We had the good fortune of connecting with Haiden McGill and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Haiden, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
It’s a funny thing, even after going through the process of co-founding a company fresh out of college, I wouldn’t say that I’m so much a risk taker as I am an opportunity maker. I have always found myself gravitating towards emerging technologies and industries that have just began to form, where more questions are being asked than answered. That is where the real opportunity lies, especially when you can find a way to pair that with your passions.

And, in the case of NOCTVRNAL, that is exactly what happened.

In 2016, an opportunity arose to apply my traditional sound design background towards the newly emerging field of virtual reality, and I ran full speed ahead without question. I voraciously threw myself into learning new workflows and networking with fellow VR enthusiasts that were eager to collaborate, and found myself gravitating away from entertainment and towards the creative technology sector.

The biggest risk emerged about a year into the company, when my co-founder was concerned that she would have to find another job to support herself while we figured out how to expand and monetize our business. I made her a wager: the two of us would work at NOCTVRNAL full time for the next three months, and if we didn’t see the returns we were looking for, I would rest my case.

Those next three months became the runway that launched our company onto the map.

Looking back, it scares me to think how close we came to never fully realizing our potential. Sure, it was a big risk—we were staking our entire livelihoods on a brand new company run by two recent grads, and yet our opportunity mindset became our biggest strength.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Up until the end of 2020, I’ve had a non-linear career trajectory that often left me feeling self-conscious at my lack of “traditional” experience, despite my proven track record as an entrepreneur.

I went to film school and graduated with a degree in audio engineering, and immediately co-founded a studio that specialized in spatial audio for virtual reality, generative artworks, and interactive installations. Thus began my shift away from entertainment and towards the creative technology sector.

I’ve worked at my company for five years now, but it is no longer my full-time position. I had begun to realize that a service-based company had the potential to bottleneck long-term growth, and I was feeling frustrated with continually being pigeonholed into a single vertical that was far from primary stakeholder decisions.

Thus, I began pursuing a career shift towards product management in late 2019, and was hired at an entertainment technology startup in the spring of 2020. COVID presented a unique challenge to this young company, so I moved on to work as a contractor for several other startups that had hit their growth spurt and needed some additional manpower on the product team. This afforded me a crash course opportunity to develop my management skillset while developing products for wildly different industries. Never a dull moment!

From there, I’ve continued to grow in my product management role and now work for an immersive technology company that develops VR training for healthcare professionals.

Overall, I am thankful for the opportunities and swath of companies I’ve been able to work with thus far, but I also recognize that being a young founder can make it difficult to find your subsequent career opportunity—especially if it’s with a more traditional company that may be looking for candidates with a more linear experience.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My shoutout goes to my life partner and startup co-founder, Anna Wozniewicz. Thank you for trusting me and taking a big risk by jumping right into the fray of starting new company.

Here’s to the next one.

Website: http://www.noctvrnal.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/noctvrnal_audio/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenamcgill/

Other: https://www.hmcgill.dev/

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutLA is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.