Samer Saab: A Vision to Transform Feedback

Samer Saab, founder and CEO of Explorance, brings over 22 years of technology industry experience. From his early days working at companies like Bombardier and Nortel to founding Explorance in 2003, his journey has been driven by a desire to empower organizations through meaningful feedback.

The Birth of Explorance

Samer came to Canada in 1990 and studied Electrical Engineering at McGill University, later completing an MBA. His varied career exposed him to how large organizations operate, but also to the limitations of traditional leadership and feedback systems. He founded Explorance to create a platform that treats feedback not just as data but as a personal compass for growth.

Overcoming Early Challenges Without External Funding

Explorance was bootstrapped from the start. Samer invested his life savings and endured years of intense effort with a small team, working long hours and sacrificing personal comforts. This period forged a resilient culture prioritizing trust, purpose, and long-term thinking over rapid growth.

Values and Culture: From Grit to Purpose

Explorance’s culture evolved from shared sacrifice and grit to a philosophy of reciprocity and mutual respect. Today, the company emphasizes purpose, growth, and impact, fostering an environment where feedback drives transformation and belonging is a lived experience.

Lessons from Previous Roles

Working at large corporations showed Samer the drawbacks of hierarchical and bureaucratic cultures. These experiences inspired him to build Explorance as a place where trust and empowerment are foundational, and where people are inspired rather than managed.

AI-Powered Feedback with MLY

Explorance’s AI platform MLY, developed since 2017, analyzes qualitative feedback with high precision. It captures sentiment, context, causality, and intention, turning unstructured comments into actionable insights. MLY helps organizations listen first and ask questions second, shifting traditional feedback paradigms.

Technical and Ethical Challenges in AI Development

Building MLY required sourcing diverse and ethically curated data with full customer consent. The platform balances precision, inclusivity, and psychological safety, ensuring feedback fosters trust and constructive change. Explorance continuously adapts to evolving AI technology and regulatory landscapes.

Commitment to Responsible AI

Explorance prioritizes Responsible AI by ensuring customer data ownership, high accuracy, bias mitigation, and ethical transparency. Their goal is to create AI that supports safer, open dialogue and meaningful progress.

Philosophy of Learning and Impact on Higher Education

Samer views learning as a fundamental human superpower. Explorance products aim to enable institutions to listen deeply and create inclusive, safe environments where students and educators thrive. Feedback is seen as a tool to help institutions evolve and inspire transformation.

Building the Team: The Spirit of Explorers

Explorance hires individuals who embrace initiative, emotional intelligence, responsibility, and growth. The company fosters alignment through trust, shared values, and leadership by example, creating a culture where employees belong and contribute passionately.

Looking Ahead: The Future of Work, Education, and Explorance

Samer envisions Explorance evolving as a platform for inspiration and transformation, redefining feedback as a human right. They focus on technologies that empower organizations to build cultures of trust and psychological safety. The future belongs to those who humanize work and education, cultivating environments for people to grow fully.

Samer Saab’s journey exemplifies a commitment to building technology and culture that listen, empower, and transform.

For more information, visit Explorance.