Riaz Sidi – Business Award 2025

President, Sidi.io
Journalism – Print and Broadcasting, 2006

When Riaz Sidi finished high school in 2003, he left Ottawa—where he had grown up—and took a gap year in England. He wondered whether a post-secondary education was a good fit for him. As an extroverted young man with a lot of energy, he didn’t know if he would succeed in an academic environment. He weighed his options and decided to take a chance on Algonquin College’s Journalism program.

Despite his fears, Sidi thrived in college. “I immediately felt like I belonged at Algonquin College,” he said. “It was very hands-on. I participated in interesting debates. I covered events on campus. And I loved the camaraderie with my teachers and classmates.” Empowered by his Algonquin College diploma, Sidi went on to get a Mass Communication degree at Carleton University.

During his student years, Sidi worked in call centres to support himself and discovered he had an innate aptitude for outbound sales. This was a foundational insight for him. When he moved to Toronto and realized that a career in journalism would not fulfill him, he went back to sales.

Between 2009 and 2011, Sidi did very well selling online ad space and maintaining his professional blog. These successes earned him an offer to work as a digital media specialist at the Ottawa Citizen. “It was challenging at first to promote digital marketing solutions to clients who were accustomed to print advertising—especially while representing a traditional newspaper brand.” he said. “But after I got a few wins, I found my stride and performed well until I became a sales manager in 2013. Two years later, I was promoted to national training manager for Postmedia, the Citizen’s parent company.”

Meanwhile, Sidi discovered an advertisement niche that by the 2010s had become ripe with possibilities: social media campaigns. In 2016, he set up a simple Facebook campaign and landing page for a company and managed to skyrocket their lead generation. He turned this success into a side venture and started running social media campaigns for a growing portfolio of clients. Sidi.io had been born.

By early 2017, Sidi.io had grown so much Sidi had to leave his day job at Postmedia. “It was nerve-racking,” he said. “I was recently married, we had just bought a house, my wife was expecting our first child, and now I was running my own business full-time. I set up dozens of coffee dates and applied the skills I’d picked up at Algonquin College and throughout my career. Thankfully, within months Sidi.io was generating more revenue than my previous main job and side gig combined.”

With Sidi.io on a steady growth trajectory, Sidi knew it was time to start building a team to support the momentum. By early 2020, they were a team of four. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Initially, Sidi.io experienced a dramatic drop in revenue, but rather than scaling down his company’s activities, Sidi chose to march forward with his full team.

This proved to be a wise decision for an online marketing company. Lockdown restrictions forced companies to conduct their business online more than ever before, and Sidi.io had the know-how and resources to offer them effective digital campaigns. Over the course of a single summer, Sidi.io managed to triple its revenue.

As his business took off, Sidi was faced with a series of personal tragedies. In the span of less than a year, he lost a brother-in-law, a grandmother, and his father. He turned to exercise and a good diet to find the emotional and mental strength to process the grief and support his young family.

In 2022, Sidi.io was named one of Ottawa’s fastest growing companies—a feat they would repeat three years in a row—and Sidi received a Forty Under 40 award from the Ottawa Business Journal. The following year, Sidi joined the Board of Directors of the Ottawa Board of Trade. “Sidi.io is a remote company that could do business anywhere,” he said, “but we choose to do it here in Ottawa. Giving back to our community remains important to me.” Now, Sidi.io is on track to have its most successful year to date.

Sidi recognizes the link between his career success and his Algonquin College education. He taught brand management at Algonquin College in 2018–2019 and has been a member of the Marketing program’s advisory committee since 2023. Sidi.io has also hired several Algonquin College co-op students over the years.

Discover more 2025 Alumni of Distinction award recipients.