Toronto, Canada / CEO · Investor · AI Trainer

Shane Skillen

I read humans for a living — and teach machines to do the same. CEO of Hotspex Group. AI trainer to boardrooms and governments. Investor in the Canadian companies building what's next.

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Hotspex Group ✦ AI Trainer ✦ Cohere ✦ Midori-Bio ✦ Heli-Skiing ✦ Golfer ✦ Father ✦ Husband ✦ AI Addict ✦ Hotspex Group ✦ AI Trainer ✦ Cohere ✦ Midori-Bio ✦ Heli-Skiing ✦ Golfer ✦ Father ✦ Husband ✦ AI Addict ✦
01 — The operating system

Two instincts, one operator.

Shane Skillen, CEO of Hotspex Group
Shane SkillenToronto

I've spent my career reading two things for a living — people, and now the machines learning to think like them.

For more than two decades I've run Hotspex around one question: what do people actually feel, beneath what they'll admit in a survey? We map the emotional landscape of a brand and turn it into decisions worth millions.

Now the same instinct points at AI. I train executives, teams, and governments to stop fearing it and start compounding with it — and I back the Canadian founders building the frontier. Father of three. Skier. Relentless optimist about what people and machines can do together.

EQReads humansEmotion measurement · Hotspex Map™
AITrains machinesWorkshops · governments · boardrooms
$$Backs buildersCohere · Midori-Bio · Heli-Skiing
02 — What I do

The day job, twice over.

↳ 01 / Operator

Hotspex Group

CEO of the consumer-insights firm that measures the emotion behind every brand decision. Our proprietary Hotspex Map turns how people feel into where a brand should play — and win.

Emotion measurement Brand strategy Right Space™
H
↳ 02 / Translator

AI Training

I take rooms full of skeptical, busy leaders — from executive teams to federal departments — and leave them fluent: confident with the tools, clear on the risks, and shipping real work the same week.

Executive workshops Public sector Applied, not theory
AI
03 — Where I put conviction

An investor in Canadian bets.

Portfolio
Cohere Midori-Bio Great Canadian Heli-Skiing
[ 01 ] CohereFrontier AI Canada's frontier AI company — building the foundation models and secure infrastructure that put real intelligence into the hands of the enterprise. ↗ [ 02 ] Midori-BioSustainable biotech Bioscience that swaps the harsh chemistry in everyday products for something the planet can live with — clean performance, biodegradable by design. ↗ [ 03 ] Great Canadian Heli-SkiingBackcountry · alpine Untouched powder in the Selkirks — a bet on the one experience that can't be digitized. (And a very good excuse to keep skiing.) ↗
✦ The throughline
Every decision is an emotion wearing a spreadsheet.
What do people
really feel?
04 — Off the clock

When the laptop closes.

⛳

Golfer

Chasing a number that doesn't care how your quarter went.

⛷

Skier

Happiest off-piste, where the only signal that matters is the next turn.

✷

Father of three

Ryder, Chase & Bodie — the real performance reviews.

❤

Husband

Married to Cabrina. The best decision I never modeled.

05 — Open line

Let's build
something real.

shane.skillen@hotspex.com →
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