Steve Desjarlais

Co-Founder, CEO, HeyDay

Steve co-founded Heyday.ai, a leading conversational AI platform that utilizes artificial intelligence and natural language processing to enhance customer interactions. As part of the first cohort of CDL-Montreal in 2017/2018, Heyday attracted investors and expanded its team to 80 members within four years, growing to many millions of dollars in 4 years.

This success led to its acquisition by Hootsuite in 2021, where Steve served as VP of Conversational AI, leading the Montreal office. Steve’s extensive software development and gamification knowledge has infused Heyday with a focus on user experience, where every interaction is designed to personally engage customers.

Before that, Steve worked at Ubisoft, where he was Head of Product. He led a team of over 60 developers, overseeing the online features for acclaimed games like Splinter Cell, Far Cry, Assassin’s Creed, and Just Dance. His deep understanding of software development and gamification has been pivotal in crafting engaging user experiences.

Currently, Steve Desjarlais is dedicated to coaching other startups as a coach at CEIM and L-Spark, two incubators and accelerators dedicated to innovative technology startups. He is driven by a passion for giving back to the community.