Our Story
"We can't employ people who talk like you."
Those were the words that changed everything.
I'd just graduated from university in London. Design degree in hand, portfolio polished, ready to start my career. I'd landed an interview at a prestigious design agency — the kind of place that could launch a career.
The interview went brilliantly. The creative director loved my work. He was impressed with my attitude, my ideas, my potential. I walked out thinking I'd nailed it.
Then came the call.
"Jay, I have to be honest with you. Your work is great. Your attitude is great. But we can't employ people who talk like you."
My working-class Cockney accent — the voice I'd grown up with, the voice of my family, my neighborhood, my identity — had disqualified me before I'd even started.
The Hidden Filter
That moment stuck with me. Not as a grudge, but as a question: How many talented people are filtered out because of how they sound?
As I built my career — eventually leading product teams, founding companies, advising executives — I kept seeing the same pattern:
Communication coaching exists. It's just not for everyone.
Fortune 500 CEOs pay executive coaches $500-$1,000 per hour to refine their presence, practice difficult conversations, and polish their delivery. They get feedback, repetition, and improvement.
Everyone else? We get told to "speak up more in meetings" or "work on your executive presence" — with zero guidance on how.
In school, we're taught to write. We're never taught to speak. Not really. Not in a way that prepares us for the conversations that actually determine our careers:
- The job interview
- The pitch to investors
- The difficult conversation with your manager
- The presentation to the board
- The negotiation for what you're worth
Communication is the skill that most determines professional advancement. And it's the one we leave entirely to chance.
Your Voice Is Your Last IP
Here's what I've realized after 15 years in tech:
We're entering a world where AI can write your emails, polish your documents, draft your presentations, and generate your reports. The artifacts of knowledge work are becoming commoditized.
But your voice? The way you speak, persuade, inspire, and connect?
That's the last thing that's authentically you.
Your voice is your final intellectual property. It's the one thing AI can't fake. And yet we've built zero infrastructure to help people develop it.
Why I Built ExecReps
ExecReps is the coaching I never had access to.
It's AI-powered practice for high-stakes conversations — the pitch, the negotiation, the difficult feedback session. You speak. It listens. It gives you real feedback on pace, clarity, filler words, confidence, and structure.
Your Voice Performance Score (VPS) tracks your improvement over time. Like a fitness tracker for how you communicate.
This isn't about sounding "polished" or adopting some corporate voice. It's about ensuring that talent isn't filtered out by accent, by background, by the accident of never having access to coaching.
The man who was told he couldn't be hired because of how he talked? He now runs a company that helps everyone communicate like a Fortune 500 executive.
That's not revenge. That's the point.
The Mission
Executive presence should not be a privilege.
Every professional deserves access to the same communication coaching that Fortune 500 leaders have always had. Not because everyone should sound the same — but because everyone should have the tools to be heard.
Your voice matters. Let's make sure it's heard.
— Jay Stansell
Founder, ExecReps
About Jay
Jay Stansell is a product leader and entrepreneur based in the UK. He currently runs three companies:
- ExecReps — AI-powered voice coaching for professionals
- Find Your Grind — $20M EdTech platform helping students discover career paths (President)
- Product Coalition — The largest product management publication, with 1M+ readers
He serves on the Harvard Business Review Advisory Council and has spent 15+ years building products that help people grow professionally.