Keeping it Qool

Founder: Chakameh Shafii

Hometown: North York, Toronto

Education: Mechanical Engineering @ U of T

Start-up: TranQool

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What is TranQool?

It is an online counselling platform connecting people with accredited therapists and provides sessions at home through a secure video call. The registered therapists are social workers and psychologists, who go through a solid on-boarding process. These services are covered by insurance, so that means university students and the working population access this through their benefits and is cheaper for those that would not otherwise be able to afford these services. Currently, they are functioning in Ontario and plan to expand nationwide.

When do you quit your job for an idea?

One day, Chakameh messaged her now Co-Founder, Sayeed, and said that she thinks there is a better way for accessing counselling. Interestingly enough, he was looking for a psychologist at the time. After doing some consumer research, creating surveys on Google, and researching how big the online counseling market was, they noticed there was a gap in the Canadian market. So, she quit her day job with her 2 co-founders to build this. She mentioned a big driver for her was that she had suffered from anxiety and completed Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) after graduating from university and realized how life changing it was for her in being able to manage her anxiety. Some people don’t do therapy because they don’t find the right therapist, they can’t afford it, or they just can’t handle the stigma of going to therapy and she is ready to change that.

Did she have any entrepreneurial influences in her life growing-up?

Yes! Her Dad is an entrepreneur and also an engineer. She mentioned that he is definitely someone she’s looked up to and is one of the primary reasons why she went into engineering. Early on, however, she had been entrepreneurial driven. She said “This was the first summer of Grade 1. I used to have a lot of books my Dad used to read to me at night, and I realized there were a lot of books I didn’t want anymore. So, I started selling them. My Grandpa called me and asked what I was doing [selling books]. I never really thought of myself as an entrepreneur.”

Get to know Chakameh a little better…

·         If she wrote a book…It would be a fictional book about journeys. She’s very fascinated about other peoples’ journeys.

·         Books of influence…She is a huge fan of Malcolm Gladwell and recommends his books to anyone. Also check out his podcast at Revisionist History. She noted there are some really great podcasts for women specifically.

·         She stays motivated…by the work that she does. The work that TranQool does touches peoples’ lives and she mentioned when they see someone finish a full cycle of CBT and are basically graduating from therapy or people who are on waitlists now being able to access therapy is motivating.

·         Challenges faced…She said “keeping myself and my co-founders healthy physically and mentally are the most important part in building this company. Having emotional stability helps with decision making and how we talk to our employees and everything we do.”

·         Wish knew prior to starting…”When we started, I was like 24 and I didn’t have a lot of experience. I still don’t think I had enough experience with managing a team and with work relationships, but as I’ve grown, I think I’ve improved that.”

When Chakameh graduated, she thought she was made for corporate America, so she started working. However, she started to realize that she liked starting things from scratch and not having things handed to her. She’s not scared of working hard, and mentioned that is an essential element of doing anything. You have to work hard. Since inception in spring of 2015, TranQool joined OCAD’s incubator and is currently a team of 7. They raised angel investment in June and are preparing for a seed round in spring next year, which are mainly for marketing purposes.

With all of this success, I asked her whether she has faced any challenges as a female entrepreneur. She said “Being a women growing up does not affect everyone the same way. I went to Engineering school, I’m a millennial, my generation of guys looked at women as equals. In mechanical engineering, it is majority guys, so it was not until I became an entrepreneur that I noticed we are different in some cases.” She has had more male mentors than female mentors and has found that most investors are male and tend to invest more in male entrepreneurs. She accepts this and instead of talking down to herself, she powers through it. In some cases where someone has said something, she says she has 2 reactions: if she is close enough with that person she lets them know and call them out, and most of the time they didn’t even realize what they were saying. In other cases, she ignores it.

Her Dad growing-up always told her that men and women are equal and that you need to work hard for what you want to achieve in life. She noted that this may be her upbringing and growing-up in Canada that gave her this mindset, even though she noted books like Lean In are great. She focuses on TranQool and not that fact that TranQool is run by a woman.

Chakameh has some great advice, especially for all the women entrepreneurs out there! Start with yourselves first because if you are not strong enough to withstand the pressures that are coming at you, you can’t build anything. It’s not just you and your business, there are people relying on you. If your personal infrastructure is not strong enough than everything is going to fall apart. No one is perfect and everyone can work on themselves. She noted it is important for everyone and specifically women to work on themselves to increase their self-confidence and to not doubt themselves and it is important to acknowledge our strengths and weaknesses. Do that before you start anything.  She noted that you will figure out a lot of this along the way, but before that, you need to work on yourself and work on your confidence.

Chakameh and TranQool are currently running a 12-Day Challenge focused on helping women build positive habits that help them build confidence—please consider joining in! It’s fantastic what Tranqool is implementing and you can learn more about them at their website. If you have any questions for me, please feel free to e-mail me, or contact me through social media. Remember, keep it Qool!