Jay Shaffer: Leaving A Leadership Legacy

by Jeff Bond

I'm the Co-Founder of Chat With Leaders Media and People First Elevation Team, where my team and I help values-driven businesses create content that strengthens relationships, fuels engagement, and drives high-performing cultures. We partner with communications, marketing, and people teams to produce thought-leadership podcasts, executive messaging, and event content. My team and I also work with leaders to transform company meetings into culture-defining moments—ensuring they align teams, elevate key voices, and inspire action. As a board member of Conscious Capitalism Atlanta, I advocate for business as a force for good. Outside of work, I’m passionate about faith, family, and using influence to create lasting impact.

Chat Guest

Jay Shaffer is an enterprising Tech Executive, Angel Investor, and Mentor combining product management and lean startup operating experience.

Jay served as Implementation Manager at HelloPackage in 2017-18, a top 10 innovative company in Georgia. He helped implement the startup’s initial Build Out, Onboarding, and Support. Prior to that, Jay helped Health Connect South launch its first annual flagship gathering of 500+ healthcare leaders in metro Atlanta. Jay’s career also includes product management, working on NCR Silver PRO Retail Office.

Jay was a co-Founder of VoiceQuilt (“music boxes that play memories”) which created a platform to create unique, personalized keepsake gifts. As COO, he provided strategic direction for the development of new products and the sale of all VoiceQuilt products, achieving over $1 million in revenue. Jay was responsible for pricing all VoiceQuilt products and services.

Prior to founding VoiceQuilt, Jay worked for over 14 years at Sun Microsystems. He started his career at Sun in the Revenue Management group forecasting sales mix for over $1.2B of Sun’s hardware products. Jay helped launch Sun’s Professional Services Group and oversaw multiple long-term engagements combining Sun’s hardware, software, support, and consulting services.

Jay earned his MBA at the University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill and a BS Chemistry, cum laude, at Washington and Lee University.

Jay volunteers for MIT Enterprise Forum of Atlanta and serves on Boards of Atlanta Technology Angels and Georgia Tech Business Network.

Chat Highlights

When looking back on the coronavirus crises many years from now, what is the story you want your grandchildren to hear about how you responded? What’s Jay’s vision for that future?
Jay chat’s about intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation and modeling the behavior you expect from your team as a leader. How Jay is putting his beliefs into practice with his leadership style.
- Quote shared from Winston Churchill, “I’m an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.”
Jay shares insights into the technology investment community right now for entrepreneurs. What kind of challenges is Jay seeing for startups pitching investors in the current situation of an uncertain economy? What advice would you have for them to continue to pursue their business idea and forge ahead?
Change management is a key skill for leaders as change is the only constant. What does returning to normalcy when we re-open the economy look like Jay? What changes does he foresee being more permanent for the better?
- Jay shares some interesting ideas around the growth of a gig economy and the portability of healthcare coverage
Jay is a student of leadership and a life-long learner. He shares the names and resources of leadership thought leaders who are inspiring him today.
- For those in the startup community
  - Jason Calacanis and This Week in Startups
  - Brad Feld of Foundry Group and Techstars
- For Leaders:
  - Simon Sinek’s books “Start with Why” and “Leaders Eat Last“.