Cory Linton, Edify.ai

What’s the inspiration behind Edify.ai?

I am a bit of a closet data-geek. Although I have no formal training in data (I majored in Latin of all things!), I have always loved big data and extracting meaning out of it. I have 8 patents related to big data.

Edify started as a company focused on measuring employee engagement without requiring surveys. After working with a construction client in Salt Lake City, I explored the idea of leveraging our technology to improve industrial safety. I soon realized we were onto something really powerful, and that we could have a massive impact—the safety industry was ripe for disruption and improvement.

I love safety—I love working with the frontline workers that are in dangerous jobs. They are incredibly smart, hardworking people that drive the backbone of our modern world. I get to work on cool technology that literally saves lives. What could be better than that?

What do you think is the most important skill founders need to succeed?

Hustle, perseverance, and brutally honest introspection.

When starting a new company, the emotional roller coaster can be really exhausting—up one day, and the next day you are worried about covering payroll. It is so massively stressful, I am not even sure what to compare it to. In the early days it’s all about survival.

You also need to be able to introspect the hell out of yourself, and make sure that you’re facing reality—no matter how painful. For example, transitioning Edify’s focus from employee engagement to safety was a really difficult decision. However, I realized that when I talked to companies about employee engagement, they would schedule follow-up meetings in 3-4 weeks. When I talked to companies about safety, the meetings happened in 3-4 days. That made it clear that the move to safety was the right thing to do.

You worked at School Improvement Network for 12 years, helping to grow the company to a $46M exit. How has that experience shaped your perspective on business, and your strategy with Edify.ai?

First I’ll share a difficult lesson. As CEO, I helped grow School Improvement Network from about $2.5M to over $46M in revenue. When starting Edify, I thought: “how hard can it be to go from $0 to $2.5M?”

Boy was I wrong! Starting from $0 has been the hardest thing I have ever done in my life—it is really difficult to understand unless you have gone through it yourself.

Something crucial I learned from School Improvement Network is how hard it is to change existing processes. Implementing changes in school districts was far harder than selling them on the value of the approach.

From this experience, I knew that I wanted to avoid asking large companies to change existing processes. With Edify, we are improving daily paper processes by digitizing them. It’s a much lighter lift for the companies, and the results are extremely positive.

Some other lessons I learned along the way:

• Don’t hide a renewal problem with top line growth.
• Don’t assume that a good frontline manager will also be a good manager of managers—those two roles require very different skills.
• Don’t go into a new market unless you are willing to fund it properly and have people dedicated to it.
• Always be a seeker of truth, even if that truth shows your own weaknesses and shortcomings.

What is your superpower?

I can get people excited about a vision. I love engaging with a group of people who know nothing about Edify or safety, and helping them to have their own “aha” moments.

I have also been told by multiple people that I have a way of getting people to say yes—even when they don’t want to. Not in a manipulative way, but in a way that helps them transcend their doubts and believe they can do something.

I also have the ability to move from the C-suite to frontline craft workers. I hope that my love and care for all people comes out when I interact with them.

What’s your kryptonite?

I love driving the big vision, but I’m not so big on the day-to-day details. I don’t want to be stuck in the office driving operations—I want to be out with customers and users. That’s why I try to hire the right talent to do the day-to-day work that I don't enjoy.

How do you handle risk and competition?

This may sound counterintuitive or controversial, but you shouldn’t handle it as a primary issue. It’s important to be aware and to know how your product is positioned, but—and this is a really important ALL CAPS BUT—you have to focus on solving problems for your customers.

Don’t create a product defined by your competition. Create a product to solve a problem that your customers have, and that they are willing to pay money to solve. If you do that, you will have a business (assuming there are enough potential customers).

What are the top challenges you’ve faced while launching Edify?

One big challenge has been hitting deadlines on new features we’d promised to customers. Despite vetting dates with our development team, it often takes longer than we initially predict. I know this is a common problem with software projects, but it takes a lot of work to manage expectations with customers while building and maintaining our credibility.

Driving early growth is also difficult. It took us two years to get our deal with a top 5 tech company. During that time, it was challenging to get everyone to have faith that we were on the right path. I never doubted, not once—and that carried me through.

Do you have any other hobbies/things you like to do in your spare time?

Outside of work, I’m dedicated to my wife, Lisa, and five kids: Ellek, Klein, Beckam, Cruz, and Romy. They have been my rock, and not wanting to disappoint them has been a big motivator to make this work. With 5 kids, life is really full. We all love to travel!

Lisa owns a very cool refinishing business that I love to help out with. It’s a break from the stress of Edify, and a completely different business that has its own intellectual challenges. Shifting my brain to think about her business instead of Edify is therapeutic in an odd way.