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 progress, fundraising, and making a tradition of collaboration.

Please give us the elevator pitch of your small business.
My firm, Certified Digital, is an award-winning digital expertise company that competes with prime consultancies 100-1,000 instances our dimension to serve Fortune 500 shoppers 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 need a less complicated comfortable pitch, we are able to use my Mother’s description: “I feel they put the buttons on the web.” You aren’t flawed, Mother, we do this too.

What impressed you to create this enterprise?
The reality is, I began this digital buyer expertise company utterly by chance. After over 15 years at companies — and getting the sensation I had hit a glass ceiling — I made a decision to present impartial consulting a attempt. A few months in, a buyer provided me a chance to construct and fund my very own guerrilla dream group to choose up some business-critical tasks after an sudden and fast cut up with their earlier digital company. I did not hesitate — I referred to as the entire smartest individuals I knew and requested them to hitch 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 in search of funding?
Be sure you are in search of a companion 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 want to know concerning the potential investor, as properly. Do not ask them questions you could possibly discover on their web site; welcome them into the dialog; go away room for his or her voice, because the dynamic adjustments and creates extra alternative to attach. They’re investing in you as a frontrunner, as a lot as in your small business, so be human, not a well-dressed robotic. When you wish 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, 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 typically hold an appendix of things that possible would not make it into a short pitch, however could also be a confidence builder in the event that they ask a pointed query and you’ll present you might be on prime of it.

Lastly, and that is extraordinarily essential: guarantee they do not see you as a undertaking. Buyers do not wish to do your job; they should imagine that you may execute on an unbelievable thought, not simply that you’ve got one. Particularly if you do not have a monitor document to level to, develop a transparent plan or embody a companion who can lead on the enterprise entrance. Clear plans are essential, both manner, so 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 ladies enterprise house owners looking for to emulate what you achieved in getting PE funding?
Realizing that stat might 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 advocate. This allowed me to command the worth I knew Certified Digital was value, gender id apart.

If you’re on the proper stage, actually think about bringing on a banker to symbolize you. They arrive with charges, however the proper ones, with the proper community, are value their weight in gold.

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What sort of progress 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 yr, we delivered 45%+ progress. This yr, by means of the mixture of natural progress and our current acquisition of Xpediant Digital, we’re on monitor to ship one other 40% progress yr 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 group is both partially or absolutely distant?
I am happy with the work-life stability that we’re in a position to give our group by being a totally distant firm. We’ve got over 100 staff and FTE equivalents on our group, primarily based all throughout the US and world wide, and that group is ready to choose up and drop off their youngsters 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 group 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 group is the magic, and it’s your job as a frontrunner 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 present shoppers, or is all of it about new shoppers you may add worth to? Both manner, simply guarantee you have got a transparent imaginative and prescient that helps your group and their group get excited to execute on that imaginative and prescient. Ensure that the corporate is a tradition match; that your group and their group shall be proud to face shoulder to shoulder and excited to collaborate.

Bear in mind, when you’re hungry, every thing can appear to be a steak (or a portobello mushroom burger if that is extra your model).

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You additionally make investments by means of your funding fund, Jaqi Objective Co. What ideas are you able to give entrepreneurs looking for to pitch to traders such as you?
Present me the issue, present me that fixing that drawback provides a social or mission-oriented final result, after which present me the answer you have got for that drawback and the way you might be doing so. Present me there’s a market or want for it, that nobody else is doing it (properly), and that when 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 wish to spend money on issues that matter, which implies I need that funding to achieve success. It can’t simply be an thought, it must be a plan. A plan that you may execute on with steerage and cash, not one that will be a undertaking I might tackle.

What does the phrase “entrepreneur” imply to you?
If I’m sincere, the phrase entrepreneur continues 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 pondering I had across the phrase.

Taking a step again, acknowledging that I’m an entrepreneur, I might say this: It’s somebody who’s relentlessly passionate concerning the enterprise, product or drawback they’re fixing; somebody who is just not afraid of failing, however principally as a result of they suppose they will not in the long term; know that managed failure is a necessary a part of the method in any form of significant success; somebody who teeters the road of confidence and delusion, simply sufficient to take the large dangerous swings essential to drive significant impression, however with the humility and pragmatism that retains them grounded and taking the proper swings; somebody who builds with the top in thoughts, making area for the correct quantity of uncertainty and evolution, however with some sense of what success seems to be like ultimately.

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 one among 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, properly then, that may be a recipe I might put to motion.