A start-up for stand-ups: discover how Coactive AI is building product while developing its people

There are three things you need to know about our engineer Seby Jacob: he loves coding, comedy, and sunshine. In this blog, you’ll see how Coactive AI helps its team members to pursue all of their passions and grow holistically. On with the show!

Prepare to make some noise, people. All the way from Montreal, give it up for your next act… Sebbbyyyyy Jacoooobbbb!!! Seby, welcome to our blog. (Or as we like to call it, the world stage.) Before we dive into your stand-up side hustle, tell us about your coding career to date. Machine learning for ice hockey?

Ah, that was my PhD! I used facial recognition and body language analysis to predict face-offs in ice hockey. There’s a lot of money in the sport, especially if you can predict a punch-up.

The research built on my master’s thesis, which used unsupervised deep learning to perform anomaly detection in videos. My original undergraduate degree before that was in electronics, and I worked in the field for 2 years, but it wasn’t for me. We were fixing bugs on legacy code, and I wanted room for more creativity.

The PhD was going well, but I got a great job offer out of the blue, which brought me back to the software industry sooner than I’d expected. I can thank NeurIPS for that!

Our co-founder, Cody, recently helped organize the first Data-Centric AI workshop at the NeurIPS conference! Is that how you heard about Coactive?

Ha, no. I wasn’t even looking for jobs when I went to NeurIPS. I was a broke student at the time, so I just wanted to get all the free conference swag. I only took my resume with me as an excuse to have conversations and get a ton of free swag (I’m all stocked up on umbrellas and USB sticks for life).

A few months later, one of the companies I’d handed my CV to gave me a call, and the job offer was compelling. I quit my PhD, and my software career really took off. At my first job, I was a Deep Learning and Computer Vision SW Engineer. In my second second job, I wore many hats, but I primarily worked as a Computer Vision Engineer along with lots of full stack work.

So what drew you to Coactive AI?

It’s kind of a funny story, actually. One of my former colleagues, Jacob Greenberg, had applied to Coactive AI and had asked me for a reference. The CEO of Coactive, Cody, phoned me to verify the reference I had given, and we started talking. I realized what an insanely cool company Coactive was and knew I had to apply myself!

We’re glad you did. But Seby, you’re based in Canada. We’ve checked Google Maps, it turns out Canada is not part of the Bay Area. Are you fully remote?

So for context, I’m Indian by birth, and I’m awaiting a Canadian passport. I can’t move yet without losing my immigration record. Cody and Will were incredibly supportive in constructing a hybrid remote role for me. I do a week or two in-person at the Coactive office every quarter or so, then I work remotely from Canada the rest of the time.

This is kind of great because I can also swap out the Canadian winter for Californian sun! Though, I’m also keen to make the most of living in Montreal too. I actually moved here to be part of the stand-up comedy scene.

Ah, Seby, we love jokes too – they remind us of humor. How is Coactive AI supporting your comedy aspirations?

I do open mic comedy nights in the evenings, but the call-time for performers is actually really early. Luckily for me, Cody and Will have supported my dreams from the get-go. They deliberately avoid scheduling end-of-day meetings for me, which means I have the flexibility to start and finish early when I need to fit in gigs. It’s ideal, and that kind of genuine support and consideration is exactly what made me join Coactive AI in the first place.

Speaking of how awesome we are, how do you think Coactive is improving the future for businesses and people?

Businesses nowadays need more than just text data interpretation – they need image interpretation. There’s no SQL for unstructured visual data, so what Coactive is doing is groundbreaking. We’re unleashing a wealth of information companies can use without time-consuming manual image labeling, and without difficulties in structuring and interpreting that data.

AI and ML are no longer just about data and model architecture. Businesses are realizing success lies in data quality and usefulness, and that’s where Coactive is leading the field.

Is there anything that’s surprised you, since you joined the team?

Coactive AI is the first company I’ve seen which is fully people first. Everyone who works here is intelligent, focused, and generally incredible – but they’re also laid back, good people. This culture and environment is so new to me. My previous employers put profit above all else. Coactive is about the team – we ask, “what can we do for each other?”

How does your comedy relate to Coactive’s iterative processes?

When I first came to Montreal, I watched another Indian guy perform the same five minute set in January and December of the same year. He bombed both times, but he was persevering. I had so much respect for his bravery. It made me think I should give it a go, so I entered an open mic night.

I wrote my first five minutes of material, and I got the most incredible rush when I performed it. My set wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t amazing either. Since then I’ve worked hard to iterate and develop my material. I now have about twenty minutes of original comedy.

I can’t believe that I get to do a day job I love, and at a company that genuinely cares about my private pursuits, and wants to support me in them. Who knew coding and comedy could work together so well? I guess I’m living the dream!

Living the dream! That’s exactly what we want for our team members. Thanks for sharing your experiences with us, Seby, and good luck with your next comedy gig!

Thanks so much – and you can be sure it’s only my previous employers I’ll be roasting on stage!

At Coactive AI, culture is our first and most important product. We pride ourselves on building a collaborative, inclusive, and learning team. We’re also the best-in-class solution for analyzing unstructured image data. Be part of the next data revolution. Join our team.