sidekick
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Justin So Is Putting the Factory Manual Inside a Text Thread
After watching answers vanish into binders, software silos and veteran operators' heads, Justin So built Sidekick around the one interface every shift already understands: a message.
ScreenSteps
Stop slowing employees down with outdated docs and scattered knowledge. Give them trusted, step-by-step guidance exactly when and where they need it.
Gladly
The company that scrapped the support ticket built a customer service platform around a radical idea: treat the person on the other end like a person, not a case number.
Shopify
Shopify is a Canadian commerce company that provides a unified software platform for businesses to start, run, and grow retail operations across online stores, physical locations, social channels, and marketplaces. Launched in 2006 by snowboard-shop founders frustrated with existing store software, it now powers millions of merchants in more than 175 countries and handled roughly $378 billion in gross merchandise volume in 2025. Beyond the storefront builder, Shopify sells payments, capital, shipping, point-of-sale hardware, and a growing set of AI tools, positioning itself as the commerce infrastructure behind a large share of independent and enterprise brands.
Michael Martin
Michael Martin is the Co-Founder and CEO of Sidekick, a generative AI assistant purpose-built for real estate agents and brokerages. A Dartmouth-educated executive with a career spanning investment banking at Deutsche Bank and Apollo Global Management, digital agency leadership at Code and Theory, and proptech entrepreneurship, Martin co-founded Avenue 8 in 2020 as a tech-enabled mobile-first brokerage. When Sidekick's AI tooling proved more compelling than the brokerage itself, he made the bold call to shut down the brokerage entirely and go all-in on the software platform. Sidekick has raised $18M in funding, won back-to-back Webby Awards in 2024, and secured MLS partnerships covering over 120,000 real estate agents across the US.