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Who we are

We’ve run the business. Now we build the software

We have built the companies. We have carried the P&L. We have shipped software people depend on to do their jobs every day.

The difference

Most firms hand you a deck. We hand you working software.

We build the system, embed alongside your operators, and put it into production on real work. The deliverable is the working system.

The team

We’ve sat in your chair

Founders who ran companies in automotive, motorsport, engineering, and construction. A CTO with two decades in software. Forward deployed engineers who build inside your operation.

Four of the Shift AI team: Steve Devries, Jason Lotoski, Jay Giraud, and Jack Nyrose.

Hover a face to see who’s who.

  • Jason Lotoski

    Co-Founder, CEO

    Engineering, AI

    Civil engineer and founder, with a background spanning civil, structural, and mechanical engineering: direct credibility with engineering and construction operators. Founded TONIT, a global network for motorcycle riders with 400,000+ members across 70+ countries, and scaled it from zero. Works with mid-market owners on growth, financial modeling, and where to put AI to work in the business.

    Founded

    • TONIT

  • Steve Devries

    Co-Founder, Director

    Automotive, software

    Has built and run vertical SaaS for 17+ years: inventory, appraisal, and lead-handling platforms for automotive dealers across the US and Canada. Co-founder of Carpraze. Knows the mid-market, owner-led buyer cold.

    Built and ran

    • DXC Auto
    • DealerXchange
    • DrivingIt
    • Carpraze

  • Ron Bierman

    CTO

    Platform engineering, AI tooling

    Twenty-plus years building software, the last six at Unity as a staff engineer and senior engineering manager. Led the platform that brings AI asset generation into the Unity Editor, and the tooling that lets AI agents work inside it over the Model Context Protocol. Earlier: lead developer at Finger Food Studios and FreshGrade in Kelowna, and six years as a Java specialist at Sogeti in the Netherlands.

    Built at

    • Unity
    • Finger Food Studios
    • FreshGrade
    • Sogeti

  • Jay Giraud

    Co-Founder

    Connected mobility, motorsport

    Tech founder: roughly $200M raised across five startups, with multiple exits. Founded Damon Motorcycles and took it from zero to a Nasdaq listing. Founding CEO of Mojio, the first open platform for connected cars, with Fortune 500 partnerships. Holds 12+ patents.

    Founded

    • Damon Motorcycles
    • Mojio

  • Jack Nyrose

    Sr. Forward Deployed Engineer

    Agents, automations, apps

    A University of Toronto graduate in business and industrial relations, and a varsity football alumnus. He builds the automations, workflows, and agent SDKs behind the systems Shift ships, along with Shift’s mobile and desktop apps.

  • Elias Wolff

    Jr. Forward Deployed Engineer

    Self-taught in AI, with builds for a few local businesses behind him. A forward deployed engineer at Shift, and on the organizing committee for Forward48, the 48-hour AI build weekend Shift is organizing in Kelowna.

In the field

  • Racing a motorcycle on a track On track
  • An electric motorcycle on a track In the build
  • Fly-fishing on a coastal lake On the water
  • A player carrying the ball on a football field On the field

Areas of expertise

Industry and technical depth

Pick Industry or Technical to switch the view. Drag to spin it.

Two views of the team's combined depth, scored out of ten. Industry expertise: Automotive / Motorsport 9, Financial & Legal services 8, Construction 8, Manufacturing 6, Distribution & Logistics 7, Sales & Marketing 9, Engineering services 8. Technical expertise: Software 10, Hardware 7, AI & Automation 10, Security & Infrastructure 9, Data & Analytics 9, Systems Integration 8, Product & UX Design 9.

Multiple companies built and exited. Civil, structural, and mechanical engineering depth, combined with years of construction, operations, and executive leadership across every stage of a company’s life cycle.

On the technical side: 20+ years of software engineering, including AI tooling, performance infrastructure, and platform work at Unity.

Two views of the team: the industries we have run in, and what we build. Spin the hex or use the tabs. The further a point reaches, the deeper the experience.

What operator means

We work the way owners do

  • We have done the job

    Engineers and operators who have run companies. We know what a Monday looks like inside a firm like yours, and what slows it down by Thursday.

  • We carry the number

    We measure the work in business terms: hours back every week, decisions made faster, reports that write themselves.

  • We build it to run

    We build the system to run in production and keep getting sharper, with your operators using it every day. The handoff is the plan from day one.

Who does what

Who you work with

Shift AI is led by its co-founders and its CTO. The team’s track record in automotive, motorsport, engineering, and construction is the method. You get people who have done the work.

  • Founders

    Founded, scaled, and exited companies in automotive, motorsport, engineering, and construction. The founder you sign with runs your build.

  • CTO

    Sets the technical strategy and leads implementation. Twenty-plus years in software, six of them at Unity.

  • Forward deployed engineers

    Build, train, and implement the system inside your business, next to the people who do the work.

Why we exist

You run on it. You should own it.

Most firms rent the software they run on. Every estimate, every dispatch, every close lives inside someone else’s product, priced per seat, gone when the contract ends. We build the operating system around how your business works. You own the custom system we build, in a repo you control. A monthly licence keeps the engine that runs it sharp.

Ready when you are.

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