Tridata Services Ltd. draws on its punk-rock roots
A start-up Calgary firm goes DIY in the oilfield service sector
Dave Pederson
Photograph by Bryce Meyer
Type in “Downway” on YouTube and you’ll get a glimpse of Dave Pederson’s former career. Wearing a ball cap and an oversized hoodie, there’s Pederson, the former lead singer and guitarist of the now defunct Calgary punk rock band, sneering and screaming his way through tunes like Dyin’ and Jack That Tastes like Rye with all the gusto of the Sex Pistols’ Johnny Rotten. “I was young and dumb, living in an RV and touring around North America,” Pederson says wistfully. “It was a lot of fun.”
But as Pederson and his bandmates were trying to become rock stars, the Calgary resident was leading something of a double life. During the stretches when Downway wasn’t touring, Pederson would pick up oil and gas jobs to pay the bills. His first petroleum gig was as a welder’s helper and general laborer. Eventually Pederson drifted into the marketing side of the business, working as a sales representative trying to dig up work opportunities for a Grande Prairie-based pipeline company. And it was that job that led Pederson – now 34 years old – to form Tridata Services Ltd.
The company, which was incorporated in 2002, bills itself as an oilfield marketing and sales representation company. What does that mean, exactly? Well, think of Pederson’s company as a fixer of sorts. Tridata Services markets and represents its clients – many of them in the oilfield services sector – to the oil companies and engineering firms that are active in Western Canada’s oil patch.
In essence, Pederson and his team of eight sales representatives help inform clients where the work is, who is doing it and who to contact to be hired for the work. It’s the kind of legwork that can be difficult for an oilfield services business to pull off successfully on its own. But it’s a necessity in growing a business as the sector looks to capitalize on the $44 billion projected to be spent in the petroleum industry in 2011. “A lot of these outfits, such as pipeline facility construction companies, they are based out of small-town Alberta. Coming to Calgary and being connected to Calgary isn’t their number one issue of importance,” Pederson says. “Keeping busy out in the field is what they are concerned about. But keeping busy out in the field has a lot to do with what their connections are like in Calgary.”
Tridata’s expertise is making those connections. Pederson says he and his team have developed a network of contacts within the industry and they know the right people to speak to when oilfield services businesses are looking for work. The company also strives to provide up-to-date information on where that work is occurring. Pederson has had exclusive software designed for Tridata that allows the company to keep track of drilling activity in Western Canada. The software helps his company assemble detailed knowledge about oil and gas projects, which can quickly help identify job opportunities.
And getting to managers and supervisors in charge of contracting promptly – and being knowledgeable about what they are doing – can be invaluable in securing contracts with those companies. “Being first through the door and having a purpose for calling says a lot,” Pederson says. “If you’re the 20th or 30th person that individual has talked to about the work they are doing, their interest has waned in speaking with contractors at that point.”
Although Tridata Services has been around for a decade, it was in 2007 that Pederson decided to take his company to another level. That year Pederson established an office presence for Tridata Services in downtown Calgary after years of working out of his home. Pederson then started adding clients and staff as the business continued to grow.
While toiling on the punk rock scene might not seem like the ideal training ground for an oil and gas entrepreneur, Pederson insists it was. He says playing in a band and dealing with record labels, managers and booking agents in a cutthroat industry has served him well in his post-punk rock career. “When you are in a band, your business is marketing. You are trying to market your band on stage, in an interview, in a video and on your albums. You are a product,” Pederson says. “The game you have to play and the struggles you have to face are ironically similar in the music industry and the oil and gas industry.”
Pederson and Tridata’s approach is working for clients like Arc Line Construction Ltd. A Tridata Services client for six years, owner Joe Bandura says the professionalism and results his Brooks, Alberta-based business has received from Pederson’s company allows him to concentrate on working in the field rather than working Calgary’s boardrooms. “I just phone them and say, ‘Chase this guy.’ We don’t have to do that. It lets us do our jobs,” Bandura says.
While businesses like Arc Line Construction remain Tridata Service’s bread and butter, Pederson recognizes the importance of diversifying his client base. In January the firm took a significant step in that direction by finalizing a partnership with Calgary-based Rainmaker Global Business Development. The relationship is allowing Tridata Services to work with international clients that want to break into Calgary’s energy market.
And while Pederson may have never achieved fame and fortune with Downway, playing in the band did teach him to dream big — something he’s doing with his new company. “When I started playing in the band when I was 18, the goal was to play a show in Calgary,” Pederson says. “We ended up touring all over North America. When I look at Tridata Services, I see a wide open playing field for us and that’s really exciting.”
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