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Steve Desjarlais

Co-founder, Heyday

AI

Steve Desjarlais co-founded Heyday in Montreal in 2017 and was its CEO. Heyday built conversational-AI assistants that retailers ran on their websites and messaging channels to answer questions and sell. Hootsuite acquired the company on August 3, 2021 for CA$60 million. Amiral Ventures now lists him among its mentors.

Steve hasn’t spoken on a TechTO, TechVancouver or TechWaterloo stage. This profile is here because Steve co-founded Heyday, which appears in 1 talk in the archive.

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Quick answers

Did Steve Desjarlais co-found Heyday?

Yes. Hootsuite's own acquisition announcement, dated August 3, 2021, identifies him as "Co-Founder, Heyday" and carries a quote from him. Creative Destruction Lab's mentor page states plainly that "Steve co-founded Heyday.ai" and notes the company was in the first CDL-Montreal cohort in 2017/2018. BetaKit's August 3, 2021 report on the deal also calls him a Heyday co-founder.

Was he Heyday's CEO or its president?

Every page we fetched says CEO. Creative Destruction Lab's mentor page lists him as "Co-Founder, CEO" of Heyday. AI Time Journal's interview with him, published November 19, 2019, is headlined as being with the "CEO & Co-Founder of Heyday AI". Amiral Ventures' team page describes him as "Co-founder and ex-CEO at Heyday.ai". We found no source calling him president.

What happened to Heyday?

Hootsuite acquired it on August 3, 2021 for CA$60 million, per Hootsuite's press release and BetaKit's report the same day, and folded the technology into its social commerce products. Heyday was founded in Montreal in 2017 (BetaKit, August 3, 2021). The heyday.ai domain no longer responds — a request timed out after 25 seconds (checked 2026-09-21).

What does Steve Desjarlais do now?

Amiral Ventures, a Montreal venture firm, lists him under Mentors on its team page and describes him as Heyday's ex-CEO; the page footer reads ©2025. We found no 2026 source for an operating role, and no page we could fetch confirms whether he is still at Hootsuite — that claim appears only on LinkedIn-derived aggregators, which this directory does not use (checked 2026-09-21).

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Maintained by TechTO · facts sourced and dated · last reviewed Sep 21, 2026