Megan McCarthy is originally from Calgary, Alberta. She did three years of an engineering degree and a stint in the oil and gas industry before relocating to Halifax, NS. Megan completed a Bachelor of Management, Environment, Sustainability, and Society at Dalhousie University where she met Ed while taking one of his classes. Ed encouraged her to participate in a Startup Weekend event and she loved it!
Since then, she has participated and mentored in a total of six startup weekend events. Megan has started multiple businesses and in 2013 she won the Rowe School of Business’ Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Megan is also President of Dalhousie University’s Cryptocurrency Club.
After graduating, Megan has found that the Halifax startup community is the best place for her to live, work, and grow. She mentions the tight knit community’s willingness to collaborate and live up to their “pay it forward” attitude as one of the key benefits to working in this startup community. Megan explains that Halifax is the right size because there is an abundance of resources, but you can also find your niche, become an expert, and make a name for yourself.
Megan attributes much of her business success to the business model canvas, which she still uses with clients in her consulting work. She says it “just makes sense” to use the business model canvas rather than building a big static business plan because the lean process of customer discovery and validation is much better.
Megan McCarthy has thought about moving back west, but she has decided that what she has built in Halifax with this community and it’s opportunities and lifestyle is too great to leave.
And we are excited to welcome Canada’s Business Model Competition teams here in March so they can see what it’s all about!
