Meghan Chayka - March 7 - APEX

Meghan Chayka

March 7, 2024
The Great Hall

Meghan is a Co-Founder/CEO of Stathletes, a hockey data and analytics company. Stathletes provides industry leading hockey insights in over 22 leagues worldwide and has scaled to the highest professional levels across North America and Europe. In another industry role, Meghan is a Data Scientist in Residence at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. She was featured on the insert cover of the Hockey News’ Top 100 of power and Influence, listed at 95 overall and in the Top 10 for Hockey Business Executives. Meghan and Stathletes have also been awarded Top Young Entrepreneur of the Year for 2018/2019 by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce and Top 40 under 40 in hockey for the Athletic in 2019 & 2020. She is on the board of advisors of US Integrity in the sports betting space.

Synopsis

Data in Sports
By: Christina Schweiss

The Ask. Ponder. Educate. [X]. event on March 7 featured Meghan Chayka, Co-Founder/CEO of the international company Stathletes, a hockey data and analytics company. Her presentation was titled "Sports Analytics: Scaling a Data Company."

Chayka opened up her presentation by speaking to the students in the audience who may be hesitant of their future. She said, “I had no idea where I would be right now.”

Chayka loves numbers and statistics. She said, “There is power in understanding how people and companies perform.”

Chayka explained that with data you can understand how to build tools to help make a job better.

Being a woman in two male dominating fields (sports and technology), Chayka has been through a lot. However she has learned over her years in the business, “It doesn’t matter your gender, it matters your aptitude. You have to ask for what you want.”

Chayka said that one of the most important keys to having a successful career is to “Come up with who you are and what your brand is. Build towards what you want to accomplish. Align with other people that will help you and you’ll reach your goals.”

When an audience member asked ‘how do you deal with hearing no,’ during the Q and A portion of the lecture, Chayka explained, “You have to get comfortable with the setbacks. Everything in life is selling. You have to sell yourself.”

At the end of the presentation, Chayka encouraged the audience to learn more about hockey. She said, “Pick a team, learn the players, have fun – sports are supposed to be fun.”

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