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Hesam Mahdavi

We provide Total IT solutions to the retirement home and long-term care industry. We believe that customer service and innovation should be at the heart of our services, and we have been providing this for more than 25 years.

Tell us about yourself?

My parents moved to Canada from Iran when I was 14 years old. From that age, I had to start working, but because of my lack of English skills, no one wanted to hire me. So, I decided to start tutoring kids to make money that way. Because I was very good in Math and sciences, I started getting very popular. Soon, I was making good money. In grade 12, I started my own business and hired tutors to work for me, training them to be good tutors. By my first year of university, I had over 300 students and 80 tutors working for me. In 2006, when I graduated, I joined Zodiac and started a security and access control company. My first customer was my dad’s neighbour, who just built a retirement home. I noticed that there was so much disconnect between trades, and no one cared about the other trade. That is when I decided to build a company that would provide all its core IT needs under one umbrella. In 2008, I sold my first complete solution to Royal Garden, which is still my customer to this day. Since then, I have been adding more and more products and services to our portfolio to provide a better and more comprehensive solution to my customers.

If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?

Hire the right people. Do not worry about people leaving the company because they do not match the culture.

What problem does your business solve?

Zodiac Light Waves

Customer service is very important in our business, and it is almost nonexistent. Also, there are many different moving parts working but not working together. We provide A-plus customer service with a total solution to assist them in their entire IT Life Safety Solution ecosystem.

What is the inspiration behind your business?

Our business is a family business. My father, the founder, has set the culture of the company on the three Hs. Hard Work, Humble, and Honest. Everyone provides some sort of IT these days. What we provide is an IT solution that solves real issues in Retirement and Long Term Care.

What is your magic sauce?

Customer service, honesty, and innovation. We treat our customers like family. They always tell us they feel different dealing with us than the competition because we treat their money like ours. We educate our customers so they can make the right decisions. If they don’t need to spend money, we tell them. We are innovative, and we are constantly coming up with new technologies and services to complement what clients need and what they have.

What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?

Expansion across Canada and U.S.A. We would like to be more involved with the Architects, GCs, and low-voltage consultants.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?

The biggest challenge is dealing with dishonest people and unfair competition. We have not changed course, and we are just smarter now.

How can people get involved?

We are actively trying to educate our customer base. We would like to get in touch with Architects and GCs to show them the difference we can make for their customers. If there are Low-Voltage consultants, we would love to speak to them and show them how we can change their customers’ lives.