# Justin Holmes

> Justin Holmes is the Toronto-based CMO of 7shifts, where his work spans revenue, marketing, culture, and practical AI systems for a restaurant workforce platform. His path runs through serving tables, organizing community basketball schedules, founding a basketball training business, completing an MBA at the University of Toronto, operating ecommerce at Knix, and moving through marketing, growth, and revenue leadership at 7shifts.

- **Role:** Chief Marketing Officer at 7shifts
- **Organizations:** 7shifts, Knix, The Basketball Academy, East York Basketball, University of Toronto, HSBC
- **Education:** Master of Business Administration (MBA), University of Toronto - Rotman School of Management, Bachelor of Arts (BA), University of Toronto - New College
- **Known for:** Founded The Basketball Academy at age 18., Helped Knix grow online revenue from six figures to mid-eight figures within two years, according to his public account of the period., Advanced through marketing, growth, and revenue leadership roles at 7shifts before serving as CMO.

## Career timeline

- **2008-present** — Board director and volunteer with East York Basketball, helping plan and run programs and managing its house-league website.
- **2009-2015** — Founded and directed The Basketball Academy, a Toronto basketball training business he started at age 18.
- **2014-2016** — Completed an MBA at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management.
- **2015** — Worked as an RBWM marketing intern at HSBC.
- **2016-2018** — Held operations, ecommerce, and COO responsibilities at Knix during a period of rapid online growth.
- **2018-2019** — Joined 7shifts as VP of Marketing.
- **2019-2021** — Served as VP of Growth at 7shifts.
- **2021-2025** — Led revenue at 7shifts, publicly appearing as Head of Revenue and Chief Revenue Officer.
- **2026** — Serves as CMO of 7shifts and hosts Toronto sessions on production-grade AI systems for go-to-market teams.

## Achievements

- Founded The Basketball Academy at age 18.
- Helped Knix grow online revenue from six figures to mid-eight figures within two years, according to his public account of the period.
- Advanced through marketing, growth, and revenue leadership roles at 7shifts before serving as CMO.
- Helped lead 7shifts through the restaurant shutdown period and into record monthly sales in 2021, according to his Series B announcement post.
- Has served for more than 17 years as a board director and volunteer with East York Basketball.
- Spoke at restaurant industry events on building and retaining restaurant teams and on the future of restaurant marketing.

## Latest updates

- **2026-07** — Published a 7shifts guide on connecting restaurant scheduling, tips, and payroll with Toast across franchise locations.
- **2026-04** — Co-led a Toronto 7shifts session on moving from AI experiments to scalable go-to-market systems.
- **2026-03** — Announced a Toronto GTM event pairing production-grade AI systems with a productivity framework focused on team capacity.

## Links

- Website: https://www.7shifts.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-holmes-a84b8453

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/justin-holmes
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-24