Samer Saab is the founder and CEO of Explorance with over 22 years of expertise within the know-how trade. Previous to founding Explorance, Samer developed a large perspective on enterprise via a wide range of roles in numerous organizations together with Bombardier, Nortel, Sycamore Networks, and Nakisa. He additionally participates in a variety of philanthropic actions that target his two passions: entrepreneurship and studying.
Explorance is a world supplier of suggestions analytics and insights options designed to assist organizations enhance worker and pupil experiences. The corporate affords a set of software program instruments—together with Blue, MLY, Metrics That Matter, and Varieties—that acquire and analyze qualitative suggestions to ship data-driven suggestions. These instruments are used throughout varied industries, from increased schooling to company environments, enabling leaders to make knowledgeable selections and take significant motion.
Explorance leverages purpose-built AI to interpret sentiment, streamline workflows, and customise reporting, in the end supporting improved engagement, studying effectiveness, and organizational progress. The platform is acknowledged for its means to show suggestions into actionable insights and is trusted by establishments and enterprises world wide.
Are you able to stroll us via the second you determined to launch the corporate, and what drawback you initially got down to resolve?
I got here to Canada at age 20—on an immigration visa, in 1990. After arriving, I studied Electrical Engineering at McGill College and later accomplished a part-time MBA to sharpen my enterprise and management abilities. I spent the subsequent decade working throughout a number of know-how corporations, together with Bombardier, Nortel, Sycamore Networks, Tellium, and Nakisa—gaining expertise in a spread of roles and seeing firsthand how organizations function from the within.
I based Explorance in 2003, pushed by a easy however highly effective realization: when folks really feel helpful and valued, they carry out at their finest, and so they’re at their happiest. I needed to construct an organization that helped organizations actually hear, as a result of I knew firsthand what it felt like to not be heard.
Explorance was born from that conviction. I needed suggestions to be handled as a first-class citizen, not an afterthought. To me, suggestions isn’t simply information, it’s deeply private. It’s not a mirror reflecting the previous; it’s a compass guiding us towards our greatest future.
The second I made a decision to launch the corporate wasn’t pushed by a market alternative or monetary motivation. It got here from a shift inside. I had a safe job, a promising profession—however I felt I used to be residing another person’s model of success. At some point, I stood in entrance of the mirror and requested myself if I used to be being true to the life I needed to guide and the impression I hoped to make.
That second was like strolling on water, the place worry dissolved, and readability took its place. I knew then I needed to construct one thing significant. I envisioned organizations that had been extra human, extra related. The issue I got down to resolve was easy, but profound: How can we empower folks and organizations to develop via trustworthy, caring, actionable suggestions?
That imaginative and prescient is what continues to drive Explorance to at the present time.
Explorance was bootstrapped from the start. What had been among the early challenges you confronted, and the way did you overcome them with out exterior funding?
Explorance was constructed from the bottom up, bootstrapped not simply within the early days, however for the primary 18 years of our journey. After I began the corporate in 2003, I had no exterior funding, no security web. I invested my complete life financial savings on the time, $55,000, into the imaginative and prescient. That cash went shortly, and what adopted was a relentless, make-it-work actuality.
The primary 5 years had been brutal. We operated in pure survival mode. Our common wage in yr one was $18,000, and for the primary 18 months, we didn’t take a single time without work. We had been 5 folks doing the work of eighteen, every working 17 hours a day, on daily basis.
With out outdoors funding, each resolution was existential. May we make payroll? Ought to we pay this bill now or defer it every week? I bear in mind getting an electronic mail from my mom on the time reminding me to “pay the hire on time, and the Visa invoice too.” That sort of stress doesn’t present up in pitch decks, nevertheless it’s very actual when all the things is on the road.
The largest problem was managing vitality and focus. Bootstrapping is a masterclass in self-discipline. We needed to be taught to say “no” to distractions and “sure” solely to the work that aligned with our values and objective. We dedicated early on to serving academia, the place we felt we may make a real impression, and we selected to construct deep, trust-based relationships as a substitute of chasing unsustainable progress.
In that surroundings, I additionally needed to evolve as a pacesetter. Bootstrapped management just isn’t about charisma or imaginative and prescient statements, it’s about shared sacrifice, radical consistency, and deep belief. With out the levers of excessive salaries or perks, I needed to encourage via perception, objective, and integrity. I needed to present up, not simply in concepts, however in grit.
Bootstrapping pressured us to grow to be value-driven earlier than we may afford to be revenue-driven. It solid a resilient tradition that prioritized folks, objective, and long-term pondering. These early years formed not simply our enterprise mannequin, however our soul.
What values or rules guided your method when constructing Explorance—and the way have they developed, if in any respect, through the years?
On the coronary heart of Explorance there has at all times been a perception in folks, particularly, within the energy of people that really feel trusted, valued, and empowered to be their finest selves. Within the early years, particularly in the course of the intense survival part of bootstrapping, my management method was anchored in grit, belief, and shared sacrifice. I believed that if we created an surroundings the place everybody gave 120%, not out of obligation however out of perception within the mission, we may do extraordinary issues.
That perception matured into what I known as a tradition of reciprocity: a relationship the place the employer and worker are in full concord, every giving their finest, trusting one another deeply, and rising collectively. It wasn’t about perks or flexibility for the sake of comfort; it was about duty, possession, and mutual dedication. We handled one another as adults—succesful, self-driven, and deeply accountable.
As Explorance grew, our tradition developed. We transitioned from reciprocity to a broader philosophy: a tradition of objective, progress, and impression. This shift was not a departure, however a pure development. At present, we outline success not simply by efficiency, however by how a lot objective and that means folks derive from their work. We try to be an organization the place leaders lead by affect and instance, not title, the place suggestions is a catalyst for transformation, and the place belonging isn’t an HR initiative, however a lived each day expertise.
This cultural basis led to Explorance being named the #1 firm to work for in Canada in 2021, a milestone that bolstered our dedication to constructing not only a nice product or enterprise, however an amazing place to develop and thrive.
We now describe our cultural ethos as:
“Rising up. Rising out. Rising collectively.”
We’re a village of autonomous, high-performing, and caring Explorers who come collectively to make an enduring distinction in how organizations hear, function, and excel.
Over time, we’ve embedded these values into all the things, from how we recruit, to how we lead, to how we serve our clients. Our tradition is not simply inside glue; it’s a part of the product, a part of the model, and a part of the impression we hope to have on the world.
How did your expertise working at corporations like Nortel, Bombardier, and Sycamore Networks affect your pondering as a founder?
My experiences at Nortel, Bombardier, and Sycamore Networks gave me a front-row seat to each the brilliance and the blind spots of enormous organizations. I used to be surrounded by good folks, bold targets, and cutting-edge know-how—however I additionally witnessed the human price of forms, hierarchy, and management by authority as a substitute of affect.
In these environments, I noticed staff handled like cogs in a machine fairly than succesful, considerate adults. Initiative was typically discouraged, and belief was in brief provide. Management typically meant command and management—not inspiration, not collaboration. These years had been pivotal not as a result of I needed to recreate what I noticed, however as a result of I knew I needed to construct the other of it.
After I based Explorance, I made a promise: to construct an organization the place belief was the muse, and the place folks didn’t have to go away their humanity on the door to achieve success. That philosophy grew to become the idea for what I name a tradition of reciprocity—a office the place each the corporate and its folks give 120%, anchored in mutual respect, transparency, and a shared sense of objective.
It’s a easy however highly effective thought: folks don’t wish to be managed—they wish to be believed in. They don’t wish to be incentivized—they wish to be impressed. The organizations I got here from taught me you can have all the correct technique and techniques in place, but when folks don’t really feel trusted, empowered, and heard, none of it issues.
At Explorance, we flipped the script. We outlined greatness not by title or tenure, however by the braveness to look inward, stay with objective, and pursue excellence collectively
That mindset is woven into all the things we do—our product philosophy, our tradition, and the impression we search to create on the planet.
So in some ways, these company chapters gave me readability. They confirmed me the gaps I wanted to fill—not simply in enterprise, however in how folks expertise work. And that readability grew to become the blueprint for constructing one thing radically extra human.
Explorance makes use of AI and superior analytics to show suggestions into motion. What function does AI play in your product choices as we speak, and the place do you see it heading sooner or later?
Our work with AI started nicely earlier than the 2023 hype cycle. In 2017, we began constructing MLY, a specialised, high-accuracy machine studying platform centered on one factor: serving to organizations deeply perceive the voice of their folks, with out asking them to say greater than they have already got.
After six years of improvement behind the scenes, MLY launched as a differentiated suggestions intelligence engine. It analyzes open-ended feedback with extraordinary precision—capturing not simply sentiment, however context, causality, and intention. It preserves the query context wherein feedback had been made, identifies what persons are expressing, why they really feel that approach, and the way it pertains to key drivers like engagement, inclusion, or efficiency. It turns unstructured suggestions into perception you possibly can act on, shortly, confidently, and at scale.
What makes MLY so highly effective is that it shifts the function of suggestions completely. Open-ended feedback are not handled as messy add-ons; they grow to be the richest supply of “what,” “why,” and “how” in any suggestions ecosystem. And since that is typically information organizations have already got, MLY reduces the necessity to launch one more survey, it listens first and asks questions second.
This shift is strategic. With MLY, we wish to reorient how organizations method suggestions:
- Begin with the impression you wish to make
- Comply with via with the insights you’ll want to get there
- Finish with the query, provided that you will need to
At present, half of our product group is absolutely devoted to the continued evolution of MLY, as a result of we imagine it’s the way forward for suggestions. AI for us isn’t about automation for its personal sake, it’s about making a extra clever, much less intrusive, extra human option to hear. One which empowers organizations to behave with objective, agility, and empathy.
Your AI-powered MLY platform processes huge volumes of qualitative information. What had been the most important technical hurdles in creating one thing so scalable and dependable?
At Explorance, scale doesn’t simply imply extra information, it means deeper belief, broader protection, and safer conversations.
Constructing MLY to the usual we envisioned wasn’t only a technical endeavor, it was an moral and strategic one. On the core of any reliable AI platform is the standard, range, and duty of the info that powers it. That was our first main problem: sourcing a big sufficient quantity of related qualitative information to coach our proprietary fashions, whereas doing so ethically, with full buyer consent, and throughout a variety of use instances.
Our fashions wanted to replicate the total breadth of human experiences throughout each pupil schooling journeys and worker studying and HR contexts. Meaning understanding 1000’s of refined expressions, throughout cultures, establishments, and industries—whereas respecting privateness and sustaining consent. It took years of cautious information curation, working along with our clients who trusted us to deal with their information with care and objective.
The second problem was architectural: how will we construct fashions which can be highly effective sufficient to floor deep intelligence, whereas nonetheless sustaining excessive precision and recall requirements, in addition to complete protection? Our clients don’t simply need sentiment, they need that means. They count on suggestions to be actionable, inclusive, and consultant of each voice, particularly people who would possibly in any other case go unheard. That demand for scale, range, and perception, concurrently, requires ongoing innovation and relentless testing.
A 3rd layer emerged as our platform matured: supporting psychological and bodily security inside the suggestions evaluation and reporting course of. Listening shouldn’t really feel threatening, it ought to really feel secure. Organizations are actually anticipating instruments like MLY to bolster a tradition of belief and care, making certain that suggestions is rarely weaponized however as a substitute used as a catalyst for constructive change. That’s a fancy steadiness of AI sophistication, UX design, and moral rules.
And at last, we’re continuously adapting to the fast evolution of AI know-how, the emergence of latest regulatory frameworks, and procurement processes which can be solely starting to catch up. For us, this isn’t a one-time achievement, it’s a dedication to evolve MLY at lightspeed, staying differentiated, accountable, and above all, priceless to the folks and organizations who depend on it.
Briefly: scalability wasn’t nearly velocity and quantity. It was about constructing AI that’s as considerate as it’s highly effective—and that continues to be our north star.
How do you guarantee accountable, moral AI improvement at Explorance, particularly given your emphasis on values and human-centric design?
At Explorance, we transcend moral AI, we construct for Accountable AI. The place ethics units the intention, duty shapes the execution. It’s how we translate our values into the design, governance, and on a regular basis software of our applied sciences.
First, we begin with a transparent and unwavering precept: information belongs solely to our clients. We by no means use buyer information to coach or enhance our fashions with out specific, written consent. Our coaching datasets are completely opt-in, curated ethically and transparently. We’ve strict inside insurance policies round information retention, information utilization, and information possession. Belief isn’t only a promise, it’s a protocol.
Second, accuracy is non-negotiable. MLY doesn’t hallucinate or speculate. We’ve constructed it to ship decision-grade intelligence with excessive precision, even when meaning being conservative in protection on the outset. Our clients make crucial selections primarily based on MLY’s insights, and so they deserve the boldness that what they’re performing on is dependable, grounded, and actual.
Third, we’re deeply dedicated to inclusivity and bias mitigation. MLY is skilled on a various and consultant dataset overlaying the total spectrum of pupil, worker, and human experiences. Each voice issues, particularly those which can be typically neglected. That dedication is embedded in how we construct, consider, and evolve our fashions.
However the final take a look at of Accountable AI is its impression. For us, meaning serving to organizations do greater than analyze suggestions—we assist them create safer areas for open dialogue, brave conversations, and significant development. Accountable AI, in our world, is a device for bettering humanity, by making suggestions not only a metric, however a second of belief, connection, and progress.
And at last, we acknowledge that Accountable AI is a residing promise. As applied sciences evolve, as regulation matures, and as new societal expectations emerge, we stay agile, accountable, and clear. As a result of at Explorance, Accountable AI isn’t a function, it’s our basis.
As somebody deeply keen about studying, how does your private philosophy on schooling affect your organization’s merchandise—particularly in increased schooling?
For me, studying isn’t only a course of, it’s a objective. I imagine that studying is probably the most human of superpowers. It’s how we develop, how we adapt, how we join. And when paired with listening, it turns into transformational, not only for people, however for establishments, organizations, and whole cultures.
That philosophy is on the core of Explorance. We don’t construct merchandise to guage efficiency, we construct them to allow progress. In increased schooling particularly, our mission is to assist establishments not simply educate however hear. To not solely assess the coed expertise, however to grasp it. MLY, Blue, MTM and our complete platform ecosystem are designed to assist educators and leaders ask deeper questions, floor extra trustworthy solutions, and use suggestions as a catalyst for actual change.
One of many guiding reflections I typically share is:
“Did we hear? Did we be taught? Did we construct the sort of tradition we’d need our kids to work and thrive in?”
That query shapes all the things, from our know-how roadmap to how we measure success. Within the schooling sector, we associate with establishments not simply to lift response charges or enhance studying outcomes, however to create safer areas for dialogue, extra inclusive school rooms, and a tradition the place each pupil feels seen, heard, and valued.
In the end, I imagine that suggestions is how we educate establishments to be taught. And in doing so, we give them the instruments to evolve, not simply to fulfill expectations, however to encourage transformation. As a result of the way forward for schooling isn’t nearly delivering content material, it’s about cultivating listening cultures that empower each lifelong learner to grow to be extra absolutely themselves.
You’ve described your crew as a “mighty military of Explorers.” What do you search for within the folks you rent, and the way do you foster such deep alignment along with your mission?
We don’t rent staff; we invite Explorers on a journey. And that journey is constructed on belief, objective, and the idea that progress is at all times a shared endeavor.
At Explorance, we don’t simply rent for expertise, we rent for spirit. Expertise matter, after all. However what we actually search for is people who find themselves able to stroll the onerous highway with coronary heart, who can thrive in ambiguity, and who’re fueled by objective greater than perks.
I’ve mentioned earlier than: “I’ve labored for a thousand years, and I’ll work for a thousand extra.” That’s not about burnout, it’s about belonging to one thing you imagine in, one thing that provides you vitality fairly than simply extracting it. That’s the spirit of an Explorer: somebody who provides 120% not as a result of they’re advised to, however as a result of they personal the mission as if it had been theirs.
What do I search for?
- Individuals who take initiative with out ready for permission
- People who find themselves emotionally clever and don’t depart their humanity on the door
- Individuals who embrace duty over entitlement
- And above all, individuals who care deeply about progress of self, of others, of the group
However hiring is just the start. Alignment comes from how we lead, hear, and stay collectively. That’s why we constructed a tradition of reciprocity, the place belief isn’t earned over time, it’s given from day one. The place leaders lead by affect and instance, not title. The place we maintain one another to excessive requirements as a result of we imagine in one another, not as a result of we worry failure.
This alignment isn’t unintended. It’s intentional. It’s embedded in each suggestions loop, each onboarding dialog, each powerful second after we select values over comfort. And over time, that alignment turns into a power multiplier. Folks don’t simply work right here, they belong right here.
That’s why I name us a “mighty military of Explorers.” As a result of this isn’t only a firm, it’s a shared quest. And people who stroll with us don’t simply develop, they assist develop one thing that outlasts all of us.
You’ve been a builder, mentor, philanthropist, and lifelong learner. What’s subsequent for you—and for Explorance—as you look towards the way forward for work and schooling?
What’s subsequent isn’t a end line, it’s a continuation of a promise. For me personally, the subsequent chapter is about deepening the impression I could make by staying true to the values that introduced me right here: listening with intention, main with care, and rising via service. I’ve at all times believed that work isn’t one thing separate from who we’re, it’s a option to categorical who we’re turning into.
At Explorance, we’re getting into what I see as our most significant stage but. By means of our Horizon 2027 plan, we’re centered not simply on income progress, however on turning into a platform for inspiration and transformation, a catalyst for a way the world listens, learns, and leads.
Our mission is to redefine suggestions as a human proper, not only a company device. We’re evolving our applied sciences like MLY, Blue, and MTM to make suggestions extra correct, extra actionable, and extra empowering. However much more importantly, we’re serving to organizations construct cultures of belief and psychological security, so folks don’t simply give suggestions, they thrive due to it.
As the way forward for work and schooling unfolds, I imagine the winners gained’t be those that automate probably the most, however those that humanize one of the best. The organizations that lead would be the ones that know the way to hear, the way to act, and the way to create area for folks to develop into their fullest selves.
On a private stage, I feel typically about legacy. Not within the sense of being remembered for accomplishments, however for the impression I’ve had on folks’s journeys. I wish to know that I helped create safer workplaces, extra empathetic school rooms, and a era of leaders who lead with coronary heart.
As I wrote in Whispers of the Future:
“After I go, I hope folks will say I made them really feel seen. That, I requested questions that mattered. That I helped them grow to be extra of who they already had been.”
That’s the work that also lies forward. And I’m all in, for a thousand extra years, if that’s what it takes.
Thanks for the nice interview, readers who want to be taught extra ought to go to Explorance.
