What We Do
Strategic Targeting + Market Insight
Every engagement starts with understanding your business, your goals, and the market you want to reach. We identify the right audiences, uncover high-value opportunities, and develop a research-driven strategy that gives every conversation purpose.
Prospecting + Pipeline Development
We build relationships before we build pipelines. Through thoughtful, personalized outreach, we connect you with the right people and create opportunities grounded in relevance, trust, and mutual fit.
Opportunity Assessment + Qualification
Not every conversation should become a meeting. We carefully assess each opportunity for business need, strategic alignment, decision-making authority, and readiness to ensure your time is invested where it matters most.
Process Improvement + Optimization
We continuously listen, learn, and refine. Insights from every conversation help us adjust targeting, messaging, and approach so your strategy stays aligned, effective, and responsive to the market.
How We Do It
Meaningful First Impression
Every interaction is intentional. We capture attention by leading with relevance, not generic sales pitches.
Authentic Messaging
We develop messaging that reflects your value, speaks to buyer priorities, and creates a reason for decision makers to engage.
Built Trust
Relationships are earned through curiosity, authenticity, and genuine conversations that put people first.
Unlock Opportunity
By understanding business need, assessing fit, and identifying mutual value, we create opportunities that are worth pursuing.
About
Kailey 'KJ' Johnstone
president & ceo
For more than 20 years, KJ has built her career around one thing: creating meaningful business opportunities through a thoughtful, relationship-driven approach to business development.
Known for her relentless work ethic, disciplined approach, and genuine curiosity, KJ has earned a reputation for opening doors where others struggle. She combines strategic thinking with authentic conversation, representing her clients with professionalism, credibility, and a deep commitment to their success. Every engagement is personally led by KJ, ensuring clients benefit from experienced judgment, consistency, and a partner who becomes a true extension of their team.
Throughout her career, KJ has helped startups, growth-stage companies, and established organizations enter new markets, strengthen strategic relationships, and accelerate business growth. Her experience spans healthcare, life sciences, SaaS, AI and machine learning, engineering, technology, manufacturing, executive education, professional services, consumer products, and economic development.
She has led market entry initiatives, supported international trade missions, represented emerging technologies to complex stakeholder groups, and helped organizations connect with decision-makers across North America. Her client portfolio includes organizations such as Innovation PEI, Ivey Business School, Deep 6 AI, Triax Technologies, Praemo, and Cumulus Digital Systems.
Above all, KJ believes successful business development isn't about scripts or volume. It's about listening well, asking thoughtful questions, understanding what matters to people, and creating conversations that lead to lasting business relationships and measurable results.
Why Us
We combine experience, strategy, and humanity to build relationships that lead to high-value business opportunities.
20+ years
Two decades of hands-on business development experience have shaped instincts that are hard to teach: the ability to navigate complex conversations, detect nuance, recognize real intent, and understand when a conversation has true potential.
Proven Results Across Industries
The industries may change, but the principles do not. From healthcare and technology to engineering, manufacturing, consumer products, government, and professional services, we adapt quickly to new markets and audiences.
Trusted Brand Representation
We invest deeply in understanding your business so we can represent it with the same clarity, credibility, and care you would expect internally. We then translate that understanding into compelling and relevant communications that reflect the reality of decision makers.
Senior-Led, No Handoffs
When you engage KJ+Co., you work directly with KJ. There are no internal layers or junior handoffs. Every conversation, decision, and relationship is personally led and managed.
Value over Volume
We don’t measure success by the number of meetings booked. Every opportunity is assessed for real fit, business need, openness to change, and decision-making ability. Sometimes the right outcome is not moving forward.
Flexible Engagements
Whether it’s a focused short-term initiative or a longer-term partnership, we align goals and budget to ensure the engagement is practical, effective, and mutually beneficial.
Clients
Case Studies
Real-world impact. Delivered through strategic discipline and deep industry expertise.
Healthcare AI Startup Market Entry
A California based healthcare AI company was preparing to enter the Canadian market with a clinical trial patient recruitment platform. The goal was to build relationships with senior decision makers across major hospitals and health systems in Canada.
Results: Within 12 months, we secured meetings with senior leadership across all major Canadian hospitals and health systems, establishing early market access and credibility in a highly regulated space.
Public Sector Multi-Sector Trade Mission
Led an interprovincial trade mission for a provincial government to support Canadian companies seeking to expand their presence and increase exports across domestic markets, while advancing broader economic development objectives for the province.
Results: Delivered 94 new business meetings in seven weeks, generating approximately $2M in new revenue for the province through direct introductions and engagements.
Industrial AI/ML Pipeline Development
A venture backed Ontario based AI/ML startup was developing a predictive analytics engine for industrial applications across automotive, manufacturing, and mining. The goal was to build awareness and generate interest among some of the most complex and advanced industrial organizations in Canada and the United States.
Results: Over an 18 month period, we successfully broke into several major manufacturers across Canada and the US, and secured multiple pilot projects with enterprise level industrial organizations.
Public Sector Investment Attraction
Supported a provincial economic development agency in an investment attraction initiative designed to bring new expansion opportunities into the province. The program targeted high-growth technology companies exploring nearshore and expansion strategies within Canada, with a focus on generating qualified interest in local market entry.
Results: Delivered 12 new business meetings with companies actively exploring nearshore expansion in Canada, resulting in 40 new jobs created within the province.
Testimonials
Trusted by industry leaders. Proven through the voices of the clients we've had the privilege to represent.
I've had the opportunity to work with KJ for several years. She has the rare ability to quickly understand complex concepts (AI in Manufacturing, for example), and then convert them into compelling communication that gets people's attention and elicits a response. That's a critically important skill in a very noisy social selling market. She is effective at dealing with ambiguity, functioning across teams spanning technical and sales resources, but most of all at focusing on the objective and delivering value. Excellent person to have on a high functioning team.
Paul Boris, CRO
Praemo
I had the privilege of working with KJ on a lead generation project. I loved working with her. She operates with a ton of integrity and authenticity and is fun to work with which makes the process so much more enjoyable. Our project was challenging but she truly rose to the occasion through investigation, data analysis and then pivoting to achieve the outcomes (KPIs) laid out in our contract. Her strategic thinking, persistence, and commitment to results were instrumental to the project's success. I would definitely work with KJ again!
Vanessa Pierson, Investment Attraction Executive
Invest Nova Scotia
KJ is the dictionary definition of disciplined. She is organized, methodical and accountable. That discipline leads to client results - I know, since I am both a client and a partner of hers with clients, who all rave and repeat - and more importantly it leads to track record of delivery which builds trust. I have worked with Kailey for 20+ years now. She has always delivered, and she is always kind and thoughtful and challenging in a respectful way and creative and the kind of business person you want in your corner.
Mark Healy, President
MHC Group
I have worked with KJ for a number of years and I find her to be very professional, resilient, and "one-of-a-kind". She has a secret-sauce that allows her to get strategic high-level meetings with prospects. I trust her to engage prospects and am very comfortable knowing that she represents me and the company with utmost professionalism. She is highly-valued and highly productive. I have no hesitation in endorsing her skills and services to any company. She is a ROCK STAR!
Raj Sharma, Clinical Sales Director
Deep6 AI
I started working with KJ in 2012. We were looking for someone tenacious, yet fiercely intelligent, who could think and react quickly when pitching C level and V level executives. KJ fit the bill perfectly and has been incredibly successful in achieving the targets I set before her over the course of the year. We have had more sales leads in 2013 than in the past 5 years combined. KJ is the real deal!!!
Michael Lavigne, SVP
Accreon
I worked closely with Kailey for approximately 18 months. During our first discussion I was so impressed by her professionalism, quick wit, and ability to ask great questions. I had many conversations with her on the phone in preparation for our work together and I genuinely relied on her insight and suggestions on how to structure my sales process. She really knows lead generation and understands what works and what doesn't. The best part was when I would go in to meet a new prospect, they would spend the first few minutes of the meeting raving about their interaction with her. This really sets a great tone when you are in the process of developing new business relationships. I highly recommend her to anyone looking to build their business.
Christine Laperriere, President
Leader in Motion
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