Humans of Tech - Jacqui Murphy

The Problem That Found Her

If you ask Jacqui Murphy what she does, she’ll probably start by telling you what she loves: solving problems for people who spend their lives helping others. A lifelong “helper” herself as a mom, wife, sister, aunt, daughter, leader and friend, she’s the one who struggles to say no when something or someone needs her. That instinct, and a deep admiration for founders who step into the arena, eventually pushed her to create something of her own, Elderella. While supporting her aging mom, and then her aunt and uncle, she saw up close how exhausting the administrative burden of caregiving can be. 

Following the advice of her daughter, Jocelyne, who is also a co-founder and operator behind Wygo and Socratica, “Find the problem that makes you the most mad, and solve that,” the invisible, overwhelming load on family caregivers became the problem she was determined to fix.

How Tech Found Her (Twice)

Jacqui’s path into tech started long before she ever thought of it as a career. Growing up in a house full of computers in the 1970s and 80s, with a dad who was an early software developer, was unusual for a 53-year-old today. He brought home punch cards she would colour on and quietly hoped she’d follow him into programming. But Jacqui was drawn to theatre, visual arts and music, and imagined herself as an artist. A high school conversation about “what’s next” nudged her in a different direction: Go to business school first, make some money, then make art. 

At Wilfrid Laurier University, she discovered marketing and realised she could have both the math and structure of business, along with the creativity she craved. She fell in love with tech from the edges; an almost addictive feeling of being on the frontier, surrounded by brilliant people, learning and being challenged daily. Even when most of the jobs were in CPG, consulting, or investment banking, all she wanted was to help tech companies bring unfamiliar products to market. So she cold-called startups around Waterloo and handed out resumes and cover letters (there was no email in those days, she tells me). This was back when even BlackBerry was still a baby. When no one was hiring marketers, she joined Taaz Communications, a tech-focused agency. That led her to PixStream and into the heart of the early internet bubble in Waterloo, a wild introduction to tech that, once she’d had it, was very hard to walk away from. In fact, Jacqui grew to become one of Canada’s most well respected tech marketing leaders and CMOs.

Seeing the Magic in Every Person

When Jacqui talks about the moments that most shaped her leadership, she doesn’t start with a boardroom story. She starts with her son. She doesn’t talk about this often, but raising a brilliant, neurodivergent child fundamentally changed how she sees people and performance. When he was around five, a psychologist introduced her to the idea of sensory processing and to the book “Raising a Sensory Smart Child,” which she now calls the best leadership book she’s ever read. Its core lesson was simple but radical: it’s not about “fixing” the person, it’s about shaping the environment. Every person is magical; not everyone is in the right conditions for that magic to come out. That insight reshaped how she leads.

In every role since, she’s focused on creating environments where people feel safe, seen and free enough to do their best work. Many people who struggle in one environment can thrive in another, not because their talent changes, but because the conditions finally allow it to shine. Watching them flourish as themselves, and deliver work that feels almost magical, is still one of her greatest sources of joy as a leader.

Designing Cultures of Safe, Honest Friction

Jacqui’s leadership philosophy is rooted in two things: (1) Who she hires, and (2) How she makes them feel. After a career spent in rapidly growing, early-stage companies, she knows businesses will zig and zag in ways you can’t predict. So she looks for people with energy, optimism and a kind of flexible, roll‑up‑your‑sleeves adaptability in both their skills and personality. Just as important, she looks for people who genuinely care about their teammates, who understand that success is never a winner‑take‑all, and who instinctively lift others up.

Ironically, for someone so focused on creating belonging, Jacqui will tell you she’s rarely felt like she truly belonged herself. She laughs that reference checks on her often sound like, “She’s wonderful, but…” as in, she has opinions, she’ll say what she thinks and she won’t just go with the flow. She’s upfront about that with every new leader she works with - there are lots of great things about her, and a few things that might drive you crazy. If you’re cool with that, great. If not, she’s probably not your person. That sense of being the “pain in the ass” in the room is part of why she’s so passionate about building safe environments now, including the one she’s designing with her co‑founder Mike.

Turning Frustrations into Founders

Ask Jacqui what piece of tech she wishes existed and she’ll laugh that she finally got tired of waiting and built it,  or, as she puts it, “I built it. Well, Mike built it.” For years she’d been stewing on the same problem as a mom and caregiver: The endless, invisible load of family admin. Schedules, appointments, medications, documents, finances, all the unglamorous work around caring for people that has never really had great tech behind it. She talked about the idea for nearly 20 years before finally deciding it was time to get it done.

When she looks at the broader tech landscape, she’s excited about AI, but not just in the abstract. What energizes her is how AI, infrastructure and community are lowering the barrier for entirely new kinds of founders. She points to initiatives like Lovable’s hackathons for women, many of whom have never coded before, coming together to build the tools they’ve always wished existed. To Jacqui, the most exciting shift in tech is this widening of the founder funnel -young, old, deeply technical or not at all - all being empowered to turn their lived frustrations into products.

As for legacy, she doesn’t spend much time thinking about how she’ll be remembered, but there is one gap that nags at her. Canada has an incredible reputation for engineering talent and has produced very successful tech companies, yet she feels we haven’t built equally strong ecosystems for marketing and go‑to‑market leaders. She’s frustrated that it’s still so hard to find and develop great tech marketers here, and wishes she could clone herself, not because she has all the answers, but because at her core she is a helper, and she wants to help grow the next generation of marketing leaders. If there’s a long‑term impact she’d like to have, it’s helping turn places like Toronto, Kitchener‑Waterloo and Calgary into true powerhouses for marketing leadership, not just engineering.

🔗 Connect with Jacqui on Linkedin