Jay Goldman

Every moment in a career is a learning opportunity. Perhaps my greatest learning opportunity was starting, running and eventually selling my own agency. It wouldn’t have happened if not for my partner Jay Goldman,

Jay and I met at a rooftop party at my condominium. His mother was also a resident and we quickly struck up a conversation when it turned out I was a web software developer and Jay had experience in interface design. For most web projects our independent skill sets were required by the other. Jay proposed forming an agency and Radiant Core was eventually formed with two other partners.

Any successful company like a band has to have a front man. That was Jay. He is extremely comfortable in a pitch, a crowd, or presenting. He was able to find us clients when we needed them and convince them we were the right team for the job. Jay also has a fantastic eye for design. Sean was our lead designer but Jay had an excellent sense for what the ultimate vision for a project would be and led on interface design for most projects.

Jay understood marketing and community. He regularly suggested we participate in the local tech community including twice hosting the events DemoCamp and BarCamp. It’s the reason I became connected to so many people in the Toronto startup community.

The partners in a new business must be indispensable. If a partner decides to leave it should be a real challenge to find someone to replace them. Jay is a partner like that. Thankfully we were both there to the end of Radiant Core when we sold to Zerofootprint, and I felt a loss when ultimately Jay moved on from Zerofootprint before my time there was up.

Jay eventually made his way to Klick, where he excelled as their VP Strategy, undoubtedly proving indispensable. He co-founded the Sensei Labs team inside Klick before spinning it out into its own company.

I’ve been privileged a few times to work with indispensable people but I count Jay among the very few. That’s why he’s on #My52.