Team Profile: Qaid Damji, Product Manager

What’s your role at Georgian?

I’m responsible for Grow, a product we’re building that uses machine learning to help sales teams across our portfolio focus on the leads that are most likely to convert. That way they can be more effective and ultimately grow revenue faster and more efficiently.

What led you to this position?

I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit. I learned to code when I was 14 and built my first website not long after. I’ve always loved technology and the idea of simplifying life with automation and machinery — something I saw first hand as my parents both worked in auto manufacturing. Ultimately, this was a big reason I ended up attending Western University to study engineering and business.

After graduation, I became a consultant at Accenture, co-founded a couple of companies, and eventually served in a variety of product- and analytics-related roles at Axiom Zen, Element AI, and Google. Through these experiences, I learned a lot about how to optimize and amplify the work that sales and marketing teams do using machine learning and data science.

What are your core strengths?

Throughout my career I’ve developed a lot of technical expertise, but I’d say my real strengths are that I know how to understand what customers want and, when faced with a bunch of different opportunities, can help identify the best ones to pursue. Having been a founder myself, I also have a lot of empathy for anyone starting or running a nascent business. It takes a lot of courage and perseverance to start something new or to join a small team to build a company, so I have the utmost respect for the teams we work with. 

What projects are you working on?

 As the product manager for Grow, I’m responsible for driving our vision and roadmap. Today, Grow uses machine learning to predict which of a company’s leads or opportunities are most likely to convert based on different signals in their data. That could be how the lead was created or the number of colleagues they’ve invited to join a trial. 

Armed with that information, sales teams can focus their efforts on the highest likelihood prospects and get better results. So far we’ve tested Grow with several portfolio companies and results indicate the models could double conversion rates. 

What’s your vision for Grow?

I’d like to see us reach the point where every company we invest in can use the power of machine learning to optimize their sales process, grow faster, and ultimately achieve better business outcomes. To get there, we need to make Grow as easy to use as possible. If one of our portfolio companies wants to use it, they can get started on their own and quickly derive value. Our goal is always to help our portfolio companies be more effective — not to distract them from their work — so we have to be thoughtful about the customer experience. 

Although we’re starting with a focus on sales, the long-term vision is for the product to give our portfolio companies a sustainable way to drive revenue growth and retention across marketing, sales, and customer success.

What do you like about working for Georgian?

The people here are amazing. They’re all so ambitious and have big aspirations for what we can achieve. Not only that, the culture is awesome and the company is making an impact in so many areas, from the products we offer to the R&D and operational engagements we run with our companies to the impact we have through our community. I love the work that I get to do here and being a part of such a fantastic Canadian company.

What do you like to do outside of work?

My home life is just as busy as my work life. My wife and I are raising two young boys and we’re in the middle of building a new house. When I do have a bit of downtime, I enjoy getting outside, snowboarding (when I can travel out west), riding my bike and playing golf.