Episode 67: Torey Penrod-Cambra, Co-Founder and Chief Communications Officer of HighByte In this episode of The Boulos Beat, guest host Cameron Foster interviews Torey Penrod-Cambra, Co-Founder and Chief Communications Officer of HighByte, an industrial software company headquartered in Portland, Maine. Torey shares her journey from Columbus, Ohio, to settling in Maine in 2011, as well as the educational and professional experiences that ultimately led to the founding of HighByte in 2018. The conversation highlights the company’s rapid growth, its role in advancing industrial data infrastructure, and its commitment to community engagement through initiatives such as Girls Who Code and FIRST Robotics.
In this episode of The Boulos Beat, guest host Cameron Foster interviews Torey Penrod-Cambra, Co-Founder and Chief Communications Officer of HighByte, an industrial software company headquartered in Portland, Maine.
Torey shares her journey from Columbus, Ohio, to settling in Maine in 2011, as well as the educational and professional experiences that ultimately led to the founding of HighByte in 2018. The conversation highlights the company’s rapid growth, its role in advancing industrial data infrastructure, and its commitment to community engagement through initiatives such as Girls Who Code and FIRST Robotics.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
HighByte, industrial software, manufacturing data, entrepreneurship, career opportunities, Maine, University of Pittsburgh, Kepware, PTC acquisition, hybrid work, community involvement, STEM education, Girls Who Code, FIRST Robotics, office space.
SPEAKERS
Cameron Foster, Torey Penrod-Cambra
Cameron Foster00:00
Cam. I'd like to welcome our listeners to the Boulos Beat podcast. I'm Cam Foster guest hosting for Greg Boulos. The Boulos company is northern New England's largest commercial real estate services firm with offices in Portland, Maine as well as Manchester and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. We've been selling and leasing real estate in Maine and New Hampshire since 1975 This podcast is designed to provide insight into Maine's leaders, its movers and shakers. And speaking of movers and shakers, I'd like to welcome Tori Penrod-Cambra, Chief Communications Officer with HighByteto the Boulos beat. Torey, welcome to the Boulos beat. How are you? I'm good. Thanks for having me. Of course, of course. Thanks for coming. Yes, yeah, this should be fun. I think so. I think so. Well, to kick things off, I'd love to ask you, where did it all start? Where are you
Torey Penrod-Cambra 00:46
from? Well, I'm from away cam. So I grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and have now lived in Maine since, think we moved here in 2011
Cameron Foster00:57
awesome. And do you have family there still?
Torey Penrod-Cambra 00:59
Yes, all, all of our family is still there. We're the only ones that relocated.
Cameron Foster01:04
Why the big move? Well,
Torey Penrod-Cambra 01:07
at the time, my wife was starting to look for grad school programs, and she found une and we had never been to the state of Maine, but decided, hey, why not? So she got accepted to school, and we moved to Maine site unseen. And the plan was really to stay for two years, and then, as Maine does to so many, you fall in love with it, and you decide to stay. So probably six months after living here, we knew we wanted to make it our permanent home, and that's when I started looking for career opportunities here.
Cameron Foster01:41
That's so cool. I'm also a transplant, and when I came up here, I was like, not going back, yeah, right. He's a wonderful place, yeah,
Torey Penrod-Cambra 01:48
once it gets its hooks into you.
Cameron Foster01:51
And when was that? When was that? I think it was
Torey Penrod-Cambra 01:53
2011 when we moved here. 2011
Cameron Foster01:55
Yeah, 15 years ago, almost. Yeah, wow. Time flies. Time does? I was doing my research on you. And so I want to go back a little bit. How was your time at Miami? So I assume you went to high school in Ohio, yes. And then you went to Miami. How was that? And you studied chemistry, Miami of Ohio.
Torey Penrod-Cambra 02:15
Oh, Miami of Ohio. Yeah, I didn't go too far. It's about three, two, I don't know, two or three hours southwest of Columbus, but it's a school that's really well known for both its business school as well as its science program. And so yeah, I chose chemistry as my major, which I don't know, I think has worked out kind of well for me. I'd say there's probably a lot of other subjects in school that came more naturally to me, but science was always the most interesting because it was the most difficult. I think I was the only middle schooler I knew with a chemistry kid and a microscope. And, yeah, I just parlayed that into into a degree in chemistry. And obviously I'm not working in chemistry today, but I think the problem solving skills and the logic and the scientific method ended up applying to so much that I did later in life.
Cameron Foster03:10
That's very cool. I don't know if I have met many chemistry majors. Are your are your parents? Are there either of them in the science field, or this was just you. You were like, This is what I want to do.
Torey Penrod-Cambra 03:21
My mom was actually a music major and but my dad had an academic background in physics and mathematics, so he was much more scientifically minded, and I think was a big influence on me growing up.
Cameron Foster03:35
Yeah, that's very cool. I'm sure they're proud that you went your dad was proud you went that route from Miami of Ohio, yes. You went to University of Pitt, yes, for your masters, yes. How was that experience? What did you study there?
Torey Penrod-Cambra 03:51
It was great. I studied bioethics, which then turned into a career in pharmaceuticals after after grad school. And I think Pitt was a nice opportunity for me to get out of a bubble. Miami of Ohio is a really small town, so being able to move to Pittsburgh and live in a city, I think I just I grew up a little bit there,
Cameron Foster04:11
yeah, then I have some family in Pittsburgh. I played college soccer. We actually used to play University of Pittsburgh. So very familiar.
Torey Penrod-Cambra 04:19
I'm still a big Steelers fan, though you are, yeah. So some things don't change.
Cameron Foster04:24
Yeah, we beach in Delaware, and it's a lot of people from Pennsylvania, yeah. So we, we see our fair share of Pittsburgh fans. They're, they're animals. Hey, I like, I like, a good fan base. That's all. I'll say, yes, all. I'll say, there Steeler nation. No comment on that. So, from Pittsburgh, from Pittsburgh, you eventually ended up in Portland, which we discussed. Yes, that was 2011 Correct. I read you picked up the job at Kepware when you came to Portland. Was that an easy find? Did you were. Looking around for a while. How did that come to be?
Torey Penrod-Cambra 05:02
Well, at the time, I was working for a pharmaceutical company that was based in Irvine, California. So I was flying back and forth between Portland Maine and Irvine, which is pretty much the furthest you can go in the continental United States. And I was making that trip every couple weeks. It just became not sustainable. So I started looking for a career here in Portland, and I found Kepware, which was interesting, because it's industrial automation software. I knew pretty much nothing about software. I knew even less about manufacturing. And so I think what drew me to the company, though, was its culture. It's a relatively small company, but it had big dreams of getting bigger. And I love the people that work there, and I knew right away I could make a really big difference there.
Cameron Foster05:53
And when you joined, was that early on in the company, where was were they established? Was it still small at that time, I used
Torey Penrod-Cambra 06:01
to joke that it was a 20 year startup. So it felt like a startup. The company had been established in, I think, 1996 and I joined there in 2012 by the time that we sold the company to PTC in 2016 Yeah. I mean, it had just grown dramatically. Think when I joined, I was maybe employee 40, and upon acquisition, I think we were about 140 that is some growth, yeah, that is fine. It was a great ride, and
Cameron Foster06:33
it kind of speaks to what you're what at least I research with the different roles. It sounded like a company where you put your hand up, yeah,
Torey Penrod-Cambra 06:41
absolutely. I joined the company to lead the marketing organization. And then after the acquisition, I think my my role expanded, not just, not just within marketing itself, but also across many brands. So I became responsible for the entire portfolio of IoT products that PTC had acquired over a five year span, so basically a billion dollars worth of acquisitions they had done. So it was a big learning opportunity for me, and it's also the the it was the opportunity where I became closer with John Harrington and Tony Payne, who were at Kepware and who later I left PTC with to form high bite. So Kepware, for me was it was transformative. It was joining Kepware was probably one of the most it was probably the biggest decision of my life, other than, you know, getting married and having kids, because it's where I met John and Tony, and where everything else started, and ultimately, where HighBytewas born.
Cameron Foster07:41
And that is a great segue. I guess, What? What? What helped? I guess. Was it a salute? It was a problem. Was it a solution? Was it just time for HighByteto be created? What kind of got you excited? And I know that's a leap too.
Torey Penrod-Cambra 07:59
So yeah, it's pretty scary going from a comfortable corporate job to no salary entrepreneurship and bootstrapping, which is what we had to do for the first 18 months before we could really prove that we were onto something to the investor community. So yeah, no, it's it. It can be pretty scary. But I think what we saw is that, well, first of all, the three of us love working together, and we each have really unique swim lanes and expertise. So we trust each other. We know when to get each other involved, and then also know when to just step out of each other's way and let us each do what we do best. So the skill sets were really complimentary, and I think from us working in industrial data, you know, for the decade that preceded it, we knew how many problems there were still in the space, and we just seemed like the perfect team to go solve them, and we didn't see anyone else doing it at the time, so we, we jumped in
Cameron Foster08:57
headfirst, headfirst into the deep end. Big dive, yeah, big swan dive.
Torey Penrod-Cambra 09:02
You know, it's funny, everyone, like, asked me how I how I took that risk, how I took that leap. And I'm a pretty risk adverse person. If you know me in life, I'm really careful about every decision. I will research a speaker for like, two days before I feel comfortable making a small purchase. But what's funny is that, you know, starting high byte didn't feel like a risk to me. It just felt like absolutely the right decision that I had to make. It just seemed really clear at the time.
Cameron Foster09:30
Yeah, well, I think it was a good decision from what if I'm listening. That was a great decision for our listeners. We've spoken about it, about hibite, but, and I know you just touched on it as well the software. But can you explain a little bit more about what hybite does?
Torey Penrod-Cambra 09:46
Yeah, absolutely, we're, we're an industrial software company, and what that means is that we develop software that gets deployed on manufacturing plant floors. And many, many of the listeners have probably. I never been on a manufacturing plant floor before, but if you have been, you'd know that there's a lot of different devices, machines, sensors, systems, databases, files, it could go on and on. And almost all of those different assets create so much data, and almost all of that data is very raw and doesn't have any context. So hibike collects data from all those different sources, adds context to it. We call it modeling. Models the information, and then we can deliver it to to IT applications that live in the cloud or at the edge, so that manufacturers can perform analytics on their data. So we don't analyze the data, we don't store the data. We're just transforming it while it's moving throughout the enterprise, and
Cameron Foster10:42
it sounds like it's a needed service. And have you found that with the growth?
Torey Penrod-Cambra 10:47
Yeah, absolutely. And we've had tremendous growth year over year, and some of our accounts are the largest manufacturers in the world. There tend to be, you know, $10 billion plus revenue companies with multinational footprints. So we've, yeah, we've, we've seen a lot of growth in pharmaceuticals, oil and gas, pulp and paper, automotive, you name the industry. And we're, we probably have at least one customer there.
Cameron Foster11:16
Yeah, that, that's cool. I'm still, like, trying to, I know we've talked about what you guys do. I'm still still learning, still learning.
Torey Penrod-Cambra 11:23
Hey, my mom is too,
Cameron Foster11:25
so we're in the same boat, yeah. What? What types of people I know you're hiring? You know, there's different roles. What does that look like as you grow a company? Are you hiring local? Is it a mix of remote and local?
Torey Penrod-Cambra 11:38
Yeah. So we have 41 employees today as the time we're recording this, and I believe 27 of them are in Maine. And so our goal is to hire the absolute best talent for every position. It doesn't matter where they're located, but certainly bonus points if they're in Maine. It matters to us, you know, and our commitment to the main economy, and it also matters to many of our main investors who care about creating good jobs here in the state, and we're committed to that as well. And now we have a very beautiful office to bring all those employees into. Which is, which is lovely also, yeah,
Cameron Foster12:18
and that's another good segue. Yeah, you're crushing it here. Art, when we met, yeah, so when we met, you had your existing office space,
Torey Penrod-Cambra 12:27
which, by the way, thank you for reaching out that was serendipitous and just took us on this awesome path. So thank you, yeah,
Cameron Foster12:33
and for any of those business development people out there, don't be afraid to send an email. You know, I saw an email that you guys, I think you had landed a contract, or you're hiring people, yeah, and I said, I want to send Torey a note, yeah, we
Torey Penrod-Cambra 12:46
had just closed our Series A raise, and your email was timely and thoughtful, and it landed.
Cameron Foster12:51
So I'm happy I sent that email me too, so I was very intimately involved in that process. But I guess for the listeners, you know, what were some key criteria you were looking for in a physical space, and what are some things that you think you did well, and how do you kind of continue to evaluate as you grow?
Torey Penrod-Cambra 13:15
Yeah, we had a long list, and it is complex hiring in Tech because, like I just said, We don't know where our next hires are going to be. I have headcount projections over the next three years, but I don't know where any of those bodies are going to be located. So it makes planning office space really tricky. I'm sure a lot of people can relate to that in other industries as well. So part of the criteria for us was a hybrid space, where it would be accommodating for people coming into the that wanted to come to the office every day, and then others that would maybe only come in twice a year, if they were located outside the state. We also, for that reason, wanted easy access to hotels, where we can house employees and partners and investors when they come to visit, and then also have spillover space into those hotels right to be able to to be able to host larger parties of 50 or more. So the the location meant a lot to us. Natural light meant a lot to us, and certainly safety for all of our employees too. So you know that kind of helped us triangulate what neighborhood we wanted to be in, and then it was just a matter of finding the right spot.
Cameron Foster14:27
And we had talked about the rooftop, and for the listeners, we're on Fourth Street here. Have folks been using the rooftop? I think a lot of business owners, at least, that I work with, they want to set the culture. They want to create value. They want people to be excited, and they want the staff to know, hey, we took time. We invested in this space. Yeah. How has been the feedback on the rooftop?
Torey Penrod-Cambra 14:52
Yeah. So for anyone who's listening to the space itself is also incredible. Is and just even in the office, we have floor to ceiling windows. So it's so much natural light, which is great for developers and but also just great for everyone's moods. In the winter, I'll definitely take all that extra light I can get. And the rooftop is like just such a bonus, because it's a great break space for people on their lunch break. It's nice to go up and just catch a little bit of sunshine for a while. And nice to have easy social space when we want to host either planned or impromptu happy hours.
Cameron Foster15:28
I'm glad to hear that I like the rooftop. Oh, yeah.
Torey Penrod-Cambra 15:32
Best view in town. Best view in town.
Cameron Foster15:35
Did you work with I know the space was built out, but did you work with a space planner. Did you work with an architect? Did you bring in any kind of third parties in this project?
Torey Penrod-Cambra 15:46
Yeah, we did. We brought in Lisa Wyden. I can't say enough about how wonderful it is to work with her. And we had actually worked with her at Kepware as well. She was responsible for that build out across three floors there. So this project for her at highbite was smaller, but, I mean, she she still took it with the same amount of gusto. And I think what's interesting about Lisa's designer really undersells what she does. She first started with data. She's very data driven. So the first thing she wanted to do was understand how our employees would use the space, and not just our employees that are located in Maine, how employees not in the office, what their requirements would be for interacting with people who would be in the physical space. So after a lot of survey work and really understanding what people needed to be productive and dare I say, happy at work, that's when we worked with her to design the space and figure out how, what was going to be the best way to use every, every inch of that square footage we had.
Cameron Foster16:49
And I think that's so critical for any business out there that's relocating, committing, committing to a space. You know, the brokers we set the business terms. And I know what was important is flexibility, you know, to accommodate growth. But also, who owns the building? Right? Do they own other buildings? How, if we need to pivot Absolutely, but the design side, you know, I always tell folks, you know, I'll set the business terms, but I always recommend that, because I'm always fascinated at the level of thought and how you can design a space, even a single room, yeah, to accommodate maybe three or four different uses,
Torey Penrod-Cambra 17:26
absolutely, yeah. And we have really flexible, smart furniture. And I think, you know, kudos to Lisa too for also quarterbacking across many other vendors. I mean, it's not my full time job right to be designing space and planning a move. So Lisa really took the reins on that, and also introduced us to creative office resources. And like just the the furniture, the phone boots, the the smart setup, the AV, the tech is just, it's all top notch, and it's all allowed our remote employees to better connect with us in the space too and feel more included.
Cameron Foster17:59
And that's and that's all we want. And I think the world, I think there was a paradigm shift in how people were working or are going to work. Yeah, I think the pandemic accelerated. It little fast, but it's exciting to see how companies like yourself are finding here's the sweet
Torey Penrod-Cambra 18:16
spot. Yes, I agree. I think, you know, the pendulum, obviously, for necessary reasons, swung to completely virtual during the pandemic. And I think it's like it's come back to, like a nice place now, where we have this hybrid environment, but we have a beautiful office space that people really use and love coming to and spend a lot of time in. And it's nice to have the mix, I guess, of both the virtual aspect as well as the in person connection.
Cameron Foster18:48
And I very much enjoyed working on that project with you, and I'm excited to hear that it's working.
Torey Penrod-Cambra 18:55
Yeah, you knocked it out of the park. Cam. Now I just have to talk to you about when we need to expand,
Cameron Foster19:02
and that's geez, or three for three for segues, I was gonna ask you, what does the future look like? I know you've touched on growth, yeah, but anything I like, it's exciting. And I'm sure some of it you don't know, but
Torey Penrod-Cambra 19:15
yeah, none of it we know, which is great, right? I mean, you can make plans, and then you just have to be ready to adapt to whatever may come. You know, since we started the company, we first released product in 2020, in five years now we've expanded software deployments. I mean, we're in 24 countries. We operate headquarters out of Portland Maine, but our software is used, you know, everywhere from Brazil to Japan. So it, it's, it's pretty incredible to see that that kind of growth over the last five years. I think what's next is we'll continue to grow headcount. That means more good jobs in Maine. We'll continue to grow partnerships and continue to to expand our business, and probably even. Looking at adding some new products in the year to come. Exciting, yeah, exciting.
Cameron Foster20:07
We spoke off air about community involvement. We're both in agreement that it's really important to give back. Can you touch on some of the organizations I know we talked a little bit about it, yeah? But that you work with kind of outside of high bite.
Torey Penrod-Cambra 20:22
Yeah, I think one thing I noticed right away when I joined capware is Tony Payne is who was the CEO of Kepware, and is now the CEO of hibite. Because I should have defined this earlier. I'm the Chief Communications Officer at highbite. But that also means I touch a lot of the operations pieces of the business as well, obviously. But, but going back to Tony, he was so involved in many philanthropies when I first met him at capware, and that's really carried through to high bite. And so we try to be focused on the involvement that we do as a company, especially around STEM but we're very active in Girls Who Code. In fact, we sponsored again this year, we've sponsored it. We sponsored the summer camps for Girls Who Code every year since its inaugural year. So wow, yeah. And it's awesome to see that program grow. In fact, this year, it grew into three, three camps, two of which were overnight camps, and it's free for all the girls that are attending in Maine, and just the impact of that program has been awesome to see over the years. Excited to see what educate Maine and that team does next, and I suspect we'll continue to support that program for years to come. And then, FIRST Robotics we've been involved with in as well. And then Tony is still very active at UMaine orno, and you know, a number of us mentor at the ruh Institute, helping other entrepreneurs get their businesses off the ground too. So, yeah, we try to stay really busy in the community. And I think people helped us so much when we were first starting the company. And it's kind of time to return the favor.
Cameron Foster22:00
I love that. Our company just celebrated our 50th anniversary, 1975 and I was reminded, you know, because the the founder, Joe bolas, came into town, yeah, how much I mean. He started with little and he needed to rely on people to help grow the company. But what he has done, which sounds like HighByteand Kepler, had done, is give back to the community. I sometimes forget how much these companies do and how important that is for growing the right company with the right people and the right culture,
Torey Penrod-Cambra 22:35
absolutely. And some things are, you know, corporate sponsored, but a lot of the things we we just do on our own as individuals, and sometimes that just means taking a cup of coffee with someone who could use help or advice. And I think all of us are always willing to do that. And in fact, I think Most Mainers are always ready to do that. I loved that. When I first moved here, I was really touched by how ready people always seem to be here to pay it forward and to do something kind and to help people, not because they want the payback for it, but just because they want to make Maine better. Just want to help. They do
Cameron Foster23:08
altruistic it is, it's, it's important, I think, in today's day, more than ever before, and that's really, it's really exciting to hear. Thanks. Cam, well, moving out of the professional side of things, oh boy. I call these the fun questions, but I'll be the judge of that, right? You see how fun they are. So my first one, what are some motivators from you outside of the office? What do you like to do outside of the office? You have kids, you have a wife, do you like to hang out? Do you guys like to do trips or
Torey Penrod-Cambra 23:43
yeah, I'm exhausted. Cam, yeah, I have two boys, and my oldest just turned 11, and my youngest is about to turn eight. They're both in baseball and multiple sports, and we're always at the beach or biking or hiking or with friends or camping, intense skiing. So they have energy. They have a little bit of energy, systematically destroying our home year over year. Yes, they have a lot of energy.
Cameron Foster24:13
My mom said I used to have an on switch and an off switch. It was either go, go, go or sleep.
Torey Penrod-Cambra 24:19
100% that is true. Yes. Now just multiply that by two, and that's my life. I'm just trying to keep up with them. What?
Cameron Foster24:28
What advice would you give somebody wanting to pursue a career similar to yours? And I guess I will add a little bit, because we've had this nice conversation to go out on a leap. I mean, what I think that would be important for our listeners, like you think, just go for it, you know, or the right people. I know you talked about having that good synergy.
Torey Penrod-Cambra 24:49
For me, it's people, people I just I work. I do work a lot. It's true. And people ask me about work life balance. And I don't know that balance is ever the word I would use. I invite. Invite my kids into the office space all the time, and I certainly bring work home. I think it's a more of it's a more of a fluid relationship between work and home life, and that works for me. But if I'm going to spend that much time away from my family, then I better be working with people I love and I do, and you know that entrepreneurship gives you the opportunity, in many ways, to choose who you want to work with and how you want to work with them, and what you want culture and communication to look like. And so to me, picking the right team and knowing, knowing you're working with people that also have your back. So if I step away from vacation, I don't worry at all, like I know that they're there and they've got this. So I think working with the right team is is so important. And then, of course, I'd always encourage people that are getting an entrepreneurship, you know, test a lot early on, you know, don't, don't have a fully baked solution, and then try to take that to market, really experiment and learn and iterate early on and be flexible to what you learn. It'll, it'll help you grow a lot faster.
Cameron Foster26:10
What, in your opinion, makes a great leader, and if there is someone in particular that stands out for you, why?
Torey Penrod-Cambra 26:19
First of all, Cam, these questions are not fun. These are hard questions.
Cameron Foster26:23
Maybe I'll miss it. I'll change fun to thought provoking.
Torey Penrod-Cambra 26:27
Thought provoking. I think a great leader is someone who's just authentic. So to me, every leader looks a little different. The way I lead is different than the way Tony leads, which is different than the way John leads, but they're all leadership. I think my personal style is transparency, directness, open communication, not asking anyone to do something I wouldn't roll up my sleeves and do myself. Sort of a more of a service minded leadership, I suppose. But yeah, I think you know, my advice for leadership is just to, as with most things in life, to find the authentic version that is you and lead with
Cameron Foster27:07
that great answer. If folks want to learn more about high bite, where, where should they go?
Torey Penrod-Cambra 27:17
I'll keep it simple. Cam, just go to high byte.com you'll find everything there. You'll find access to all of our social channels and videos and information about careers and investment so yeah, come check us out.
Cameron Foster27:29
Hibyte.com you heard it here first. If you're interested, hibyte.com Torey, I want to thank you for being on the show. Thanks for taking the time. Thanks so much for inviting me. Torey, thank you for being our guest today on the Boulos beat a Boulos company podcast, I really appreciate you taking the time to chat with us. You can learn more, as Torey mentioned@highbyite.com h, i, G, H, b, y, t, e.com, if you'd like to learn more about the Boulos company, please be sure to visit us@www.Boulos.com you can also find us at the Boulos company on Facebook and LinkedIn and at the Boulos CO on Instagram and X you.