Shawn G.

People Team Regional Leader, Canada

Earlier this year, Toast announced its launch in Canada. Through this growth, Toast products will now be widely available to Canadian restaurateurs, expanding our ability to empower the restaurant community. As the People Team Leader in Canada, I have the exciting privilege to grow and foster Toast’s culture in a new region. 

When I joined, I wasn't actively looking for a new role. However, my perspective very quickly changed after being approached by Toast. As soon as I started my research and learnt about the journey from the founders to today, the immense impact the products had on the restaurant community, and the raving reviews candidates and employees share about the people-centric approach Toast takes, I was excited about the prospect. Ultimately, two things sealed the deal for me. First: the people. I was just so genuinely impressed with the candidate experience and the candor, care, and passion that everyone I interviewed with demonstrated. Second: the opportunity to be part of a founding team that is so focused on empowering the restaurant community in Canada. 

Throughout the pandemic I closely followed the impacts the lengthy closures had on local restaurants. I was passionate about supporting local businesses through take out, delivery, and sitting on patios even during the Toronto winter, where allowed. 

Every time I chatted with folks working in restaurants, I was really taken aback by the professional and personal impacts the pandemic had. When I started seeing the power of Toast to support and empower, the mission was just so well aligned for me.

There are so many things I love about my work. For me the best part of my job is the people I work with, including the amazing Toasters we've hired in Canada, the intelligent and motivating leaders I support, and the strong People and Places team that I get to work with everyday. In Canada, we have employees across our People, Sales, Onboarding, Restaurant Success, Engineering, Product, and Design teams. It is exciting and informative to see how these teams come together to create an inclusive, welcoming environment for all. Although we all have different types of work and focus areas, we’re all united by Toast’s mission: to empower the restaurant community to delight their guests, do what they love, and thrive. 

Probably my favorite part of it all is building a strong foundation for Toast in Canada. Throughout my career I've had the opportunity to be a “voice for Canada,” working with great multinational organizations. However, where my Toast experience differs is in the proactiveness of it all. The team's focus on bringing in local People team talent so early in new expansions really impressed me before I joined. I joined as the second employee in Canada. I have the opportunity to be very close to the early employee experience and I’m able to make decisions that deliver a globally consistent and locally relevant experience for the team. I'm grateful for these opportunities to empower our team right from Day 1.

If you’re thinking about joining Toast, I’d encourage you to ask lots of questions and bring a passion for what we're doing. We're at such an exciting stage in our growth journey right now, but it is also still a time where we need to be agile, nimble, and ready to roll up ourselves, and get things done. The more you are passionate about what we do, the more excitement you'll feel with each milestone.