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His past in professional poker and an MBA prove to be a winning hand for this MBA ’18

March 15, 2019

Photo of Robin Gainer, Full-Time MBA student, class of 201i8When most people hear about Robin Gainer’s previous career as a professional poker player, they imagine the glamour. They tend to think of tense, high-stakes poker games at casinos where players study their opponents’ body language and uncover game-winning tells.

Unfortunately, says Gainer (MBA ’18), it’s nothing like that.

The majority of high-stakes games happen online and good players do not give away much information. Each game really comes down to pattern recognition and calculating probabilities. Most of Gainer’s off time was spent poring over Excel spreadsheets and doing statistical analysis of hands he’d played in past games, so that he’d be better prepared for the next one.

Perhaps it wasn’t much of a surprise that after seven years of professional poker, Gainer started to seriously consider a career in finance. By that time, he was becoming bored of the game and looking for a new challenge. Many of the skills and strategies he’d picked up through poker — such as thinking on his feet and being able to estimate the odds based on incomplete information — seemed applicable to trading and investing roles.

Pursuing the Full-Time MBA at Rotman seemed like a good way to make the leap into a new industry, and catch up to his peers who’d acquired experience and expertise working in junior finance roles. His time at Rotman also opened his eyes to other potential career paths. Ultimately, it helped him find a career that aligned with his interests and affinity for taking risks.

Why business school?

Though Gainer might not have fit the profile of the typical MBA student, he was not an outlier at Rotman. The School has a history of accepting individuals with non-traditional professional backgrounds — including former chess champions, professional athletes and successful models, actors and artists — into its graduate programs. For these high- performing students, a business school education can help them identify and hone skills that could be leveraged in a business environment. And a strong foundation in management fundamentals positions these graduates well for completely new career paths.

In Gainer’s case, his experience and personality made him a natural fit for finance. But when he had gone for interviews in the past, he lacked the market knowledge and fundamentals to land the job.

He came to Rotman to fix that.

He filled his schedule with finance electives, joined the Rotman Finance Association, arranged coffee chats with working professionals on Bay Street and landed an internship with Desjardins in equity research.


“Looking for a crash course on every aspect of a business? Join a startup.”

—Robin Gainer, MBA ’18


“It was a finance role, but I really got to lean into writing,” says Gainer, who spent much of his summer researching and composing summary reports. “I realized that I enjoyed and was good at distilling complex ideas into simple terms.”

When he returned to Rotman for his second year of the MBA, he applied this skillset to his work with the Creative Destruction Lab. As an MBA student with the Lab, he had fun learning more about AI and other emerging technologies — more than that, he enjoyed explaining these concepts to potential investors and executives.

Photo of the Creative Destruction Lab at the Rotman School of Management

The Creative Destruction Lab at the University of Toronto


Why taking a chance on startups is worth it

He hit it off with one CDL startup, Solid State AI, which uses AI technology to enhance manufacturing, primarily in the semiconductor industry. As graduation neared, he decided to take a gamble: he abandoned the search for a full-time finance position and accepted an offer to work with the early-stage venture after the MBA.

“On paper, taking a corporate job at an established organization would have been less risky. But I could see the entire trajectory, in terms of the positions and roles I could advance to in the coming years,” he says.

“An upshot of working at a startup is that the outcome is uncertain. While it’s likely you’ll fail, the upside is much higher. And I’d be able to go much further, faster, than I ever could in banking or finance. It was worth a shot.”

Today, as chief operating officer for Solid State AI, Gainer looks after all business matters. That means he oversees business development, sales, pitching to investors, and strategy, among other responsibilities.

He’s frequently drawing on his experiences from the MBA and professional poker on the job.

“Poker programmed me to think strategically. In every circumstance, I’m evaluating the expected outcomes, considering alternative approaches and deciding on which moves to make,” he says.

“Through Rotman, I refined these skills and expanded my toolbox. I got a lot of experience compiling pitch decks, presenting in a concise and organized way, and assessing and mitigating risks. It’s instilled this mindset that I always need to consider the customer and think about the area of the market that I’m hoping to capture.”


Written by Rebecca Cheung | More Student Stories »


About
Robin Gainer

Class year

MBA ’18


Hometown

Toronto, Ontario


Industry

AI, manufacturing


Current position

COO, Solid State AI
Toronto, ON


MBA internship

Equity Research Associate
Desjardins, Toronto, ON


Previous employment

Professional Poker Player
Toronto, ON


Previous education

Bachelor of Arts, Philosophy
University of Toronto
Toronto, ON


Creative
Destruction Lab
Learn more »