The Daisy Story.

Daisy is an AI-powered platform for retail and insurance.

Daisy uses reinforcement learning, a branch of AI, and its patent-pending Theory of Retail™ and Theory of Risk™ to be truly unique in the marketplace and on the cutting edge of the category management and risk management revolution.

Daisy’s technology, developed by a highly-skilled team of 50+ computational scientists, mathematicians and business domain experts analyzes 100% of an organization’s transactions, executing billions of simulations daily to deliver optimized merchandise planning and risk management decisions for its clients.

Linear regression, the forefather of deep learning and AI, was invented more than 200 years ago. So, why isn’t AI delivering better business results?

Our AI-powered platform is different. It uses reinforcement learning to deliver exceptional financial results: higher profits and sales and outstanding ROI.

AI is intelligent autonomous systems, not algorithms. Autonomy is stable, trustworthy and demonstratable business performances from your most important processes that deliver an invisible but powerful competitive edge.

Daisy delivers decisions that drive higher profits every year. We analyze 100% of your business transactions to deliver business recommendations while automating processes beyond human capability.

Simply put, Daisy sees what others can’t.

Better Financial Results

Our retail clients have historically seen top-line sales increase by average of 2.9% through pricing optimization, better promotional product selection, and more accurate inventory allocation.

Reduce Fraudulent Payments

Banks and insurance companies can avoid tens of millions of dollars in fraudulent payments and assess risk more accurately with technology that makes investigations more efficient and successful.

Reinforcement Learning

Based on years of R&D and work with top brands, our technology is unique; it continuously learns and adjusts its decision-making policies without human intervention. We call it “autonomous machine intelligence”: computers do the time-consuming heavy lifting.

We Handle The Hard Work

Daisy handles repetitive, relentless and complex work, allowing your employees to use their experience and expertise to do what they do best…make strategic and creative decisions to serve your customers. They do what machines can’t!

Meet the Team

In today’s data-driven world, it is beyond human capacity to measure and optimize decision-making. Yet, the road to the humanly impossible is still driven by people – people like the team at Daisy. While we love our math and science, we pride ourselves on being fun and easy people to work with. We love our clients. For our team, no business challenge is too big when there’s a mountain of data to scale.

GARY SAARENVIRTA, M.A.Sc
GARY SAARENVIRTA, M.A.Sc

Founder & CEO

Gary is Daisy’s Founder and CEO, and a preeminent authority on artificial intelligence and its ability to transform how businesses grow. He is also a member of Daisy’s board.

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KEVIN ANTRAM
KEVIN ANTRAM

Senior VP, Revenue

An experienced high-tech sales executive, Kevin is responsible for the strategies that drive total company revenue, new sales, channel sales, and customer renewals.

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PAT FINERTY
PAT FINERTY

Chief Development Officer

As Daisy scales its international growth, Pat will lead the expansion of the company’s partner ecosystem and accelerate its presence in emerging industry verticals.

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SINA MERAJI
SINA MERAJI

Director, Machine Learning & Software Development in Parallel Computing

Sina leads the R&D team focusing on four areas: big data and analytics, artificial intelligence/machine learning, parallel processing, and UI/Web development.

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NATASHA COTZ
NATASHA COTZ

Director, Talent & Culture

An HR strategist and recruitment expert, Natasha oversees all recruiting and new hire activities, human resources, performance management and employee training.

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JOHAN LANDMARK
JOHAN LANDMARK

VP, Customer Success

Johan is responsible for customer community, marketing, brand, PR/ industry analyst relations, and supports pre-sales and client onboarding.

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JEFF BERRY
JEFF BERRY

VP, Operations

A seasoned executive-level professional, Jeff oversees Daisy’s production operations team, customer onboarding, product management, and infrastructure.

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SHELINA KARA
SHELINA KARA

VP, Client Management

Shelina is responsible for client steady state delivery post onboarding, client satisfaction, ad hoc analytics, and supporting client renewals and client upsell.

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Board of Directors

JOHN MADIGAN
JOHN MADIGAN

JSM Capital Inc.

John has 30 years of experience as a senior leader, innovator and investor in early stage tech companies. After a career with Northern Telecom/Nortel Networks, John co-founded several tech startups.

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GARY SAARENVIRTA
GARY SAARENVIRTA

Daisy Intelligence

Gary is Daisy’s Founder & CEO, leading the company as it builds an AI-powered platform that helps retailers and insurance companies around the world drive dramatically improved financial results.

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PETER MISEK
PETER MISEK

Framework Venture Partners

Peter Misek is Co-Founder & Partner with Framework Venture Partners, a venture capital firm that combines a unique approach to data-driven investment with a collaborative engagement model.

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EDUARDO PIEDADE
EDUARDO PIEDADE

Sonae IM

Eduardo Piedade is Sonae IM’s CEO, a European-based global active investor, part of Sonae Group, which specializes in retail, telco technologies, and cybersecurity.

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What’s in a name?
A lot of thinking.

In 2003, Gary Saarenvirta, launched makeplain Corp., best described as “a data analytics company.” Fast-forward to 2016, when makeplain rebranded as Daisy Intelligence. This was an acknowledgment that even after more than a decade of success, we had evolved alongside a rapidly changing data analytics landscape and we are now reaching new audiences.

Our inspiration for Daisy Intelligence came from several sources:

  • We love using complex math to solve real-world problems, so, naturally, we’re big fans of Fibonacci, who introduced what is widely considered to be math’s perfected sequence: the Fibonacci Sequence. This sequence can be found throughout nature such as in the number of petals and the number of spirals in the florets of a daisy flower.
  • In 1961, the IBM 7094 was programmed to sing “Daisy Bell”, the first song sung by a computer. “Daisy” was sung by HAL in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. We especially like the first line of the song: “Daisy, Daisy give me your answer true” because it reflects what Daisy Intelligence strives to deliver to its clients: the facts.
  • The name Daisy contains “AI” which represents our company’s artificial intelligence foundation.

It’s safe to say, there’s a lot of thinking behind our name.

COMPANY HIGHLIGHTS
  • Recognized as a “Cool Vendor in A.I. for Retail” by Gartner Inc.
  • Named “Best Startup” at The AIconics awards.
  • Won $5-million funding prize at ElevateR Pitch: A.I. Edition.
  • Named to Toronto 50 list of GTA startups to watch.

Daisy is revolutionizing how retailers and insurance companies use AI to drive higher profits. If you’re interested in becoming a Daisy partner, please complete the form.

LEARN MORE ABOUT A.I. TODAY –
WHAT IT IS, WHAT ISN’T, AND WHY NOW.

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905-642-2629
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416-299-6903

GARY SAARENVIRTA, M.A.Sc
Founder & CEO

Gary Saarenvirta is Daisy’s founder and CEO and a preeminent authority on artificial intelligence.

The former head of IBM Canada’s data mining and data warehousing practices, Gary is passionate about AI and its ability to transform how retailers grow their businesses and establish an edge in an increasingly challenging and competitive environment. 

Under Gary’s leadership, Daisy has established a track record of delivering verifiable financial outcomes for a rapidly growing list of global clients. Gary holds a B.A.Sc. and M.A.Sc. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Toronto.

KEVIN ANTRAM

Senior VP, Revenue

As the leader of the revenue teams at Daisy, Kevin is responsible for the strategies that drive total company revenue, new sales, channel sales, and customer renewals.

He has had a 30-year career in high-tech sales and executive leadership. This includes leadership roles at SAS as Global VP, Sales & Field Operations, Reynolds & Reynolds as VP, Sales, and MapInfo Canada as VP and GM.

Kevin has firmly held beliefs around sales, and one of his mantras is: stop selling and help people buy what they need. That's how you deliver value.

Kevin has a BSc. in Applied Math & Economics from Brown University, where he also played lacrosse.

PAT FINERTY

Chief Development Officer

Pat is responsible for scaling Daisy’s growth internationally. His responsibility areas include driving the Daisy Partner ecosystem, extending the company's footprint beyond North America, and accelerating its presence in emerging industry verticals.

Pat has more than 20 years of experience as a global software executive, providing leadership to alliances and channels, business development, sales, and geographies across the Americas.

Pat received his Honours Bachelor of Business from Wilfrid Laurier University.

SINA MERAJI
Director, Machine Learning & Software Development in Parallel Computing

Sina is Daisy’s Director, Machine Learning & Software Development in Parallel Computing. He leads the research and development team focusing on four main areas of A) Big Data and Analytics, B) Artificial Intelligence/Machine learning C) Parallel processing and D) UI/Web development.

Sina is passionate about scalable, high-performance A.I. and machine learning tools that can be used in production by customers around the world. He also worked as a team lead in cloud innovation lab of IBM, designing and implementing next-generation IBM next-generation data centre and infrastructures. Before that, he also worked on accelerating query processing time for IBM DB2-BLU using hardware accelerators like GPUs and FPGAs. He built a prototype that uses GPUs and could improve the performance of DB2 BLU by 2x on concurrent analytical workloads.

Sina did his doctoral studies at computer science department of McGill University on the area of high-performance computing combined with artificial intelligence. He researched application of reinforcement learning for dynamic load balancing of parallel computers. Sina has also won the NSERC Postdoctoral award in 2011. He has also won the Best Innovation award at IBM for two consecutive years in 2014 and 2015.

Natasha Cotz

NATASHA COTZ
Director, Talent & Culture

Natasha is an unconventional HR strategist and recruitment expert with over 10 years of experience in technology industries. Her background in helping some of the most successful Canadian startups scale anchors her understanding of the unique challenges growing leaders face in a rapidly changing environment. Her People-First approach, passion for agility, and her data-driven mindset give her a unique view into building happy and healthy organizations. 

Natasha believes the fastest way to succeed is to lift others up and that the most talented and passionate people are behind driving the best ideas forward. She has devoted her career to helping nurture learning and development, maximizing peak performance, and helping others find the sparkle in their eyes when they love waking up and going to work every day.

JOHAN LANDMARK

VP, Customer Success

Johan is senior executive with extensive experience in market research, brand building, innovation and strategic planning at international and national levels.

Previously the VP of Insights and Analytic at Walmart Canada and the Global Director of Commercial Spend Effectiveness at Anheuser-Busch InBev, Johan has a track record of transforming the customer intelligence and innovation functions into well-run departments that quickly become recognized as strong strategic assets by executive management. 

Jeff Berry

JEFF BERRY
VP, OPERATIONS

Jeff is responsible for the production operations team, customer onboarding, product management, and infrastructure.

Jeff is a seasoned executive-level professional who specializes in organizational strategy development, business development, insight-driven decision making, and developing cross-organizational partnerships.

He has a strong record of leading thought leadership, new strategy development and implementation, fact-based reasoning, and delivering positive organizational results.

Shelina Kara

SHELINA KARA

VP, Client Management

Shelina is responsible for managing Daisy’s client relationships.

Her responsibilities include client engagement and management, client satisfaction, client analytics and supporting overall revenue growth for Daisy.

Shelina has an Honours Bachelor of Business from Ryerson University and a Retail Management diploma from Capilano College.

JOHN MADIGAN
President, JSM Capital Inc.

John has 30 years of experience as a senior leader, innovator, and investor in early-stage technology companies. After a career with Northern Telecom/Nortel Networks in the 1990s, he co-founded several technology startups including the Teligence Group. John's entrepreneurial spirit helped grow the business to 500 employees, $125M+ in annual revenues, 40+ consecutive profitable quarters, and expand operations across North America, India, and the Philippines. Teligence accolades included the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award, BCTIA Technology Company of the Year and Purdue University Call Centre Excellence Award.

John’s core strengths are in strategic planning, operational excellence and building strong teams that deliver undeniable business results.

John is the recipient of the Top 40 under 40 award, an active member in Young Presidents Organization, an Honours Business Administration graduate from Wilfrid Laurier University and an annual attendee in the executive education program at Harvard University.

GARY SAARENVIRTA
Founder and CEO, Daisy Intelligence

One of the preeminent authorities on artificial intelligence and the former head of IBM Canada’s data mining and data warehousing practices, Gary is passionate about AI and its ability to transform how retailers grow their businesses and establish an edge in an increasingly challenging and competitive environment.

Under Gary’s leadership, Daisy has established a track record of delivering verifiable financial outcomes for a rapidly growing list of global clients.. Gary holds a B.A.Sc. and M.A.Sc. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Toronto.

Peter Misek

PETER MISEK

Co-Founder & Partner, Framework Venture Partners

Based in Toronto, Peter has more than 17 years of venture capital experience as an advisor/ venture partner for DN Capital, including direct involvement in multiple unicorns. At Framework, Peter’s investments include GoViral Inc., TouchBistro, Wattpad, and Wave Financial.

Prior to Framework, Peter was a Partner at BDC IT Venture Fund. With an entrepreneurial background, Peter is a Chairman and Founder of SoundPays Inc. and an original programmer of the technology. Peter has almost 20 years of investment banking experience as Managing Director and Co‑Head of Global Technology Research for Jefferies in NYC and as Director of Research and Global Technology Analyst for Canaccord.

Peter holds a CA, CPA, CPA from Illinois as well as a CFA. He is a hobby programmer who has founded technology companies.

Eduardo Piedade

EDUARDO PIEDADE
CEO, Sonae IM

Eduardo is Sonae IM’s CEO, a European-based global active investor. Sonae IM is part of Sonae Group, which specializes in retail, telco technologies, and cybersecurity.

He holds an MBA with distinction from London Business School and a degree in Business Administration from Faculdade de Economia do Porto.