FirstAnswer started with a simple frustration: watching great local businesses stay invisible while AI quietly became how people choose who to call.
Jay Sharma spent over a decade in sales and marketing leadership at Samsung and LG, learning how brands get found, chosen, and remembered. He later earned a Bachelor of Laws from Bond University — which sharpened how he thinks about trust, accuracy, and how businesses represent themselves online.
In 2026 he founded FirstAnswer in Victoria, BC, around one shift he couldn't ignore: people had stopped scrolling search results and started asking AI directly. ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google's AI now answer the question and name a handful of businesses. Most local owners had no idea whether they were one of them.
The other thing Jay noticed: small business owners were drowning in new AI tools they had no time to learn. So FirstAnswer was built to be the team that does. We live inside these tools, run the whole stack, and pass the efficiency on — full-service marketing at a fraction of old-agency prices.
Traditional marketing optimized for rankings and clicks. We optimize for the moment a real person asks AI who to trust in Victoria, and make sure your name is the one it says.
Most Victoria businesses haven't moved on AI search yet. The ones that do this year will be hard to dislodge later.
AI answer engines are taking real share from traditional search every quarter. The businesses optimizing now build a lead that compounds.
Most local owners haven't heard of AEO. Move first and you own the AI answer in your category before competitors wake up.
AI search, Google, content, scheduling, lead gen — handled together by people who keep up with the tools so you never have to.
A free AI-visibility audit shows exactly how Victoria's AI engines see your business right now.
— FirstAnswer · Victoria, BC