Meet the Entrepreneur Behind Certified Digital

Jaqi Saleem is the founder and CEO of digital expertise company Certified Digital, and founding father of Jaqi Objective Co., a mission-driven funding fund. Right here she breaks down her finest recommendation for sustainable development, fundraising, and making a tradition of collaboration.

Please give us the elevator pitch of your corporation.
My firm, Certified Digital, is an award-winning digital expertise company that competes with prime consultancies 100-1,000 occasions our measurement 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 trade leaders like Adobe, blends B2B and B2C experience to craft seamless buyer journeys. Our tagline is “The Expertise of Connection”.

Or, if you’d like an easier comfortable pitch, we are able to use my Mother’s description: “I believe they put the buttons on the web.” You aren’t improper, Mother, we try this too.

What impressed you to create this enterprise?
The reality is, I began this digital buyer expertise company fully accidentally. After over 15 years at companies — and getting the sensation I had hit a glass ceiling — I made a decision to provide unbiased consulting a strive. A few months in, a buyer provided me a chance to construct and fund my very own guerrilla dream workforce to select up some business-critical tasks after an surprising and speedy break up with their earlier digital company. I did not hesitate — I referred to as all the smartest individuals I knew and requested them to affix me. I used to be gratified and humbled once they did. Quick ahead 7.5 years, Certified Digital is non-public fairness backed by Stella Level Capital, and has 100+ teammates composed of the neatest individuals I now know.

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What recommendation would you give entrepreneurs searching for funding?
Ensure you are searching for a associate who provides worth and is aligned to your imaginative and prescient, not only a test. Do not be pompous, however be curious in ways in which present it’s good to know concerning the potential investor, as nicely. Do not ask them questions you would discover on their web site; welcome them into the dialog; depart room for his or her voice, because the dynamic adjustments and creates extra alternative to attach. They’re investing in you as a pacesetter, as a lot as in your corporation, so be human, not a well-dressed robotic. When you wish to be ready to talk your complete time, hope and invite a dialogue and anticipate what they may ask so you do not freeze or skip a beat. Follow, follow, follow, not only for presenting your investor deck within the order it’s laid out, however for any path that the dialog could go. I usually maintain an appendix of things that probably 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 may present you might be on prime of it.

Lastly, and that is extraordinarily necessary: guarantee they do not see you as a challenge. Buyers do not wish to do your job; they should consider that you would be able to execute on an unimaginable concept, not simply that you’ve one. Particularly if you do not have a observe file to level to, develop a transparent plan or embody a associate who can lead on the enterprise entrance. Clear plans are necessary, both method, so that they really feel they will press the straightforward 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 homeowners looking for to emulate what you achieved in getting PE funding?
Understanding that stat will be intimidating, however do not let it get in your head. It would 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 suggest. This allowed me to command the worth I knew Certified Digital was price, gender id apart.

If you’re on the proper stage, actually contemplate bringing on a banker to signify you. They arrive with charges, however the appropriate ones, with the appropriate community, are price their weight in gold.

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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 the mix of natural development and our current acquisition of Xpediant Digital, we’re on observe to ship one other 40% development 12 months for 2025 and are projecting $31.5M in income.

What suggestions are you able to give to different founders on sustaining firm tradition when your workforce is both partially or absolutely distant?
I am pleased with the work-life stability that we’re in a position to give our workforce by being a completely distant firm. We’ve over 100 workers and FTE equivalents on our workforce, primarily based all throughout the US and all over the world, and that workforce is ready to choose up and drop off their children at college, care for 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 among the issues that actually 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, and so they must wish to win themselves. And most of all: rent nice people and fascinating 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, resembling your current acquisition of Xpediant Digital?
See a transparent 1+1 = 3. Don’t purchase income, purchase a worth multiplier, whether or not that may 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 method, simply guarantee you’ve gotten 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 can be proud to face shoulder to shoulder and excited to collaborate.

Keep in mind, if you end up hungry, all the things can appear to be a steak (or a portobello mushroom burger if that is extra your fashion).

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You additionally make investments by your funding fund, Jaqi Objective Co. What suggestions are you able to give entrepreneurs looking for to pitch to traders such as you?
Present me the issue, present me that fixing that downside provides a social or mission-oriented end result, after which present me the answer you’ve gotten for that downside and the way you might be doing so. Present me there’s a market or want for it, that nobody else is doing it (nicely), and that if you happen to had the cash, you’ll be capable to ship what and by when. Be prepared to point out me that you’re prepared. I wish to put money into issues that matter, which implies I need that funding to achieve success. It can’t simply be an concept, it must be a plan. A plan that you would be able to execute on with steering and cash, not one that may be a challenge 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 really 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 assume they will not in the long term; know that managed failure is a necessary 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 massive dangerous swings essential to drive significant impression, however with the humility and pragmatism that retains them grounded and taking the appropriate swings; somebody who builds with the top in thoughts, making area for the correct amount of uncertainty and evolution, however with some sense of what success appears like in the long run.

Is there a specific quote or saying that you simply use as private motivation?
“I’ve no explicit skills — I’m simply passionately curious” – Einstein. I really like this quote, and in reality, “passionately curious” is certainly one of 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 may be a recipe I might put to motion.