As of March 2024 we have renamed Apexchat to Blazeo. We are excited to share the next part of our journey with our customers and partners.

Why the name change?

The name ApexChat implies that we are primarily a chat company, which is no longer true. Now we have many offerings, such as call center services, AI, Appointment setting, SMS Enablement, Market Automation, and Sales acceleration (Q2 2024), that go beyond chat. The new name will not only allow us to convey the breadth of our offering but will also better convey our company’s mission and values.

Why Blazeo?

Blazeo, which is derived from the word Blaze, evokes a sense of passion, speed, and energy. A “Blaze” is captivating, illuminates, and represents explosive growth. Blazeo encapsulates our mission to ignite such growth for our customers and partners by delivering innovation with passion, speed, and energy.

ApexChat is now Blazeo! Learn more

Helping local businesses thrive

We empower our clients by converting valuable website visitors into loyal customers, combining advanced ad conversion tools with 24/7 support.

Trusted by

35,000+
business and counting

From an idea to 15+ million leads

Blazeo, formerly ApexChat, was founded in 2008 with the idea of bringing live chat to the new and upcoming smartphones. Ashhad Syed built the first version of the product but soon realized that businesses weren’t quite ready to use smartphones for live chat.

However, in the process, he discovered a largely unserved market of online advertisers who would benefit from live chat for ad conversion and lead capture. Soon thereafter Ashhad partnered with Jim Bert to lead business development and with key technology resources to build a platform that could scale.

In the first few years, the company’s focus was to continue to build the tech platform and service the key initial customers. Initial growth was primarily by word of mouth but by 2013, ApexChat hired its first salesperson, David Scheppler, and continued to branch out from the original chat product.

Today, as an ad conversion platform, Blazeo offers several other ad conversion tools and services and has expanded to 400+ employees spread out over 4 offices.

Blazeo’s mission continues to be to make advertisers and digital agencies more profitable and efficient, and we are excited to bring cutting-edge solutions to serve this mission.

Our Team

Ashhad Syed

Chief Executive Officer

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Ashhad Syed

Chief Executive Officer

Ashhad has over two decades of experience as an entrepreneur and has always been interested in how businesses acquire customers and how technology can make the process more efficient. Ashhad bootstrapped Blazeo, formerly known as ApexChat, in 2009, and since then has led the company to serve over 35,000 businesses. Prior to starting Blazeo, Ashhad started two additional startups in the internet lead generation and lead management space. Prior to starting these companies, Ashhad was a principal at a professional services company focused on CRM integration.

Ashhad is a recent transplant to NYC and is always looking for restaurant recommendations to try from NYC’s massive, diverse culinary scene.

Ashhad holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Cory Halbardier

Chief Operating Officer

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Cory Halbardier

Chief Operating Officer

Cory is the Chief Operating Officer of Blazeo, leading sales, marketing, customer success, accounting, and HR. He began his career as a structural engineer at Northrop Grumman and later moved into sales, where he worked for several well-known national and international companies, including Flex, SunEdison, Soligent, and Dale Carnegie Training. Before joining Blazeo, he served as the CEO of Spacial, a private equity-backed housing-tech company, and Head of ADU Sales at Veev, a Series-D VC-backed construction technology company.

He holds an MBA in Finance from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in Engineering from University of California Irvine.

On a personal note, he enjoys camping with his wife and 4 kids, playing guitar in his church’s worship band, mentoring men, and brewing beer. Fun fact: He has brewed over 550 gallons of beer out of his garage. (Mmmmm.)

Aarij Khan

Chief Product and Marketing Officer

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Aarij Khan

Chief Product and Marketing Officer

Aarij is the Chief Product and Chief Marketing Officer at Blazeo and heads the Product Management, Engineering, UI Design, and all Marketing functions. Following a few initial years in software engineering, he moved on to SaaS product and go-to-market (GTM) areas. Aarij has held executive roles at several VC funded SaaS startups and has been instrumental in their successful exits, helping them through their high growth stages. Prior to Blazeo, Aarij was CMO at Bromium, Securonix, and RiskIQ, and has served at Tenable Network Security and ArcSight. Over the years Aarij has also advised SaaS CEOs on GTM strategy.

Aarij holds an MBA and a BS in Computer Engineering from Cornell University, as well as a M.Sc. in Economics from the Catholic University at Leuven, Belgium.

Christin MacLeod

Director of Sales

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Christin MacLeod

Director of Sales

Christin MacLeod started her journey in sales with Blazeo in 2016 in our Pleasanton, CA office, focusing on assisting clients in the Legal and Education space.

In 2017, Christin helped open our second office in Jacksonville, FL and assisted with hiring, training, and developing an additional sales team. Christin currently manages our direct and partnership sales team, which spans the globe. Prior to that, Christin worked in sales in the Life Sciences Industry and had a long career in retail management with Nordstrom in both Northern and Southern California.

Christin is an avid music lover, enjoys cooking, trying new restaurants, Pickleball, and enjoying outdoor life in Florida.

RaeAnn Daly

Senior Director of Customer Success

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RaeAnn Daly

Senior Director of Customer Success

RaeAnn is the Senior Director of Customer Success at Blazeo and leads our Service, Success, and Call Center teams. She is a trusted advisor and expert in intake, conversion, customer retention, maximizing ROI, and business development.

RaeAnn created and launched our industry-leading Contract Signing via Chat service in 2021 and our one of a kind, full-service, inbound and outbound conversion center, ApexVoice, in 2022.

Before joining us, she worked at a predominant Plaintiff’s Personal Injury firm where her ultimate job was to grow the business and maximize revenue. As such, she focused on building partnerships, client retention, business development, improved operations, data tracking, intake qualification, and conversion.

Outside of work, she can be found cheering on her son at his sporting events (she’s very enthusiastic!), playing pickleball, baking “dream cakes,” traveling, and going to as many concerts as possible!

Ashhad Iqbal

Director of Engineering

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Ashhad Iqbal

Director of Engineering

Ashhad Iqbal, a.k.a AI, is the Director of Engineering at Blazeo. AI’s journey has been filled with growth since joining the company in 2015 as a Junior Support Developer.

From mastering the intricacies of the Blazeo codebase to effortlessly resolving complex system and customer-related issues, AI made his way to become an important asset to the organization. His problem-solving abilities and dedication paved the way for his ascent to Director of Engineering.

He earned his Bachelor’s degree from NED University of Engineering & Technology and later moved to Canada to pursue his master’s from Queen’s University.

Outside of work, AI loves long drives and is known for crafting exceptional pizza dough for family events and showcasing expertise in preparing BBQs, steaks, and beef burgers.

Join us

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We’re looking for driven, collaborative individuals to join our growing team.

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