Humans of Tech, Lindsay Cournoyer

How Lindsay Cournoyer Built a Category-Leading Career on Instinct, Adversity, and Empathetic Leadership

Marketing That Moves the Needle

Lindsay Cournoyer knows exactly how to make an emerging category leader stick in your mind.

As CMO at Blue J, she’s leading the charge to position the company as the top AI-powered tax research solution - not just in name, but in the minds of buyers. “At the end of the day, my job is to make sure Blue J is at the top of the consideration set anytime an accounting firm or tax professional is evaluating research tools,” she explains.

And when people ask what Blue J actually does? “It’s like ChatGPT for tax professionals,” Lindsay says. “But instead of scraping the internet like a general LLM, we draw from a closed, comprehensive database of tax sources to give them better answers.” It’s an easy shorthand - but the work behind it is anything but simple. “People think marketing is logos and colours,” she adds. “In B2B, it’s so much more. It’s how companies hit growth goals. It’s a true revenue driver.”

From Yonge and Bloor PR to Waterloo Tech: Betting Early on What’s Next

Lindsay did not set out to work in tech. Her early career was right out of The Devil Wears Prada. Covering PR for fashion, film festivals, and brands at a boutique agency in downtown Toronto. “It was the kind of job a thousand girls would want,” she laughs. “But I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was convincing women to buy more things they didn’t really need, like expensive shoes and jeans, and I knew I wanted more than that.” Marketing, she realized, could be meaningful if paired with the right product.

That inflection point came when her now-husband Jesse suggested moving back to his hometown of Waterloo. “I said, absolutely not, I’m living at Yonge and Bloor,” she jokes. But she made herself a deal. If she could land a job at RIM, the home of BlackBerry, she would go. She did. And it was her first taste of the kind of impact technology could have. A product changing how the world communicated. “It was the hottest thing going, this is what I want to be part of.”

She caught the tail end of BlackBerry’s heyday and also sensed when its dominance was fading. That instinct led her to take another bet: on startups. She researched BlackBerry spinouts and cold-emailed founders, landing in the inbox of the CEO of JADsoftware, now Magnet Forensics. “I reached out cold, and the CEO's response was basically: when can we meet?” Over coffee at the Accelerator Centre, they connected on what she could bring. PR roots, a strong sense of storytelling, and a hunger to build. She joined as the first marketer, building the function from scratch as the company scaled into one of Waterloo’s biggest success stories, eventually selling for $2B. That experience cemented the lens she still uses to evaluate every next move. Gut instinct on product, real impact on people’s lives, and a market that needs what you are building.

Advice she would give to her younger self at that time? “The tech world is a rollercoaster,” she reflects. “Incredible highs, low lows, things can change overnight. COVID, the US banking crisis, you just have to hold on and be ready to regroup. It’s not for everyone. But I love it.”

The Diagnosis That Changed Everything

Three years ago, Lindsay’s career and life took an unexpected turn. She was diagnosed with breast cancer. “As a CMO, you start asking yourself: should I try to work through this? Should I do radiation and still show up to work?” But the answer was clear. “No. My health is more important. Looking after myself in that moment was the priority.” She stepped away for four months to focus fully on treatment and recovery.

That pause gave her space to re-evaluate. “Going through something like that forces you to think about your life and your work life. I realized I was miserable at work. Life’s too short to spend it somewhere you’re not enjoying yourself.” After returning, she tried to find the spark again. It was not there. So she did something she had always dreamed of but thought was reserved for later in life. She launched her own consulting business. “I told myself, I might not live to be 50 or 60, you just don’t know. If not now, when?” The 18 months she spent building her consulting practice reignited her love for marketing, helping founders, operators, and companies she truly believed in.

It also shaped how she leads today. “We all have our stuff. At the end of the day, our health and families come first. Work is important, but not at the expense of everything else.” As a leader, she is far more attuned to what might be happening behind the scenes for her team, offering grace, empathy, and support when people need it most. And by being open about her own experience, she has created space for her team to do the same.

When Artemis came calling with the opportunity to join Blue J, she approached it differently than any role before. “I was super selective. The people mattered, the product mattered, the environment mattered. I’d never just take a job again.” This time, it was the right fit, and is the most fulfilled she has ever felt in a marketing leadership role.

Building the Room She Once Looked For

For Lindsay, leadership is simple: hire great people, give them room to thrive, and clear roadblocks along the way. “People come to work wanting to do a good job. They want to learn, grow, and contribute. My role is to support that.” Across multiple companies, people have followed her not because she’s the loudest voice in the room, but because she empowers them to do their best work. “I’m not the star of the show - I hire great people and get out of their way.”

That approach was shaped by her own early experiences. Early in her career, Lindsay saw how culture could quietly limit people, especially women. “There were times where it became clear that starting a family could be seen as a professional setback. That’s when I realized I needed to be intentional about the environments I chose and helped create.”

Her time at Axonify working alongside Carol Leaman and Christine Tutssel showed her a different model. “They showed me you can be a mom and a kickass executive. It was the first time I saw leadership modeled in a way that didn’t ask women to choose between career and family.” That sense of belonging deeply informs how she builds teams today.

When hiring, Lindsay looks for people open to better ways of working. “I love people who come in open to new ideas. I don’t like ‘this is how we’ve always done it.’ There’s always a better way.” It’s a value she shares with Blue J. She invests in people who want to stretch, giving them meaningful, strategic work that drives their growth. “I’m genuine and kind, but I hold the team to a high bar. We’re building a best-in-class marketing organization - and that means helping people reach their full potential.”

The best feedback she’s ever received? “I do my best work on your team because you give me the freedom to do my thing.” That’s exactly the kind of culture Lindsay strives to build.

What Comes Next and Who Comes With

When asked what piece of technology she wishes existed today, Lindsay pauses but not for lack of ideas. “My husband Jesse and I are really into our health. I track my sleep with an Oura ring, work out on Peloton, meditate on another app, but it’s all fragmented. I’d love to see something that pulls it all together, one full view of my health, with real recommendations. Right now it’s all disconnected.”

Looking at where tech is moving, there is no hesitation. AI. “It’s going to change everything in marketing. How we work, how we build teams, how our tech stacks function, even two years from now it’ll look dramatically different.” At Blue J, she sees that firsthand. “We take hours of tax research and bring it down to seconds. That’s what’s exciting, the vertical applications of AI that are solving real problems people feel immediately.”

But when it comes to her personal legacy, the answer is simple. It is about the people. “The most joy I’ve found is in helping other women rise up and accomplish their goals. Early in my career, I didn’t have that. I had to figure it out as I went.” That changed when leaders like Carol Leaman and Christine Tutssel gave her the chance to step into executive leadership without penalizing her for having young kids at home. “They gave me an opportunity and I want to do the same for others.”

There is still plenty of work to do. “Even now, in boardrooms and executive meetings, I’m often the only woman at the table. There aren’t enough women in these leadership seats, and there are hardly any women on tech boards. I want to help change that.”

🔗 Connect with Lindsay on Linkedin!

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