Meet Shari van de Pol, RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards Innovation Finalist

Dr. Shari van de Pol is a leader in sustainable farming solutions, leveraging innovative software and data systems to enhance animal welfare and profitability in the animal agriculture industry. As the Founder and CEO of CATTLEytics Inc., Shari has gained international recognition, winning prestigious awards such as the 2024 Tech for Good Award, the 2024 Spark III Pitch Competition, and the 2023 WCT Entrepreneur of the Year.

CATTLEytics seamlessly integrates sustainable farming practices with cutting-edge technology, including machine learning and AI, to provide farmers with advanced tools that proactively address animal health and promote environmental responsibility. Shari’s expertise is rooted in her background in Computer Engineering from McMaster University and her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the Ontario Veterinary College.

Under her leadership, CATTLEytics offers a platform that digitally twins dairy farms, focusing on integrated staff communication, scheduling, data connectivity, and customized modeling for economic and health insights. Recognized as one of Canada’s top agri-tech companies, CATTLEytics is leading the digitization of dairy farming, helping farmers improve sustainability and animal health. Shari’s vision continues to revolutionize animal agriculture.

Learn more about CATTLEytics on LinkedIn, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and on their website, and connect with Shari on LinkedIn.

I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur when… I was seven years old and I started making coasters. I discovered my family and friends wanted to buy them and I hired my sister to help. Maybe we didn’t get all our sales based solely on our artistic merit, but it was exciting. I think those young, formative experiences can teach kids like me that setting up a little business can have a big impact.

Entrepreneurship is made for me because… the concepts I’m most passionate about don’t align with most companies’ strategic goals. CATTLEytics’ entire business model was completely unique to the market. What I love most about leading my amazing team is having the freedom to creatively solve real problems faced by farmers, while making a huge impact in an exciting way that aligns with my values.

The impact I hope to make through my work is… to understand how we feed ourselves, uphold the respect we owe to the farmers, land, and animals that sustain us. By deepening this understanding of our connection to the ecosystem through hands-on experience and data-driven insight, we can share this knowledge, not only with the farmers we work alongside but also with other industries and the consumers who rely on them. This approach enables us to make informed, large-scale decisions that positively impact society and its relationship to the ecosystem.

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned on my entrepreneurial journey is… how to find the balance between taking carefully planned, risk-minimizing steps, and allowing myself the freedom to make something unique and beautiful, trusting my own creativity. When you take the time to create something you genuinely love, chances are that others will love it too.

My proudest accomplishment is… the incredible team at CATTLEytics. The best part of my day is receiving live feedback from our customers about what they love about it, what they might want to change, and what would be a great future idea. The idea of co-creating solutions together with our clients is where our real strength lies.

The biggest risk I took that paid off was… investing in brain power, time, and money in order to develop our dairy management software system, which has since become a game-changing tool for the industry. With gross annual revenues now approaching a million dollars a year, following my heart and my creativity despite the risks involved turned out to be the best possible move.

My biggest setback has been… original work that I’ve shared being taken by others and claimed as their own. Losing the ideas wasn’t the biggest setback, as I’ve never been short of ideas. However, I have always found these situations mentally challenging because they don’t align with the world I hope for. I find it very difficult to bounce back from what feels like an injustice.

I overcame it by… learning to view issues like imitation, unrecognized ingenuity, and IP theft as distractions from my goals, rather than seeing them as signs of a larger problem. By keeping my company’s focus on what we are trying to do and taking reasonable steps to protect our IP, we are able to innovate faster than those around us. By the time anyone else has tried to imitate, duplicate or take credit for our work, we’ve already moved beyond it, to something even better. 

The best advice I’ve received as an entrepreneur was… if I can bring value to someone, then my skills will always be useful and in demand. The key is to listen to clients and experts to understand where the need or problem is and where you can best fulfill or resolve it. 

I surprise people when I tell them… that I am both an engineer and a veterinarian! I also studied fine art in university and still paint, and play Irish music on the fiddle, guitar, and tin whistle. 

If I had an extra hour in the day, I would use it to… hang out with my two amazing kids, Constance, and Clara.  Or if they happen to be asleep, an hour painting would be great! 

If you googled me, you still wouldn’t know… that I come from a family of high-achieving women. One of my sisters is a celebrated opera singer, while another is a crown prosecutor, and the other is a physicist. My mom started teaching at the age of 17 in a one-room schoolhouse in Penetanguishene, teaching all 8 grades at the same time. 

The future excites me because… now that we have such a great foundation for dairy data analytics using the CATTLEytics platform, we can create limitless insights! We have active projects in AI, machine learning, and data modelling. However, our biggest strength lies in working alongside leaders in agri-tech business and research to make sure the technology is applicable and solving real problems, not just tech for tech’s sake.

The future excites me because… Our team of experts approach some of the world’s biggest challenges — global warming, animal welfare, sustainability, secure food sources — with a deep understanding of how different decisions affect both farmers and animals. Our knowledge allows us to identify and leverage key turning points for meaningful change. Implementing solutions without understanding the industry, the people, or the biological systems involved can easily backfire, making things worse.