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Oct 3, 2024
If you didn’t catch this episode of Invest Ottawa’s Invested in Our New Reality podcast – don’t worry – we’ve got you covered!
Below, you’ll get a full guide to our second episode of Season 14: Downtown: Evolved, including a full transcript and a snapshot of the themes covered in the conversation with Matthew Holland, the CEO of Field Effect – a world-class and Ottawa-based cybersecurity provider.
Listen to the episode on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Simplecast
Invested in Our New Reality is a dynamic podcast where business leaders offer honest observations about navigating our ever-evolving reality. Each episode provides a space for entrepreneurs to speak candidly about the challenges and opportunities they’ve faced, arming listeners with practical advice on how to thrive in the future.
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Season 14 of Invested in Our New Reality Downtown: Evolved celebrates the companies that make their home in Ottawa’s downtown and those working to transform and revive the city’s centre.
Listen to the episode on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Simplecast
Sam Laprade: Hi, I’m Sam Laprade and I’m so glad you’re joining us for Invested in Our New Reality, Invest Otrawa’s podcast for business leaders and entrepreneurs.
Cities have seen a lot of change in the past five years and Ottawa is certainly no different. That’s why the 14th season of this podcast is called Downtown Evolved.
Because we’re looking at the evolution of Ottawa’s downtown core, we’re chatting with leaders that call the downtown their home base, as well as the people helping to transform and revive the city centre and network of engaged stakeholders, helping Ottawa maintain and grow its reputation as a vibrant and exciting place to live, work, play and visit.
Well, today I’m having a conversation with Matt Holland, the founder and CEO of Field Effect, an Ottawa-based company specializing in advanced cybersecurity solutions for businesses of all sizes, including government. Field Effect is an Invest Ottawa client business that has deep connections with the city, and I know Matt has lots of thoughts about Ottawa’s evolution, which is one of the reasons I’m so pleased he’s here with us today.
Matt, welcome to the podcast.
Matt Holland: Thank you very much. Great to be here.
Sam: I am fascinated with the work that you’re doing and it’s virtually impossible, I think, Matt, to go a day without hearing about cybersecurity. I think it’s something there’s a lot of mystery for people that aren’t in the field. So, tell us what role Field Effect plays in that, and how does Field Effect help its clients?
Matt: It’s certainly an industry that never stands still. So, from that perspective, it’s always interesting. Field Effect is a cybersecurity company that delivers cybersecurity, technology and services to small to medium businesses. And ultimately, our mission is to protect every small and medium business around the world.
The reason this is a unique challenge is because there’s a very limited amount of cybersecurity talent in the world, in general. And building really good cybersecurity programs from the ground up is largely cost-prohibitive for small to medium businesses. So, with our products and services, what we can do is offer really fantastic premium cybersecurity, that you know, honestly costs enterprises 10s of millions of dollars a year, to small to medium businesses in a way that fits their budget.
So, some people have called us the Shopify of cyber security. Don’t want to steal their steal their thunder – but I mean ultimately, we have we have a similar client base in mind that we’re trying to help.
Sam: Well, you know, it’s fascinating. We open up a newspaper, listen to TV radio, we hear about cyber attacks regularly, I think probably weekly now, about big companies and small companies that are facing that. They inflict so much damage.
My understanding that is, if cybercrime was a country, experts say, it would be the third largest economy after the US and China. That just blows my mind.
How does your role as a former cyber spy help you protect your clients?
Matt: So, the cybersecurity industry in general, what I would actually say is pretty terrible because there’s a tremendous number of companies, a lot of marketing, and a lot of hype. And not enough truth being delivered to customers.
So, I think my background allows me to cut through the industry noise, focus on what truly matters for businesses. I don’t honestly have a care in the world as to what our competitors are doing. I focus on what Field Effect is doing and how we can help our customers based on the pedigree of the people in the company, which, by the way is made-up almost entirely of cyber spies, so it’s a unique company in the industry that I think allows us to deliver truth, honesty and real-world results to our customers, that is entirely separate from all the line items that you would read in our competitor brochures.
So, in a very competitive industry, our focus is you know, honesty and truth, and clarity and I think that’s a that’s a unique thing?
Sam: Yeah, absolutely. And you think about the data that a small business has collected. That really is their treasure, right? They’re relying on that.
Somebody said to me once the data was the longest-serving staff member. You rely on them. But if the data goes awry and someone has, you know, created, you know, a problem and inflicted so much damage, somebody’s life’s work can just go down the tube.
Matt: It’s often underestimated how damaging a cybersecurity breach or a cyber attack can be on any company, let alone a small to medium business. And I think you summarized it really well that oldest employee or the most critical asset is the data because it’s the backbone of companies economic model. It’s the backbone and the key part of their trust with their clients. So, protecting that data and protecting their systems is absolutely critical.
Sam: You have offices all over the world now. That must be very exciting for you. Why have you chosen to keep your headquarters right here in downtown Ottawa?
Matt: First and foremost. I really like the city. It’s a great spot to live as a family. I’m in my late 40s now, so you know the family life is a high priority for me and as are a lot of our employees. So it’s a great spot to just in general to call home base and central enough to you know to have access to other parts of the world.
My gripe would be I think more direct flights would be quite handy. I’m hoping those will come back. The second thing I would say – we’re cybersecurity company and we hire a lot of former intel agency employees. So, with the main intel agencies being right here in Ottawa, clearly it’s a source of talent which, you know, has caused a bit of frustration, I think for those agencies over the world or in the city.
But I mean for us, what we’re trying to do, trying to build the best cybersecurity company in the world, access to that key talent is very important. You know if we were in Toronto, we wouldn’t have the same access to talent. So, it really matters that we’re home-based here in Ottawa.
And I think thirdly, it’s generally, a pretty darn friendly city for entrepreneurship. There’s a lot of companies being started out of here. I’ve had the opportunity to meet a lot of CEO’s and founders and entrepreneurs over the past, you know, 5-6 years and I’m always impressed with the pedigree of what’s being produced here.
So, I wouldn’t underestimate the quality and the output of Ottawa in regards to building companies and building great things.
Sam: We’re focusing our podcast season on the changing face of Ottawa’s downtown or in the wake of COVID-19, and that you’ve seen these changes firsthand from your perspective. What is Ottawa doing right? And what does it need to do differently to attract and retain businesses such as yours?
Matt: I think the first thing that is required to fix the problem is acknowledging the problem- and wanting to fix it and change it. And I’ve seen a big increase for the past couple of years of interest at the municipal government level to make a change and make things better. And five years ago I don’t think that was really there or at the tail end of the pandemic is a better way to put it. So, I think that, you know, from an organization level, it’s really great to see the desire to change and make things happen.
I think connecting back to my earlier comment about Ottawa being an entrepreneurship-friendly city, business owners I think feel empowered by that. They get excited to start businesses when they have, they feel that the city is at their back.
The willingness to improve transit – I think that is a big thing. Traffic is seriously not getting better with the state of the 417 which seems like a never-ending-construction project. The public transit is absolutely something that continued investment is really key and the willingness to make that better.
I think the challenges Ottawa has are more, oddly enough, outside of the control of the city itself. And when you look at the downtown core with so many federal buildings, the LRT system that was put in place, federal employees not having to go back to work, that’s I think causing a real pinch on the downtown. So, I think it would be fantastic if federal employees had to go back more than I think two days a week right now. That is a core part of the downtown economy. What the infrastructure was built around.
So, you know, obviously not the city of Ottawa’s challenge, or problem I should say, but it’s a challenge that they need to somehow overcome, and hopefully there’ll be some federal willingness sometime soon.
Sam: Yeah, it’s going to be interesting to see how all of that sort of comes to bear in terms of the, you know, the way that Otttawa is thinking about, even in downtown arena. Do you have any thoughts about the downtown arena piece?
Matt: I think that would be fantastic. I remember when the original deal went through, goodness, I think this was before the pandemic? And then fell apart. It was absolutely, you know, gut-wrenching to see something that according to the plans looked fantastic. There was residential buildings with commercial buildings. That arena looked fantastic – I remember there’s a custom waterway and I think that type of ambitious project would do absolute wonders for the downtown core.
I don’t know where that stands currently. I don’t think they’ve picked the site yet? But if it’s downtown, I think it really could be difference making for the city.
Sam: Yeah, I agree with you. It gets me really excited. I was just in Nashville and they have their arena downtown, and just actually seeing it, I think gets me even more excited for what could come here. So it’s exciting.
And of course you travel a lot. In your global travels, have you seen anything specific in terms of business or cultural amenities that you think could be implemented here to revitalize Ottawa’s downtown core?
Matt: This is going to sound a bit ironic considering I’m a family man now, but I think the lifeblood of a downtown is a fantastic nightlife. Restaurants, nighttime activities. I think the the festivals during the summer are fantastic, but perhaps something that would be of similar vein in the winter would be really really cool.
I’m a big fan of London, England and Sydney, Australia, and that downtown piece that life really can create that, that heartbeat, that everything else kind of revolves around. So, I think focus on that would be fantastic. And from what I understand, the city is prioritizing that, which is great.
The second thing I think is the cleanliness and safety piece. And I think the unfortunate side effect of the pandemic is, you know, a lot of businesses have moved out. You know, driving down Bank Street doesn’t feel like it did 10 years ago.
The market has its challenges and, I think that really needs to be addressed because, you know, no new businesses in particular, you know, like a restaurant or, you know, a small mom-and-pop shop, they’re not going to go down there if cleanliness and safety is an issue because that’s clearly tied to really people’s willingness to go down there and spend money. So I think that’s a challenge that the city needs to overcome.
Sam: What would you say Matt if somebody called you, and maybe it’s someone you met in, you know, in Sydney or in London, and they said we’re thinking about coming to Ottawa and starting a business. What would you say to them?
Matt: The key things that matter to a business, I think are, you know, stability, predictability, tying that directly back to what it’s going to cost to start a business, access to talent, just the general safety of the city. These are the things that matter. I wouldn’t start a company in the vast majority of cities. I just generally traveled to because I would say those characteristics aren’t there.
But they are there in Ottawa and that’s something that flash and you know, nightlife aside, I mean those are the things that matter to a business. Because every business owner wants to grow a company, find a lot of really good customers and to you know and create an experience for their employees.
So, this is a great spot to do it.
Sam: Yeah, I agree 100%.
Let me ask you this: Field Effect is not just an Invest Ottawa client company, but you’ve also been involved in IO’s Scale Up program. How has that relationship benefited Field Effect’s growth and success?
Matt: So, I would just point out right out of the gate that the maturity of the IO programs are really quite impressive. I have friends in other cities that don’t have, you know, who are entrepreneurs, that don’t have access to similar types of programs. And I think everybody at Invest Ottawa should be quite proud of what they’ve built and how much it actually does help entrepreneurs and starting companies.
I think the key benefits and help that IO has been to Field Effect has been during the growth phase, the early growth phase, when you’re maturing the company and you don’t have necessarily all the resources that you would like to have. You can’t go out and hire everybody just because, or hire everybody you would theoretically need just because your budget doesn’t allow it.
So, over the years you know we’ve used the ENPS quite frequently. That was a fantastic way to gauge the general company health and employee satisfaction. We’re very much an employee-focused company. So the satisfaction and happiness of our employees is so absolutely key to our success.
We’ve used technical training and then technical writing help over the years when we couldn’t, you know, hire a group of people that we needed. I know quite a few of my executives have used the advisory services for executive team members that I’ve heard fantastic things about.
And I think for me, the biggest thing is, being a CEO and a founder is typically an incredibly lonely job. You don’t really, you know, when you look in the company, there’s not really somebody you can talk to, or, you know, you can’t really vent. So, a lot of your experiences, you end up bottling up.
And I think what Invest Ottawa has done a great job of is connecting other CEO’s, other founders of other entrepreneurs to various socializing events. You know, peer group events. And I can’t stress enough how meaningful and helpful those things are – especially when you look over the past five years of having to navigate a pandemic, 2023 being an absolute gong show economically for the world. And you know, having the opportunity just to chat out challenges with other business leaders, it helps you realize that your challenges are not unique. You know that that idea exchange can really, really help getting over tough times.
Sam: Boy do I ever value that Matt. I think not a lot of people are having those conversations, and being so open about it. So, thank you for that. I think that’s really valuable.
Invest Ottawa as you mentioned has something called ENPS – or the Employer Net Promoter Score, which measures employee loyalty. And Field Effect, drum roll, was named one of Ottawa’s top three employers in 2020. How have you created such a successful employee environment, which is really hard to do Matt?
Matt: It’s all about looking at your employee base and you know, figuring out what gets them jazzed and what gets them excited. And I think right out of the gates, if you can remove obstacles and intentionally, continuously strive to remove obstacles, that is a huge win for your employees and ultimately for the company.
You know, it’s very natural for people not to communicate upward, things that are in their way. It’s the type of thing that they’ll, you know, go to the water cooler and kind of vent about, but won’t actually push those things up.
You need to constantly ask and probe and dig those details out as to what’s really blocking people in their job. Ultimately that leads to a creative environment where employees can just run as fast as they can in regards to doing the job and then building things. And one of the neat things about Field Effect is we build our own product, it’s. There’s a lot of R&D and that’s a key thing to letting the nerds run wild, so to speak. That’s how we solve a lot of problems.
You know, at high level, just generally, you gotta listen. You gotta learn. You gotta take action constantly. It’s an ongoing challenge. But I would say an absolute necessary piece to making sure that the company is moving forward with a really happy and challenged employee base.
Sam: You know. Wonderful. Thank you for that.
OK, back to Ottawa. What’s your favourite place? In downtown Ottawa, so it could be a restaurant tourist attraction museum, you name it, and why should others go and see it?
Matt: I’m going to name two places, but it’s all kind of in the same area in the Sparks Street area.
So I’m generally a pretty big foodie at this point in my life. And so you know my wife and you know, friends will go out pretty frequently to restaurants and I’d say two generally stand out in that Sparks Street area – the first being Riviera. I love the atmosphere there. It’s a really fun spot to take a group of people have a few cocktails and you know, a really nice meal. You know, just more of a larger nightlife feel to it.
The other would be Beckta, which is just in the old Shopify building. It’s consistently a phenomenal dining experience, great atmosphere. The employees there are fantastic people and the biscuits will blow your mind. They’re absolutely fantastic. I cannot state that enough. One of my executive team has based in Florida and he’s excited every time he comes up and gets to have Beckta biscuits so.
Sam: You picked two of my favorites as well, so we’re very lucky and I think Ottawa is really evolved as a as a foodie city. And you know the two places that you mentioned are just two of many. So that’s that’s wonderful. Thank you so much.
I’ve really enjoyed our talk. You brought up so many wonderful aspects of this city – but also really important points about the work that you do. Thank you so much.
It’s been terrific to talk to you today, Matt and hearing more about Field Effect. And thanks for sharing your thoughts as well about Ottawa and the evolution of the downtown core. We appreciate it. Thank you
Matt: Thank you so much Sam. Really enjoyed it.
Sam: And thank you so much to our listeners, we couldn’t do it without you till next time. I’m Sam Laprade.
Thanks for listening to this episode of Invested in Our New Reality. We’re committed to bringing you dynamic conversations with business leaders who are transforming and reviving the National Capital Region.
So, stay tuned to our next conversation about Downtown Evolved and be sure to reach out to us at investottawa.ca with your thoughts and comments.
We’d love to hear from you. Until next time. I’m Sam Laprade and I’ll chat with you again soon.
Don’t miss an episode of Season 14! Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Simplecast.
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