#135 Hear How Tealbook’s Stephany Lapierre is Revolutionizing Supplier Data with Artificial Intelligence

WAM Podcast co-host Linda Rigano introduces us to Stephany Lapierre, an empowered professional who comes from a long line of entrepreneurs and strong women growing up in Canada. After college Stephany took a year off to be a “ski bum” at Whistler Mountain where she taught herself English and even worked with Justin Trudeau!

After this, Stephany dove into various roles with companies in the healthcare industry. She learned the value of data early on, and started her first business – Matchbook to offer strategic sourcing/procurement services for companies in the biotech space. A defining moment for Stephany was experiencing the challenges around strategic sourcing. She knew that if the issues could be fixed, these areas could drive more innovation and actually help move the business forward.

With this momentum, endless energy and passion for data along the way, Stephany founded Tealbook — where she uses artificial intelligence technology and machine learning to improv speed, trust and quality of supplier related decisions. Tealbook is fast becoming the leading platform that helps companies scale their procurement and move into the future.

Stephany manages to juggle a fast-growing business during a pandemic while raising a family. Her best advice ever? “Don’t spend too much time building the plan – build the business and plow forward. Also, follow your instincts!”

Hear more about Stephany’s journey here.

MEET YOUR HOST

Linda Rigano

Linda Rigano is the Principal Consultant of The Rigano Group. Her expertise and enthusiasm for strategic and effective communication permeate all that she does as a consultant to B2B and B2C technology, manufacturing, supply chain, and publishing organizations to improve business performance and stakeholder relationships by building highly successful and measurable communications programs.

With over 20 years of industry experience, Linda has excelled in helping organizations advance the discussion of important industry issues. She was central to the development and promotion of ThomasNet’s annual Industry Market Barometer® (IMB) survey on the state of manufacturing, the ThomasNet/ISM “30 Under 30 Rising Supply Chain Stars” Recognition Program, and ThomasNet’s North American Scholarship Program. Linda also served as Director of Strategic Alliances for ThomasNet, and for many years was the Publisher of the Thomas Food Industry Register.

Throughout her career, Linda has been an active participant and presenter for manufacturing, supply management, and business associations. She is widely quoted in business and trade media, including Bloomberg Businessweek, Nightly Business Report, and Industry Today. Linda holds an MBA in marketing from Fordham University.

Connect with Linda Rigano on LinkedIn.

SPECIAL GUEST

Stephany Lapierre

Meet Our Guest, Stephany LaPierre

Stephany Lapierre is the Founder and CEO of Tealbook. Her mission is to deliver a ‘Trusted Source of Supplier Data’ to an ever-growing eProcurement space. Prior to Tealbook, Stephany spent 10 years building a successful strategic sourcing and procurement consulting firm focusing on large scale sourcing optimization projects. Given her experience and visibility into the data issues crippling procurement, she built an impressive technology, data team, and launched Tealbook. It is the only Big Data company that provides a self-enriching and self-maintaining mechanism that connects to all procurement software critical to the success of a digital procurement transformation. Tealbook has been adopted by Fortune 100 companies across multiple sectors and has won prestigious awards including Spend Matter 50 Vendors to Watch, Gartner’s Cool Vendor, CIX Most Innovative Company and Most Upside Potential by C100. Stephany is a highly coveted supply chain thought leader, and one of the most influential minds in emerging data technologies. She has been recognized as one of the Top 100 Most Influential Women in Supply Chain, and featured as an industry leader by Forbes, BetaKit, Globe and Mail, Supply Chain Professionals, and IT World. She has received numerous awards as a female tech founder for her innovative approach to using Big Data and AI to improve supplier data. Stephany has attracted Tier 1 investors such as Workday Ventures, BDC Capital, Refinery Ventures, Grand Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank.