Meet Mike: Enterprise Sales Executive
This is part of a monthly series in which we get to know Sifties.
Mike Singh is an Enterprise Sales Executive who has been with Sift Science for one month. If he could eat just one food for the rest of his life – well, he couldn’t, because he loves food too much to pick just one!
What’s one thing you couldn’t live without?
My phone. It’s the most important piece of technology for me to stay up-to-date and in touch with my family and friends. As much as I believe that people should put down their phones once in a while, it’s the number one go-to device for a professional.
It’s the first thing I check in the morning before I even get out of bed, and it helps me plan what my train ride is going to look like, what I need to catch up on before I get in the office. Basically, it helps me plan my day before it even starts.
What did you want to be when you were a kid?
Raised in an Indian family, there are only two career paths your parents dream of you taking: doctor or engineer. I never enjoyed biology, so becoming a doctor was out of the question. Engineering was always interesting to me and I do enjoy the problem solving aspect of it, especially in the sales process. A good sales professional is always thinking creatively to find solutions for any given business challenges – even if they don’t exist. This feedback drives product innovation, so I consider myself the Product & Engineering team’s best friend.
You’re no stranger to the fraud industry. Tell us how you’ve seen fraud and fraud solutions change with time.
Commerce has evolved in the past decade, so that shopping online is the preference rather than an alternative – and consumers’ expectations are high. This shift has made fraud management a top priority for merchants, and using the right strategy can be a competitive advantage.
As fraud has evolved to become “cleaner” – with fraudsters gaining access to full names, credit card numbers, and even the CVV – transactions appear more legitimate and less suspicious. That makes it harder to catch.
If we look at fraud today through the same lens as we did 10 years ago, catching it will come at a cost of manual review and high false positives. The effective fraud management strategy today is a balanced approach that leverages ML/AI to learn about the customer’s behavior through the transaction lifecycle and to collect and analyze data at each point of that interaction. This is the scalable way to grow, and I see ML/AI becoming the next transformative wave in helping to fight fraud and build trust online.
What sets Sift Science apart from other companies and made you want to join the team?
When I met with our CEO Jason Tan during the interview process, I asked him what his vision for Sift Science was. The answer really stuck with me. He said that he wants Sift to be the platform of trust for anything that happens online. I think that’s a very powerful statement, and I agree with his vision.
As fraud evolves, the solutions to mitigate fraud also have to evolve. Sift has built a scalable and sophisticated ML platform that gives our customers a competitive edge. Our vision to democratize machine learning and be the next revolution in fighting fraud online is the reason I’m here.
I heard that your goal was to build an entire pantry during your time off before Sift Science. Do you moonlight as a carpenter extraordinaire?
Haha – no! Building the pantry was an audacious goal, but I haven’t gotten around to it. My wife actually won’t let me near any power tools after I broke my index finger a few years ago. So I’ve asked a friend who knows how to operate power tools to build all the shelves. I’m good at hammering things into the walls, so once he’s finished I’ll do my best job of hanging them up straight!
