Our Story
Symtrain is an advanced AI-based training and coaching platform unlike anything else. We ran an outbound sales contact center and struggled to develop talent. We were losing almost 50% of our new hires in their first six months. We tried revamping training countless times, hiring more experienced talent, and adding our top 10% performers as mentors and coaches. None of these moved the needle. We realized people learn by doing, and our new hires were getting stuck trying to apply what they had learned in training. So, we built a simulator to practice real-world role-plays. It worked so well that symtraining became our coaching standard for all employees, and new hire retention grew to over 90%! Thus, our passion was born to launch symtrain.
Symtrain is an advanced AI-based training platform that is unlike any other. It simulates real-world coaching scenarios to prepare front-line agents for interactions with customers. However, it is much more than a simulation; it’s an immersive CX training experience.
- Combine conversational role-plays with software navigation for deeper learning.
- Manual efforts are less effective with a new and remote workforce. With our AI, Coach Sym, we bridge the learning gap.
- Symtrain delivers more effective performance-based virtual training at scale.
LEADERSHIP TEAM
Dan McCann
Founder and CEO
Dan is an experienced and dynamic leader. His passion for lifetime learning, growth, and innovation has led him to build symtrain, an SaaS platform which automates the process of role-play and coaching. Symtraining allows employees to apply knowledge, build confidence, and develop skills quickly.
Jim Madden
Chief Operations Officer
Jim Madden is a seasoned leader in the Contact Center industry and has led several successful tech-leading companies. In his new role, Jim will oversee all aspects of symtrain's go-to-market including revenue growth, marketing, client success, channels, professional services, and solutions consulting for the firm.
Scott Drake
CTO
Scott is a Technology, Digital Media, and Operations Leader with 20+ years creating and managing world-class technology, product, and business solutions across Broadcast, Mobile, and Emerging Platforms. Scott now resides in New York, NY with his wife and enjoys visits from his three adult children.
Liz Powell
VP of Customer Operations
Liz has spent her career working with customers in various ways, from sales, product, account management, implementation, and technical needs. She is an enthusiastic and high-energy problem-solver. Personally, she loves concerts, traveling, trying new restaurants, watching sports with friends, walking her dog, sweater weather, and a good TV show to binge.
Coach Sym
AI Empathy Coach
Coach Sym is a vital part of symtrain’s leadership team. Powered by AI, Coach Sym provides incredible insights into each agent’s performance, at scale. Learners receive immediate feedback to prompt self-improvement. Leaders benefit from progress reporting at individual, team, or enterprise levels.
Alicia Laszewski
Head of Marketing
Alicia and her team serve as the outsource marketing officers for symtrain and other companies looking to grow and scale. Prior to founding Brand Ethos, Alicia was the Global Chief Marketing Officer for Singapore-based C3 / CustomerContactChannels and a founding member of Extended Stay America hotels.
Kali Sarim
Strategic Accounts Director
Kali studied business marketing at Grand Canyon University and started her young career as a BDR for a Global BPO. Prior to joining symtrain, she worked with Observe AI, a software company based in San Francisco providing insights and analytics. Kali loves learning about emerging technologies.
Rusty Coleman
CRO
Rusty has been working in the tech sector successfully developing and selling software solutions for over 40 years. As an executive in the contact center software industry, his responsibilities included building and managing sales organizations while driving and executing revenue growth strategies.
Melanie Flores
Director of Solutions Consulting
Melanie Flores blends an engineer's mind with a teacher's heart and a gardener's hands. Her career path has been anything but linear, and every zigzag has blessed her with the chance to build something fun and new from scratch. She lives with her husband and two sons in Alpharetta, GA.
Sales
Rafael Manzon
Developer
Rafael Manzon has made a career from his passion to create ideal customer experiences. He has spent decades working for some of the world’s top brands and governments, which has allowed him to benefit from both firsthand experiences as well as industry best practices. He currently resides in Indianapolis, IN.
Shirley Dunkley
Business Development Manager
Shirley is a business development professional with over 20 years of experience. She is a lifelong learner, committed to helping teams stay resilient. She does this by identifying productivity improvement opportunities and finding innovative ways of getting things done. Shirley currently leads the business development function for symtrain, and is passionate about helping organizations scale and succeed long-term with technology and artificial intelligence.
CUSTOMER SUCCESS
Jamie Leckband
Customer Success Manager
Jamie is a passionate and energetic training and development coach. She has 25+ years of experience working with sales and sales development teams, ensuring their success. Since she has been on both sides of the symtrain tracks as a creator and trainer for many years, it has proven to be a total game changer for her and her clients. Her passion is people, customer service, and success. However, she also enjoys learning about organizations to help them succeed.
Suzanne Melan
Professional Services
Suzanne is an instructional design professional with 27 years of experience. After spending over two decades in performance and process improvement for one of the largest department store chains and financial institutions in the United States, she continues her passion for helping people learn and grow in their professional careers. She currently resides in Dunwoody, GA with her husband and her two daughters.
Solutions Consulting
Steve Youngblood
Product Manager
Steve has spent over 30 years in the start-up software world, with a focus on product management and bringing numerous offerings to markets across multiple industries. Steve and his wife live in Alpharetta, GA, close to their grown children.
SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
Fabio Zapata
Developer
Fabio is a software engineer from Barranquilla, Colombia with 3 years of experience working in the tech industry and using cutting-edge technologies. He is always curious to learn new things. He enjoys swimming, traveling, learning new languages, and experiencing new cultures in his free time.
Gerardo Arteaga
Developer
Gerardo is a full-stack software engineer with over 5 years of experience. His passion is working with React and JavaScript-based technologies. He is strongly committed to making human life easier and better through technology.
Guilherme De Souza
Developer
Guilherme has been working with software development for more than 7 years. During his journey, he has collected experience both on the technical and business sides of things. He is currently symtrain’s development team tech lead. Guilherme now lives in Brazil’s countryside, loves hiking, visiting his parents, and loves to do what all good developers do: drink coffee!
Rafael Herrera
QA lead
Rafael has vast experience in the QA processes and client support services. He has a strong passion for continuous learning and finding new ways to improve our QA/Delivery process. He always focuses on the quality of the service that we deliver. He is currently located in Medellín, Colombia, and enjoys physical activities.
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Luis Guerra
QA Engineer
Luis is experienced in manual and automation testing. He currently lives in Colombia with his family. He enjoys video games, training, and learning new things that help him improve his skills.
Ellie Jaques
Product Manager, UX/UI
Ellie is a product leader who specializes in driving vision and roadmaps for businesses. She is the lead product manager of symtrain and now lives in Atlanta, GA with her husband.
JC Mariños
Developer
Jean is a full-stack developer with over 6 years of experience developing web applications. React is his favorite UI library and he is passionate about all JavaScript technologies. He loves learning something new every day, and his hobbies include going to the gym, reading, swimming, and playing guitar.
Mission and Values
Our mission is to optimize employee performance through automated role-play, AI-coaching, and digital assessment exercises. With a vision to create a digital coach for everyone, we follow a path led by our Core Values:
- Always put the customer first.
- Deliver and build trust and respect.
- Strive for continuous learning and improvement.
- Have fun and enjoy what we do.
Insights
Training Empathy through AI Coaching
Symtrain sets itself apart from the competition by implementing AI at a level that has never been seen…
The Benefits of an Immersive CX Training
Immersive learning is a technique that teachers have utilized for many years to help students gain a better…
Performance-Based Work Requires Automation
The workforce is in transition and so are our training methods. Before Covid-19, most training took place in…
5 Ways Symtraining Aligns with the Kirkpatrick Model
Although it was first developed in the 1950s, Donald Kirkpatrick’s Model to evaluate the effectiveness of training and…
Symtrain CEO Insights Ep. 2 Intelligent Coaching
Imagine a world where your best agent’s customer interactions are converted into a library of role-plays that can…
How AI Coaching Programs Will Change the Contact Center Environment
Every year, we achieve new innovations and advance technology far beyond what previous generations could have imagined. While…
“The applications that most interest me in the workforce digitization space are those that enable guided learning, immersive situations, and employee engagement strategies.”
