Jaqi Saleem is the founder and CEO of digital expertise company Certified Digital, and founding father of Jaqi Goal Co., a mission-driven funding fund. Right here she breaks down her greatest recommendation for sustainable development, fundraising, and making a tradition of collaboration.
Please give us the elevator pitch of your online business.
My firm, Certified Digital, is an award-winning digital expertise company that competes with high consultancies 100-1,000 occasions our dimension to serve Fortune 500 purchasers like Mayo Clinic, CVS, Hitachi Vantara, CommonSpirit Well being, Kaiser Permanente, Novo Nordisk, Bristol-Myers Squibb and TransUnion. Our 360° method, in partnership with business leaders like Adobe, blends B2B and B2C experience to craft seamless buyer journeys. Our tagline is “The Expertise of Connection”.
Or, if you need a less complicated smooth pitch, we are able to use my Mother’s description: “I believe they put the buttons on the web.” You aren’t incorrect, Mother, we try this too.
What impressed you to create this enterprise?
The reality is, I began this digital buyer expertise company fully by chance. After over 15 years at businesses — and getting the sensation I had hit a glass ceiling — I made a decision to offer unbiased consulting a strive. A few months in, a buyer supplied me a chance to construct and fund my very own guerrilla dream workforce to select up some business-critical tasks after an sudden and fast break up with their earlier digital company. I did not hesitate — I known as the entire smartest individuals I knew and requested them to affix me. I used to be gratified and humbled after they did. Quick ahead 7.5 years, Certified Digital is personal fairness backed by Stella Level Capital, and has 100+ teammates composed of the neatest individuals I now know.
What recommendation would you give entrepreneurs searching for funding?
Be sure to are searching for a accomplice who provides worth and is aligned to your imaginative and prescient, not only a verify. Do not be pompous, however be curious in ways in which present you have to know concerning the potential investor, as nicely. Do not ask them questions you can discover on their web site; welcome them into the dialog; depart room for his or her voice, because the dynamic modifications and creates extra alternative to attach. They’re investing in you as a pacesetter, as a lot as in your online business, so be human, not a well-dressed robotic. Whilst you need to be ready to talk the complete time, hope and invite a dialogue and anticipate what they could ask so you do not freeze or skip a beat. Apply, observe, observe, not only for presenting your investor deck within the order it’s laid out, however for any route that the dialog might go. I typically maintain an appendix of things that doubtless would not make it into a quick pitch, however could also be a confidence builder in the event that they ask a pointed query and you’ll present you’re on high of it.
Lastly, and that is extraordinarily vital: guarantee they do not see you as a undertaking. Traders do not need to do your job; they should imagine you can execute on an unimaginable thought, not simply that you’ve one. Particularly if you do not have a monitor document to level to, develop a transparent plan or embrace a accomplice who can lead on the enterprise entrance. Clear plans are vital, both manner, in order that they really feel they will press the simple button by simply funding and advising.
Feminine-owned companies solely get 2 per cent of VC funding — what particular recommendation are you able to give to girls enterprise house owners in search of to emulate what you achieved in getting PE funding?
Figuring out that stat might be intimidating, however do not let it get in your head. It’d cease you from asking in any respect, and we have to change that quantity, not perpetuate it.
I didn’t run into any resistance in my course of, and ran a aggressive one, which I extremely advocate. This allowed me to command the worth I knew Certified Digital was price, gender identification apart.
In case you are on the proper stage, actually think about bringing on a banker to characterize you. They arrive with charges, however the precise ones, with the precise community, are price their weight in gold.
What sort of development have you ever seen?
Within the early years, ranging from scratch, Certified Digital grew 100% YoY+. As our income numbers elevated, that share has naturally modified. Final 12 months, we delivered 45%+ development. This 12 months, by means of the mixture of natural development and our current acquisition of Xpediant Digital, we’re on monitor to ship one other 40% development 12 months for 2025 and are projecting $31.5M in income.
What ideas are you able to give to different founders on sustaining firm tradition when your workforce is both partially or totally distant?
I am happy with the work-life stability that we’re capable of give our workforce by being a completely distant firm. We now have over 100 staff and FTE equivalents on our workforce, based mostly all throughout the US and world wide, and that workforce is ready to choose up and drop off their youngsters in school, deal with their psychological and bodily well being, and do the issues they love like journey, or no matter passions or hobbies they’ve. QD’s firm tradition encourages a mindset that’s each entrepreneurial and collaborative, and I really feel that is without doubt one of the issues that basically units us aside.
My recommendation is: create an vitality that multiplies, and it’ll. Tradition cascades from the highest, so your workforce has to need you to win, they must need one another to win, they usually must need to win themselves. And most of all: rent nice people and attention-grabbing individuals. Your workforce is the magic, and it’s your job as a pacesetter to guard that tradition from those that draw down on it.
What recommendation are you able to give about making the choice to amass one other firm, equivalent to your current acquisition of Xpediant Digital?
See a transparent 1+1 = 3. Don’t purchase income, purchase a worth multiplier, whether or not that could be a new functionality, new industries, or merchandise that speed up what you do. Is it a worth add to your current purchasers, or is all of it about new purchasers you possibly can add worth to? Both manner, simply guarantee you’ve a transparent imaginative and prescient that helps your workforce and their workforce get excited to execute on that imaginative and prescient. Make sure that the corporate is a tradition match; that your workforce and their workforce shall be proud to face shoulder to shoulder and excited to collaborate.
Bear in mind, if you end up hungry, all the things can appear like a steak (or a portobello mushroom burger if that is extra your fashion).
You additionally make investments by means of your funding fund, Jaqi Goal Co. What ideas are you able to give entrepreneurs in search of to pitch to traders such as you?
Present me the issue, present me that fixing that downside provides a social or mission-oriented consequence, after which present me the answer you’ve for that downside and the way you’re doing so. Present me there’s a market or want for it, that nobody else is doing it (nicely), and that in the event you had the cash, you’d have the ability to ship what and by when. Be prepared to indicate me that you’re prepared. I need to put money into issues that matter, which suggests I need that funding to achieve success. It can’t simply be an thought, it must be a plan. A plan you can execute on with steerage and cash, not one that will be a undertaking I’d tackle.
What does the phrase “entrepreneur” imply to you?
If I’m sincere, the phrase entrepreneur remains to be a phrase that I’ve to recollect to match myself to. I like this query, as a result of it challenges previous considering I had across the phrase.
Taking a step again, acknowledging that I’m an entrepreneur, I’d say this: It’s somebody who’s relentlessly passionate concerning the enterprise, product or downside they’re fixing; somebody who will not be afraid of failing, however largely as a result of they suppose they will not in the long term; know that managed failure is an important a part of the method in any sort of significant success; somebody who teeters the road of confidence and delusion, simply sufficient to take the large dangerous swings essential to drive significant influence, however with the humility and pragmatism that retains them grounded and taking the precise swings; somebody who builds with the tip in thoughts, making house for the correct quantity of uncertainty and evolution, however with some sense of what success appears to be like like ultimately.
Is there a specific quote or saying that you simply use as private motivation?
“I’ve no specific skills — I’m simply passionately curious” – Einstein. I like this quote, and actually, “passionately curious” is one in all our 5 core values at Certified Digital. It was simply so relatable to me. It eroded a few of that “them however not me” impostor mindset. If Einstein says he has no particular skills, and his superpower is curiosity, nicely then, that could be a recipe I might put to motion.
Jaqi Saleem is the founder and CEO of digital expertise company Certified Digital, and founding father of Jaqi Goal Co., a mission-driven funding fund. Right here she breaks down her greatest recommendation for sustainable development, fundraising, and making a tradition of collaboration.
Please give us the elevator pitch of your online business.
My firm, Certified Digital, is an award-winning digital expertise company that competes with high consultancies 100-1,000 occasions our dimension to serve Fortune 500 purchasers like Mayo Clinic, CVS, Hitachi Vantara, CommonSpirit Well being, Kaiser Permanente, Novo Nordisk, Bristol-Myers Squibb and TransUnion. Our 360° method, in partnership with business leaders like Adobe, blends B2B and B2C experience to craft seamless buyer journeys. Our tagline is “The Expertise of Connection”.
Or, if you need a less complicated smooth pitch, we are able to use my Mother’s description: “I believe they put the buttons on the web.” You aren’t incorrect, Mother, we try this too.
The remainder of this text is locked.
Be a part of Entrepreneur+ immediately for entry.
