Bobbie Racette on going from unemployed to mogul

For this week’s MVP, we’re chatting with Bobbie Racette.

By Rosemary Counter

By her own admission, Calgary entrepreneur Bobbie Racette doesn’t look anything like either a suited CEO or laidback techpreneur. She’s Cree-Métis, queer, covered in tattoos and doesn’t have an MBA. All that doesn’t matter, as last month, she made the history books as Canada’s first Indigenous female founder of a tech startup to make a flashy exit. (If you don’t know start-up speak, she sold her very successful company and it was noticed.) No details are available on exactly how many zeros are involved in the deal, but it’s safe to say there were a lot, as her startup, Virtual Gurus, was acquired by the U.S.-based Zitual. Racette will continue working on the company as an advisor, but first she’s chatting to The Get about how it all happened.

Congrats on the big deal! How did it change your life?

Honestly? It still blows my mind. I started Virtual Gurus with $300, at my kitchen table, because I couldn’t get hired after being laid off in the 2016 Alberta oil-and-gas downturn. I’d get interviews, but then I’d walk in with my tattoos and bold presence, and people would just shut down. I am queer, Indigenous, and not fitting into anyone’s corporate mould. So, I figured, alright, if no one’s going to hire me, I’ll build something where people like me are the first pick.

I didn’t have a business degree, and I still don’t. I didn’t even know how to write a business plan. But I had grit, and I knew how to hustle. I knew there were so many other folks who were 2SLGBTQIA+, neurodivergent, Indigenous or single parents—with talent, but they just weren’t getting a shot.

The first few years were scrappy, and I made every mistake in the book. I originally named the company Canadian Virtual Assistant Gurus, not realizing the acronym until someone pointed it out at a party. I changed the name, and built up a platform that’s now helped thousands of people find real, flexible work, paying out over $15 million in earned wages to the virtual assistant talent community.

We built the talent place platform that hosted the clients, the staff and the talent and landed enterprise clients. The moment we were big enough that someone wanted to buy us we came full circle. From “no one will hire me” to “we’re buying your company”—that changed my life. But more importantly, it proved that you can build something big without selling out on your values.

Of so many tech startups, what did Virtual Gurus do differently or better?

Virtual Gurus is not your typical tech company. It is a talent-as-a-service platform that matches virtual assistants with businesses. But what makes it different is who gets hired and how. The secret sauce is the people. Most of the VAs are from historically excluded communities—Indigenous, racialized, queer, neurodiverse, folks with disabilities, or people who just need work that fits real life.

We also built proprietary AI to help match VAs with clients in a more intelligent, human-first way. But we never let technology replace people. It’s there to support them. That’s the heart of it. Human-led, AI-supported. Not the other way around.

I’m scared of AI. What do you know that I don’t?

Oh, I get it. AI is scary when it feels like it’s coming to take your job. But AI doesn’t have to replace people. It can amplify them. That’s what we built VG Connect, which is an AI receptionist agent. It handles the repetitive stuff so a company’s team can focus on the human stuff.

It’s like… imagine you’re a solo entrepreneur wearing 50 hats. AI can take 10 of those off your plate. Now, you can breathe. You can grow. You can spend time with your family or get out of burnout. That’s the kind of AI I believe in, but the key is to build it ethically. You’ve got to include diverse voices at the table from day one. Otherwise, it’s just going to reinforce the same power dynamics we’re trying to fix.

Now that you’ve exited Virtual Gurus, what’s next for you?

It’s wild to say out loud, but yes, I’ve officially wrapped my chapter at Virtual Gurus. After building it from the ground up and giving it everything I had for nearly a decade, it was time. Time to trust the foundation we built. And time to finally let myself dream up what’s next.

And, so, what’s next? I’m not ready to spill all the details yet, but I can tell you this: I’m building again. It’ll be purpose-first, rooted in community, and a hell of a lot of fun. This next venture is going to support the kinds of people who don’t always get support, especially women, Indigenous founders, and queer creatives trying to do things differently.

Rosemary Counter is a Toronto-based writer and journalist whose reporting and essays have appeared in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, The Guardian and others.