When the world moves faster than your business strategy, most leaders try to catch up. Sam Jenkins, on the other hand, prefers to run controlled experiments.
“Small experiments with radical intent. That’s how we live our lives at Punchcard,” says Jenkins, CEO of the Edmonton-based digital transformation studio, referencing advice he once received from an innovation consultant.
In a sit-down interview at Inventures 2025, Jenkins outlined how his team is navigating continuous disruption by redesigning how they work, what they build, and how they lead. From restructuring teams to embedding AI in service delivery, Punchcard’s model offers a grounded look at how Canadian firms are adapting in real time.
For Alberta’s innovation sector, it’s a case study in how local firms can scale nationally and compete globally without losing sight of people or purpose.
[Watch the interview in full in the video below]
Remote by design, connected by choice
Punchcard was founded in Edmonton nearly a decade ago, and now includes a multi-disciplinary team of employees from Victoria to Ottawa. The company designs and builds custom digital platforms for Canadian enterprises and scale-ups. But it is not a consultancy in the traditional sense. Jenkins says its impact comes from what it builds, not just what it advises.
“Our team is made up of developers, UX designers, and product managers,” he says. “Fundamentally it is about building things for Canadian enterprises and scale ups.”
This hands-on approach has helped the company grow while staying nimble. Jenkins credits its success, in part, to the decision to embrace hybrid work early, not as a temporary response to the pandemic, like so many organizations, but as a deliberate strategy to access talent across Canada.
“We’ve been able to work with talent that exists all across our country,” he says. “We’ve been able to build a wonderful culture. That has been hard work.”
Jenkins describes this culture as built on “rituals and rhythms.” While remote by design, Punchcard brings people together regularly in person, investing in practices that foster trust, connection, and shared purpose.
AI as teammate, not threat
Like many companies, Punchcard is facing a new wave of change driven by AI. But Jenkins says the firm isn’t just reacting. It’s rethinking its business model to integrate AI as both a capability and a teammate.
“Some roles are going to change,” he says. “We’re restructuring how we establish our teams. We’re restructuring how we deliver our work, so we can take advantage of this changing nature of the world around us.”
This shift extends beyond internal operations. As clients grapple with their own AI strategies, Punchcard is helping them validate new ideas quickly through what Jenkins calls “vibe sprinting”: a play on the low-code, rapid prototyping ethos, pushing out MVPs in days instead of months to test real-world applications.
These sprints “help both entrepreneurs, but also scale ups understand how to use technology in a really meaningful way, really quickly.”
These quick builds reflect a broader shift in demand. Jenkins says clients are increasingly aware of both the opportunities and risks of adopting AI. Many want to move fast but lack the internal capacity to do it responsibly.
“Organizations today are far more aware that AI is going to change the business model,” he says. “And they’re far more aware that AI is going to change the risk associated with delivering that business model.”
[Watch the interview in full in the video below]
Scaling leadership, not just software
Underpinning these shifts is a deeper focus on resilience, not just efficiency. Jenkins says that after ten years in business, he’s learning to think more about what could go wrong and how to build teams that can absorb shocks.
“We really have to be focusing on resilience,” he says. “That means spending a little bit more time thinking about what are those points of potential failure within our organizations.”
This includes investing in leadership across all levels. Punchcard has partnered with Monark, a Calgary-based startup, to create an internal training program called Punchcard Academy. It’s designed to help employees grow as leaders, not just in title, but in mindset and capability.
“Leadership isn’t an inherent skill,” says Jenkins. “It’s something that we actually have to build up, and it’s built through experience. [It is] really focused on building a stronger team based on leaders… from the bottom up.”
Retention has remained strong, which Jenkins attributes to this culture of development and trust. But he’s quick to point out that the demands on leaders are evolving. As tools take over more routine work, he believes leadership will increasingly be about integration, and the ability to connect people, platforms, and strategy.
“The job will be done by the tooling,” he says. “But people are still going to be an essential part of how the organization operates.”
Investing in what lasts
Looking ahead, Jenkins expects Punchcard’s team to grow, not just in size, but in skill. He anticipates a shift in the mix of roles, with greater emphasis on product, UX, and AI management. The company is also continuing to invest in internal platforms that generate new revenue streams.
“We have a number of internal platforms that we are building that leverage AI,” he says. “Those will form important parts of not only how we deliver, but how we earn revenue.”
Through all of this, learning remains a central pillar. For Jenkins, the ability to continuously adapt and experiment with purpose and scale with intention is what will separate lasting companies from temporary ones.
“Learning is going to have to become part of the tool set of every single employee,” he says. “Not in our business, but in every business.”
Watch the interview:
