Outstanding Women in Business: Torey Penrod-Cambra aims to take HighByte to new heights

Photo / Tim Greenway Torey Penrod-Cambra, co-founder and chief communications officer of HighByte, says the Portland company’s next growth phase will come from within its current customer base.

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By Renee Cordes

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Technology trailblazer Torey Penrod-Cambra is a co-founder and chief communications officer of HighByte, a fast-growing Portland-based industrial software startup that was ranked No. 6 on Inc. magazine’s latest regional barometer of fastest-growing companies in the Northeast. The company, jointly run by Cambra and her two fellow co-founders, employs about 40 people and recently moved to a larger office in Portland with plans to keep growing.

Mainebiz: Who and where are HighByte’s customers?

Torey Penrod-Cambra: HighByte software is running in 24 countries, serving large, multinational industrial customers. These customers currently span 20 vertical markets, including automotive, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, oil and gas and utilities. Some of our customer accounts include Alcon, Cartier, Georgia-Pacific, Lindt, Regeneron and U.S. Steel.

MB: What data do you provide to customers and how are they using it?

TPC: HighByte Intelligence Hub collects and models data from a wide variety of data sources found on the factory floor — including databases, sensors, manufacturing execution systems and controllers. The “secret sauce” is our modeling engine that helps merge and prepare all this raw data so it can be analyzed. Customers use this data for predictive asset maintenance, quality improvements and power consumption monitoring. Increasingly, we are preparing industrial data for AI agents. Agents are the next wave of automation for industry.

MB: How do you introduce new technology in a traditional industry like manufacturing?

TPC: Traditional industries like manufacturing are understandably risk adverse. That’s why I believe domain expertise and trust have been critical to our success. Our founding team — comprised of Tony Paine, John Harrington and myself — all came from Kepware, a Portland-based brand still known for its reliability in manufacturing. We know industrial data. We deeply understand how critical the environment is from a regulatory and safety perspective. We began by earning the trust of a few major manufacturers and, with their testimonials, continued to grow and earn new accounts.

MB: What’s HighByte’s approach to growth, and how do you keep it manageable?

TPC: Growth doesn’t always mean new headcount. In fact, our top priority for growth has always been taking care of our current team. That kind of growth can look like professional development, career path planning, upskilling, compensation benchmarking and leveraging technology (like generative AI) to improve productivity. We are not a grow-at-all-costs company. We are focused on being a sustainable company where our employees feel valued.

MB: What are some fundraising challenges you’ve encountered?

TPC: Raising money is hard. It requires a lot of mental and emotional stamina to digest feedback and face rejection. And while there are many fundraising options and an incredible support network for early-stage funding in Maine, introductions to venture funds outside the state become a requirement for Series A and beyond. I’m grateful we were able to find a lead investor for our Series A round [Standard Investments] that is focused on the industrial technology market and shares our values on growth.

MB: What’s a hard lesson you learned from your early days as an entrepreneur?

TPC: There have been many, but a few stand out. First, faster is usually better than perfect. This was a hard lesson for me coming out of a corporate leadership role and into early days of entrepreneurship. Second, not all employees will be with you forever, and that’s OK. Not everyone is going to be the right fit for every stage of the company as it evolves. And third, this is a marathon. Not taking vacation for a year isn’t going to make you a better leader. You must take care of yourself and let your mind “breathe” outside of work.

MB: What’s next for HighByte?

TPC: We’re moving out of startup and into scale-up. We will continue to expand into new markets and countries and grow our team as necessary to support this expansion. Seven years in, and I am more excited than ever for what’s next.