sharing their ideas and perspectives—advice that not only applies to founders but to leaders at all levels within a company.
Embracing a truly collaborative approach and actively listening to your team can lead to a myriad of benefits, including increased innovation, boosted morale, and stronger team cohesion. By valuing ideas over hierarchy, you create an environment where everyone feels empowered to contribute to the success of the company.
The51 is proud to partner with the National Angel Capital Organization (NACO) in telling founder stories to accelerate the representation of women within Canada’s innovation economy.