Sergio Suarez, Jr. is the founder and CEO of TackleAI, developer of an artificial intelligence platform that allows companies to extract, sort, and process their unstructured data and documents. Suarez founded TackleAI in 2017. The company uses a blend of different AI strategies, including proprietary neural networks, deep learning, computer vision, and natural language processing, to help businesses reduce the time and money they dedicate to document management procedures. TackleAI’s tech can sift through images, reports, PowerPoint files, emails, and any other unstructured document format. “TackleAI’s mission is to attempt the absurd, solve the impossible,” Suarez told Lifewire. “Nearly 80% of the world’s documents contain unstructured data, which is difficult, expensive, and time-consuming to process. We’re able to discover and extract important data points from documents and other images, without ever having seen them before.”
Building
Suarez’s expertise is in artificial intelligence and mathematics. He grew up with parents who are both entrepreneurs, so he was around the family businesses most of the time. Suarez’s parents are from Mexico, and after watching them create a life in the US, he said he never thought about doing anything other than running his own business someday. “I’ve always wanted to build things and create disruptive technology,” Suarez said. “I have a passion for wanting to solve problems in the most intuitive and intelligent way possible.” Since its inception, TackleAI’s team has grown to 26 employees, 21 of which are on the tech team alone. Above organizing documents and big data sets, Suarez said he wants to help businesses better understand their information. The company is looking to hire more developers and sales professionals. “I have the best development team in the industry,” Suarez said. “Everyone is incredibly creative and has the same passion as I do for solving difficult problems in a creative and ingenious way.” TackleAI has raised $4.6 million in venture capital, Crunchbase reports. Suarez said the company is financed through revenue, but anything specifically for expansion comes from venture capital. TackleAI’s latest $3 million in raised funding included participation from clients, investors from previous rounds, and venture capital firms.
Striving for More
Suarez said there had been times where he’s gone to meetings, and people seemed surprised to learn he’s the founder of TackleAI. He said he’s sometimes asked his position or what he does in the business while his team members are assumed to be the CEO or a high-ranking employee. This, unfortunately, comes with the stigma that there aren’t enough diverse founders in tech. On the other hand, Suarez takes pride in being a BIPOC and sees it as an advantage. “I think being a [BIPOC] helps my relatability with my team and investors,” Suarez shared. “They see that I am hardworking, and it’s something I pride myself on, with learning hard work from my family and community.” Suarez relies heavily on other founders to talk through the difficulties and struggles that most startups face. He said having family, partners, or spouses who are supportive and talk very openly is very helpful. “When you lead a company, there’s a certain image you want to portray of decisiveness and being in control, but when you’re alone with a problem and the weight of a whole company is on you, it could feel lonely, so it’s great to have people give an outside perspective and help out,” he said. Raising venture capital and growing revenue by 500% for three years in a row are two of Suarez’s most rewarding moments growing TackleAI. Aside from hiring, the company is gearing up to release a new project in the coming weeks. “It’s going to take our company to the next level, not only in revenue growth but also in technological advancements,” Suarez said. Correction 02/23/2022: Update subject’s name to Sergio Suarez, Jr. in headline, paragraphs 1 & 2, and the Quick Facts data.
