Jay Goldman is the CEO of Sensei Labs.
Tell us about Sensei Labs.
Sensei Labs builds smarter workplace solutions that people love. We work with some of the largest companies in the world to help them be more predictive in the outcomes of their biggest initiatives and to make sure people can make better decisions faster as they are working on them.
What are your drivers for growth?
The three main drivers for our growth are going to be the global expansion as we continue to reach more customers around the world, which will attract more talent to our team, bring on new specialities and new skill sets that we don’t have today. This will allow us to create more technology, AI, and machine learning and all of our future-forward initiatives that get unlocked by that expansion happening.
What are the challenges and opportunities for the future of Canadian Tech?
I think that this is one of the best times in history to be a Canadian entrepreneur. There is so much going for us in this country and in Toronto specifically, but there are some challenges that come with that. One is that we are overly polite! Really, we need to be more aggressive if we are going to compete on a global scale, and I think we’re seeing that in the generation of startups that are happening in Toronto today.
Traditionally, there has been a lack of capital here, but that’s not true anymore. There is so much money available, that if you’re building a solid business that can grow. Yet, one of the challenges is that although we have amazing tech talent – we’re lighter on the business side. We need to attract more talent in the city that can fill a Chief Marketing Officer role, or a Business Development role, or a Head of Sales. We’re light on that side compared to incredible tech talent that we have available.
How does company culture contribute to your success?
Culture is one of the biggest drivers of success. We believe in what we call the virtuous cycle, the idea is that if we hire the best people we can find in our industry, and then we create a workplace that enables them to do the best work in their career, they will drive the best results for our customers. That will result in revenue for the business that we can invest in hiring the best people in our industry. As long as we stay true to that cycle, that culture drive is a success like nothing else we have ever experienced