Tech developer Jay Xiao has taken an unusual career path. He started wanting to go into finance but quickly pivoted to tech to further develop an idea for a start-up. From there, Xiao began to aim higher after working hard to change his areas of study and educate himself on computer science. This pivot has taken his career to one of the biggest tech companies in the world and then back to entrepreneurship. Today, Xiao is becoming a leader in the surety bonds space while achieving his dream of starting his own company.
Xiao's tech journey began at Queen's University in Canada in 2013. He initially set out to earn a degree in Commerce and Computer Science, seeking to start a career in financial consulting. He then switched his focus to computer science and software engineering after tossing around ideas for start-ups with some friends. They had a solid idea but needed more expertise to implement it. Xiao realized he needed to learn to code to build a successful business, so he worked tirelessly to become a software engineer. He was rewarded when he landed an internship at a start-up in Toronto called Nulogy. The experience cemented Xiao's passion for tech, and he graduated in 2018.
Before graduating from Queen's University, Xiao interned at Google, working on Google Ads during the fall of 2017. In the summer of 2018, Xiao returned to Google as an intern, this time to work on the Dynamic Search Ads team. He was then offered a full-time position at Google and decided to stay in Canada to lend his expertise to one of the world's most prolific and innovative tech companies. Xiao stayed at Google for three years, working as a software engineer for the publishing side of Google Stadia. After years at Google, Xiao returned to his dream of starting his own business. He decided to leave Google and found something of his own.
Today, Xiao is the co-founder and President of Nomad Insurance Agency Inc. and DBA SuretyNow. The idea for SuretyNow came to Xiao after a friend mentioned the difficulty he had purchasing surety bonds. After a few weeks of researching the surety bonds market and exploring options, Xiao and his team were ready to launch a site prototype. It was successful, and Xiao raised $450,000 from angel investors to create the company. SuretyNow aims to make purchasing surety bonds as easy as shopping on Amazon. To achieve this goal, Xiao built the website himself as a solo developer, set up all the infrastructure, and managed a team of writers to create content that has driven traffic up to 5,000 monthly visitors. With SuretyNow, agents are able to produce two times the industry average due to the automation Xiao and his team have put in place. Buying surety bonds is now a more efficient and streamlined process.
Xiao is carving out a place for himself in today's tech industry. The market is oversaturated with people launching start-ups with similar functions or needing to learn how to build the technology they sell correctly. Xiao takes a different approach. After researching which industry needed the tools he had, he built a solution. Xiao has made himself and his company essential to the surety bonds market.
