I understand you've been doing this for a while.

Kyna: I've been at this for over 15 years. We started the company in early 2004. It started rather quickly, and really took off much faster than we thought it would. In fact, we had customers before we had a company.

Sounds like you're meeting a real need in Ottawa. Who are your clients?

Kyna: Our customers are mostly start-ups with small budgets. And generally speaking, there's maybe one person — a manager, director or VP of marketing — dedicated to the marketing role.

Were you ever that person?

Kyna: Yes, several times. I know what it's like to be alone in an engineering-focused activity as a marketing person. You're left to defend marketing as a domain to people who don't understand it.

That's quite a challenge.

Kyna: It's hard to sit in a cubicle on your own and consistently come up with creative ways of reaching your target audience. And when you have that stroke of genius, you're still left standing in a roomful of engineers trying to tell them why your idea is great.

Enter Pensante — is that 'thinking' in Italian?

Kyna: Exactly! Our primary message has always been that strategy and revenue are linked. And I think some of the synergies of working with likeminded individuals who understand what you're trying to do, who understand the process, the next step, and the destination that you're trying to get to is important.

What kind of approach do you take with your clients?

Kyna: I always start at the same place in almost every conversation, and that's with the corporate objectives. Not at a marketing level, but at a business level — what do you need your business to do by next year, and how can marketing feed into that business objective? You just want to be sure you understand the company's objectives before you spend money. So I always start there, and that tends to be a natural place to develop and grow from.

When you first started Pensante, you were involved mainly in strategic consulting. How has that changed?

Kyna: We still do strategic consulting, but our customers wanted us to start implementing tactically as well. When you've worked together in a boardroom for six to twelve months establishing objectives and strategic elements, you really develop a relationship and a certain level of trust. So our customers asked us to do more. That's why our team has grown so much in the last little while. Because tactical implementation requires legs.

Legs can be hard to come by in a small company, can't they?

Kyna: That's for sure. Hiring a team of dedicated marketing individuals is not going to happen for a smaller organization. So that's pretty much where we come in. We're an extension of the team. It's a way for our clients to do everything they want to do.

What does being 'an extension of the team' mean at Pensante?

Kyna: Some of our customers actually give us internal email addresses. That's how much of a part of their team we are. I'm not sure if everyone is like that with their customers, but we definitely kind of move in — when we're invited!

And how is this approach working for you?

Kyna: When most of our competitors in the city are shrinking, we're one of the few companies growing.

Why is that?

Kyna: I think it's because we've stuck to our original goal of providing expert marketing support, results-oriented programs, and professionalism, without the painfully gouging price ticket.

The Ottawa start-up market is mature enough now to know they need much more sophisticated ways of connecting with their audiences. The boards of directors, investors, and management teams all understand where marketing campaigns and marketing programs need to be to impact their bottom line — to generate leads.

Did you always know you would be running your own marketing company?

Kyna: Always. I built my career to do it. I worked with suppliers that could help me create my own team, and built up a network of likeminded individuals within the Ottawa marketing community.

What do you like about marketing for start-ups?

Kyna: The complexity of dealing with the technology. I find marketing on its own, especially consumer-based products, can be a little bland. I enjoy getting involved in more complex product and business issues. And I am fortunate enough to have a lot of experience doing this for some fantastic companies.

What do you do when you're not working?

Kyna: I'm sleeping. But even then I'm working. I hate waking up with campaign ideas. Another wasted night. Who can I bill that to? I could be dreaming about way more interesting things!