Founder Spotlight: Christine Gibson
The Story of Tiktoktraumadoc and Enhancing Workplace Psychological Safety
Christine is a medical doctor, scholar, trauma therapist, author, social media educator, humanitarian, and entrepreneur. She has co-founded a company Safer Spaces Training, a cooperative, and two non-profits (including supporting global primary care). On Tiktok, she's known as Tiktoktraumadoc, where she has >130,000 followers. She has a Master's in Medical Education, a Doctorate in transdisciplinary studies, and did a residency in Social Innovation at The Banff Centre under Frances Westley. Her book, The Modern Trauma Toolkit, was published by Hachette Go in 2023 and is a solutions-focused primer on trauma and toxic stress, including systems-level interventions. She co-founded Safer Spaces Training to enhance workplace psychological safety, knowing that harnessing the power of organizations and community will take these ideas to scale.
How did you transition into becoming a founder and start your entrepreneurial journey?
Christine workshopped this idea during an accelerator program with Platform Calgary and had business coaching through Innovate Calgary with early founder Aishwarya Khanduja that same year. When her TikTok channel blew up quickly, she realized that psychological safety and mental health solutions were something that was needed. Figuring out who the key audience would be led her to understand that the best markets were HR and professional regulatory colleges. Early beta testing revealed that the product was solid, and continues to iterate. Being a physician, she has had to forge a strong team around her, with co-director Jake Jennings taking the lead on the business aspects.
What sparked the idea for this venture?
Trauma is showing up in the workplace - people are angry and irritable (fight), restless and quitting (flight), or disconnected and unengaged (freeze). People are noticing this - Brené Brown and Adam Grant have said CEOs say it's their biggest problem. Yet, it's solvable - as a team, Safer Spaces Training have expertise in psychology and organisational team safety.
How are they scaling the business?
The team has started with workshop pilots to get the product to the "minimal loveable" stage. Their next step is to get an online version. They plan to scale through two paths - regulatory colleges and HR, with a lot of early interest.
What are the main challenges as a founder in the industry?
Finding the time! Christine says, everyone has day jobs that are quite intense, two of the founders are finishing their Doctorates too. But they are passionate about this and will make it a priority in 2024.
What are the major takeaways learned through the journey as a founder?
Christine prefers to move slowly, a lot of accelerator programs and even Series funders expect quick results but Safer Spaces Training are moving at a pace that works for them. They are building a reputation, getting great feedback, and will have a fantastic product - when it's ready.
How has the network gained through CWN helped?
Christine says she learned a lot joining the 2023 cohort of Pathway to Silicon Valley, “I gained some networking paths but mostly understood that we would prefer angel investing to VC. Keeping control over our pace and product matters to our core team.”
