Amielle lake: founder and chief marketing officer, Tagga Media Inc.
Amielle Lake was the CEO of Tagga Media Inc., a mobile marketing platform company she had co-founded in 2008 at the age of 26, when she realized she was running up against a wall.
She was trying to complete a round of financing and develop a strong sales team to take the company to the next level when she began to feel that the company needed a leader with more experience, "a bit more grey hair," to grow beyond the point it had reached.
To allow the company to move in the right direction, she stepped down as CEO in May and moved into the role of chief marketing officer. Jean-Guy Faubert, a veteran entrepreneur with over 24 years of experience, took over as CEO.
The understanding that she needed to move back for the betterment of the company did not come easily, however. It took about a year to wrap her head around the idea of letting go as she still felt very passionate about the company she had started.
"It took some time for me to come around to believing that what Tagga needed wasn't the passion and determination of a founder but [rather] needed experience," Lake recalled. "I thought the company still needed a bit more of my gusto and founder's energy a year ago, but watching the company I realized we are going to survive, and, in fact, we are growing; we just need to grow a lot faster."
The process of evaluating what would be best for the company allowed Lake to discover that sometimes in the leader's role, the best thing you can do is understand you might not be the best person for the job.
"If that means replacing yourself as CEO, that's part of the process, and that's part of growing."
