Interview with Ms. Brana Giancristofaro

Maggie: While reading about your business,  I discovered that MonRoi executed the world's first International Women's Chess Grand Prix....

Brana:  I really love that we provided the opportunity for women in chess to be heard. Before MonRoi, they didn't have their own Grand Prix, particularly not an international one. We provide an opportunity to put them in the spotlight.

Maggie: Who came up with the name MonRoi?

Brana: I basically came up with the name. I was inspired by Quebec City history and culture. In French MonRoi means 'my king.' The king represents the prize which a chess player wishes to win. Both for chess and checkmate, both came from 'Char,' the Persian word for 'king.' But why not MaReine? Because the only female chess piece is the Queen, and at the same time, the most powerful chess piece. She can move in all directions across the board. Only in the 8th century did the queen appear on the chessboard when chess was brought to Europe from Asia. It was likely due to influence of female rulers in Europe.

Maggie: When did you start the business?

Brana: I started the business 6 years ago, and MonRoi Inc. exists for 3 years.  It's a spinoff of a parent company that developed the wireless sensor technology. I started it by myself. I invested in it, then Investissement Quebec approved our tax credit, guaranteed to the bank, and legally secured product investments which allowed us to commercialize the product.

Maggie: May I ask what inspired you?

Brana: My grandparents were entrepreneurs, and my passion is for creating new products to serve people better. I also have a desire for freedom of expression. It was just a natural thing for me to establish a technology company with my degree in electrical engineering.

Maggie: Before this did you hold a regular 9 to 5 job in electronical engineering?

Brana: I used to have a 9 to 5 job and am grateful for the wonderful experience that I gained there in project management and in new product development.

Maggie: In contrast to what you were doing before, did you find many challenges when you created MonRoi?

Brana: Well, it's hard; there is a a large learning curve. You are trying to define what is the business opportunity, how useful those products will be to your clients, how it is possible to overcome some of the technological challenges...experiments, research...there are many many unknowns. An entrepreneur in this kind of environment either decides to take high risks or give up his or her dreams. When an entrepreneur decides to take their creation to the market, the road ahead is not quite defined. That's very much on the opposite side of the spectrum of the established bureaucratic companies. Things are more fluid and you need to be adjustable.

Maggie: Are the rewards what you expected?

Brana: Absolutely. Entrepreneurs' objectives are to learn to bring their products to the market, to have people use their products. That's a dream come true for every entrepreneur. You kind of forget about all the challenges when you see people using your product and how useful this is for them.

Maggie: Where do you see the company in five years? What is the ideal situation for you?

Brana: MonRoi is established now as a leader in live chess matches. The company may acquire other companies and go public. I would like, personally, to diversify wireless sensor technology in different fields and embark on my other inventions. Because when I started, as any entrepreneur/inventor, I had several inventions, and the challenge was to focus on which one I am to choose–because I like them equally. An early stage company needs to focus on one technology, one niche, and one business model. An entrepreneur can't split his energy or her energy on multiple things because focus establishes faster growth. That's what I needed to do at the beginning. Now that the company is built, it's operating, the products are being used in many countries, it might be time to diversify this technology.

Maggie: Do you think you'll take one of your other inventions and make it as successful?

Brana: I believe that the core technology on which MonRoi was built, the live sensor network technology, can be used in many other fields, for monitoring, for control within the meter market, or health care market. There are many other applications of this technology. We definitely want to bring this technology to other markets.  

Maggie: Do you have any other offices?

Brana: We have an office here in Montreal, and we have consultants all over the world who are reporting into this head office. Our company is built on partnerships with manufacturers, suppliers, our clients, and resellers.

Maggie: Are there other companies that do the same thing as yours or is yours unique?

Brana: In the chess market, there is no other electronic chess which provides wireless game broadcasting capabilities. So we are unique in the sense that our technology is wireless and portable and is the only electronic notation for chess matches. It's sort of like iPod is for music. That's what MonRoi is for chess matches: for storing and replaying them and transferring them to the computer. There is no other company—and we've received a patent on it. There are other companies which make electronic chess boards, however, they still have capability and wireless issues, issues of recording of chess moves.

Maggie: I realize you had other inventions and you just chose this one, but what in your mind triggered, Ah, wireless!?

Brana: I have a big passion for wireless technology. I imagine that in a couple of years, all the things, even in our house, will be monitored wirelessly for us to receive real time information on things. One of the issues in this wireless world is battery life. That's what we succeeded to extend. We extended the battery life while keeping distances up to one kilometer. What triggered the application of this technology in the chess market is, because I'm a chess player, I feel very very comfortable in this market. I'm aware of what clients want in this market. And I personally played a Canadian open chess championship. It was here in Montreal, and I mixed up French and English notation. It took me  along time to reconstruct my game, and I typed it in a computer to get my game electronically, and I was thinking, there must be a better way—not to spend so much time reconstructing papers.

Maggie: Was there a turning point where you said, “We've made it now”?

Brana: I was sure we were going to make it. It could be very confident to think this ways, but I was sure we were going to make it regardless of challenges. That's a drive, perhaps, that entrepreneurs might have...to persist, to overcome the obstacles. And I'm very proud when I see my clients advancing by using this technology.  When we see that we've helped children and seniors with disabilities who felt inferior because they had no capability of writing their chess moves with pen and paper. I am very proud when I read thank you letters from our clients afterwards about their progress which is possible due to MonRoi. I read every single note that clients send us. That really gives us motivation continue innovating and developing new things for the chess market.

Maggie: What image would you like to come to mind when people hear MonRoi?

Brana: The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of MonRoi is: innovation, communication, and entertainment... Communication because we enable people to follow matches of their family and friends when they travel abroad and to follow their works of art--because every chess match is a work of art; and entertainment because it's entertaining for people to watch who is going to win, who is going to lose. We also provide news and a blog on the chess market; and we know that chess helps children with their education. It improves overall grades by 17%. So, it helps children become better and more successful people.

Maggie: What is your definition of success?

Brana: There's a difference between personal and company success. If we are to define a company's success..it would be profit and clients. But for me it comes down to more fundamental things: The technology company is successful if it inspires its employees and clients to advance every day. Personal success is to be able to learn new things and to be able to share innovations with the world...to deeply understand the environment and accept that each one is unique. We exist because we have certain needs that we can fulfill.

Maggie: What is the best advice you could give to someone just starting out?

Brana: To show their passion to everyone around, to build trust...and to be nice to people.

   Interviewed by Maggie Pagratis