Female Founders: Nooshin Behroyan of PAXON Energy On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
It takes a very thick skin, long hours, high levels of stress, a master multitasking superpower, and an endless resiliency to pushbacks, setbacks or failures. You are a founder if you have the urge to challenge the status quote, disrupt the norm, and push the envelope for the better.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Nooshin Behroyan, Founder & CEO of PAXON Energy.
Nooshin Behroyan has 17 years of oil, gas and utilities industry experience. Her company, PAXON, which she founded in 2016, was named 9th fastest growing company in America on the Inc. 5000 list and №1 female-led company on the same list two years in a row. As a first-generation immigrant and a single mother, Behroyan brings extensive cross-cultural experience that promotes gender diversity and work-force equality by addressing barriers and driving change for positive impact for women engineers and veterans. Behroyan serves as the board president for National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO)- San Francisco Bay Area, as well as, chairwoman of the advisory board of IKAR Energy Group, and the advisory boards for American Gas Association (AGA). She holds a B.A. in architecture from UC Berkeley, M.S. in civil and environmental Engineering from UC Davis and is a graduate of UCLA’s MDE Program.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
My master’s degree is Civil & Environmental engineering from University of California, Davis. During my tenure as a graduate student, I briefly worked with the California Department of Oil & Gas which later led onto a consulting role as a project coordinator supporting gas pipeline projects for Pacific gas & electric which is Northern California’s largest utility. It was in that role that I understood the lack of diversity and how very few women were actually involved in the energy sector. My passion as an environmental engineer striving to reduce Methane emissions in correspondence to climate change coupled with my desire to advocate for female engineers, led to the incorporation of Paxon.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
I think one of the most interesting incidents that has happened to me has been actually dealing with Utilities’ mainstream mentality where there is still no room for female led companies or that the size of the contract your company is awarded could get questioned based on the fact whether or not the company is male vs. female run.
It is not easy or quick to stop these behaviors in the workplace. Nevertheless, it is absolutely necessary to start new conversations to break the construction industry’s silence when it comes to diversity and inclusion, and to bring more women into construction careers.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I am forever grateful for Paxon’s dedicated team, including Paxon’s president, Blake Braswell whom I have worked with and alongside for many years now prior to Paxon and at Paxon. The unwavering support of my family and my deep desire to show my children, especially my daughter, that you can break through the ceilings and boundaries despite the cultural and societal suppression or expectation.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
I think number one reason is the lack of equal resources available to women in comparison to their male counterparts. It’s a lot harder for a female founder to raise funds for instance. Again, the mindset of the industry is still heavily male favored.
Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?
A diverse workforce needs to start from the top down: Businesses must first consider their leadership team. Hiring leaders from different backgrounds and experiences offers diversity of thought. Honest transparency about efforts and progress when it comes to diversity and inclusion at society level, at government or business levels. Approach diversity as a business strategy- Energy industry’s diversity spend is a trillion-dollar industry and this is the exact same market Paxon has successfully captured which speaks for our tremendous success over the short period of time.
This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?
As women we bring the diversity of thoughts and because we pretty much have to work twice as hard, if not more to reach the same levels of success or achieve milestones as our male counterparts, this could result in a more constructive competition across all sectors. As a result, the more female founders start, the less minority we are and the more we can help levelized the playing field.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
I often hear that the top is a lonely place. I don’t believe in that. I think if you successfully surround yourself with people who have achieved success in their own rights, climbing to the top could pose a very exciting learning opportunity. I find steep learning curves as very exciting events.
Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?
It takes a very thick skin, long hours, high levels of stress, a master multitasking superpower, and an endless resiliency to pushbacks, setbacks or failures. You are a founder if you have the urge to challenge the status quote, disrupt the norm, and push the envelope for the better.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
I was lucky enough early on that I learned from another CEO in my line of business about how to do accounts receivable financing which afforded me/Paxon to use its contracts to fund the company’s operation. I think that alone single handedly allowed us to scale rapidly. I believe figuring out finances should be one of the first steps to be figured out.
- This is something that I learned recently which I think it really differentiates one company from its competitors. When talking to clients before speaking technically as to why your company is best suited focus on the value add and the why and how that why is in-line with what that client is trying to achieve
- Creating your board of directors should be one of the early steps.
- Once you achieve success, you will be attacked as a person or as a professional. This is how some competitors choose to get ahead
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
Our Research and Development team at Paxon has been especially focused on protecting the environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, increasing the useful service life of natural gas transmission equipment and keeping the operating efficiency as high as possible for hydrocarbon supplying pipelines.
By the Numbers: We have recovered greater than 10,000,000 scf of natural gas over the last 3 years, that would have otherwise been vented to atmosphere. That would be equivalent to approximately 190,000,000 scf of Carbon Dioxide.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I think my movement would be for all the girls, mothers, and women out there thinking that they don’t have what it takes. You are enough and you can achieve whatever you put your mind to if you are willing to be fearless and put in the work; regardless if you have been out of the professional work for some years due to raising your family, or you are waiting for a male co-founder to help you start your idea, or you think you would need a degree to enter any industry. Whatever the reasoning, just know that resiliency and believing in yourself is a muscle that needs practice to get stronger. I would start a foundation to provide training and job placement for mothers who want to get back into the workforce after raising their family.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Female Founders: Nooshin Behroyan of PAXON Energy On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.