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Are you fed up with the corporate bullshit holding you back? Welcome to Invest in Yourself, the Digital Entrepreneur Podcast. The ultimate launchpad for entrepreneurs ready to seize control and unleash their creative genius. Hosted by Phil Better, the podcast mogul, each week he's breaking the chains of conventional work with bold strategies, raw insights and inspiring success stories from the entrepreneurs who took the risk and invested in themselves. This is your call to arms. Invest in yourself, break free from someone else's rules and build the empire you deserve. Now, let's dive head first into today's explosive episode.

Welcome back to another empowering episode of Investing Yourself, the Digital Entrepreneur Podcast. I am of course your host with the most feel Better the Podcast Moguls. And I'm bringing you the stories of innovation, resiliency and entrepreneurial triumph. And today we're diving back into this world of AI tech startups and groundbreaking talent solutions with a visionary leader reshaping the future of hiring. Our guest is no stranger to the tech scene. A former Shopify employee and senior executive at Ottawa's powerhouse startup software startup Rewind, she's honed her skills at these trailblazing companies, mastering the art of scaling businesses and Dr. Success. Now she's taking those invaluable lessons and poured them into her latest venture, Baja AI.

Co founded in June 2024 with Delaney Thompson, Baja AI is a revolutionizing the talent sourcing industry by by combining artificial intelligence, the human touch of expert recruiters. In just a few short months, this cutting edge platform has gained an impressive traction. With over 20 paying customers and revenue already soaring in the tens of thousand thousands of dollars. Who wouldn't love that? So let's get ready for a fascinating conversation about entrepreneurship, innovation and the future of AI and talent sourcing as we welcomed our dynamic and inspiring Danica. Danica, thank you so much for being here.

Thank you so much for having me. And I'll jump in, I'll say it's Bahia, which I have. All good. It means a bait in Spanish, which is Bahia.

Ah, I love that. So we're going to start with my favorite question, the one that start all podcasts. What made you decide to throw off the shackles of the 9 to 5 and start your own company? You went from Shopify to Rewind, two amazing companies. Why did you decide to leave?

Yeah, so I think back in the day, even going back to university days, I knew I always wanted to start my own company but I am a very risk averse person so the thought of, you know, going right into it was really scary. For me, I really, really wanted to save up a little bit of money, gain some experience and then only once I had really high conviction in a business idea did I want to go full force. So I've definitely had my slew of side hustles over the years. You know, I've sold tea, I started a tutoring business, I tried this masterminds thing. Like I have like probably like 10 side hustles over the years that I was trying to do during my full time work, but none of them really went anywhere. And it was only recently, earlier this year, actually in about May, in the month of May, that me and my co founder Delaney got together, thought of this idea and then we basically got a paying customer within the first week of having the idea, which I think to me was just a really good signal. And yeah, having it was also a problem that I was experiencing myself at my day job. So I knew that I was onto something that was valuable to people.

And why did I leave the nine to five? I mean, hey, it was really hard. The Pitsteady paycheck is awesome. Especially once you've been working for a few years in the tech space. There's just like so much opportunity to kind of grow and ramp up your, your role. But ultimately, I don't know, I was doing. I love forecasting. I'm like a huge finance girly, so I always do my own personal finance forecast. And the thing about corporate is like at the end of the day you will likely have a ceiling for yourself unless you are one of the few that kind of join like a shopify early days.