Flagship Podcast

Dr. Nicholas Nadeau is the Chief Technology Officer at SmartOne, a leader in ethical AI and data solutions. Nicholas has become a pivotal figure in tech innovation with a Ph.D. in AI and engineering and a career dedicated to emerging technologies. Before joining SmartOne, he founded Nadeau Innovations, propelling startups to success as a fractional CTO. 

We spoke about

• The evolving role of the CTO

• Pitfalls for Startup CTOs

• Maintaining a Startup Mentality at Scale

• SmartOne's Value Proposition

I’m lucky that I get to work alongside Julie Lacasse and learn from her every day. 

If you don’t know her, Julie is a serial entrepreneur and current venture capital partner at Amiral Ventures. She’s the cofounder of Tracktik, an innovative company specialized in optimizing the management of security agencies, she led the company to international success and exit. 

Julie now brings her expertise to Amiral Ventures, where she focuses on venture capital investment. Her inspiring career path and strategic vision make her an influential figure in the entrepreneurial and investment ecosystem.

We spoke about: 

Julie’s entrepreneurial journey 

Insight that led to hyper growth company

Board and VC dynamics 

Principles that Julie learned operating and scaling 

Lessons learned during the exit process

Startup Montréal, the non-profit organization that has supported early-stage Montréal startups is now known as Québec Tech. The rebranded organization has also adopted a new mandate to grow the international footprint of Québec tech companies with high export potential.

To talk about the important mission of Québec Tech, I had the pleasure of speaking with Richard Chenier on the podcast to learn more about their plans and how they plan on addressing a key challenge for Quebec based startups. On the episode, we spoke about: 

• The reason to expand the mission of Quebec Tech to the entire province

• How they plan to support their initial cohort of startups 

• Why they focused on international go to market as the key value creation lever

• How Quebec compares to other provinces

• Reasons for optimism and why Quebec startups will win

I had a great conversation with Aydin Mirzaee, CEO & Co-Founder @ Fellow. Aydin is a tech loving entrepreneur with a passion for building great products, leadership and people.  Fellow solves a huge problem for companies, help people spend less time in meetings and make them more productive. Previously , he was the co-founder and co-CEO of Fluidware which was acquired by SurveyMonkey. 

On the episode, we spoke about: 

Why he decided to start Fellow after having sold his previous startup 

How meetings have grown significantly since the pandemic

Their product offering and how it improves organizational performance

Using AI for human level transcriptions and building institutional knowledge 

Advice he gives to fellow founders 

Why they started their own podcast Supermanagers (https://fellow.app/supermanagers/) 

Sur cet épisode du Flagship podcast, j’ai eu le plaisir d’échanger avec Marc Bédard, cofondateur et PDG @ Lion Électrique.  Marc Bédard a toujours été passionné par la technologie, l'innovation et la finance. En 2008, il a fondé Lion Electric et a peu après mis l'entreprise sur la voie du zéro émission en s'engageant dans un portefeuille de produits de véhicules lourds et moyens entièrement électriques. 

Sur l’émission, nous avons parlé de: 

• Comment le Karaté l'a aidé à devenir un meilleur leader

• Acceptation sociale des véhicules électriques

• Comment ils naviguent sur les marchés en tant qu'entreprise publique

• Pourquoi nous en sommes encore aux premiers balbutiements de la transition énergétique pour les transports

There is a cool new fund called DevCap based in Montreal founded by Max McCrea and Jordan Steiner. Developer Capital is a pre-seed and seed-stage investment corporation. They  strive to provide what other investors promise: real support for our investments in the form of actionable technical and operational support via its partnership with Monadical.

Jordan and Max are not building your typical VC firm which is structured as an evergreen investment corp. They bring solid technical expertise for their founders.

We spoke about: 

• Building a strong culture as a new VC fund
• How they built a relationship of trust  and decided to start a fund together
• Culture principles they put into practice
•  Deep dive on the excitement around AI and their investment thesis

J’ai eu le plaisir de discuter avec Simon Leblond, co-fondateur et PDG @ SmartD Technologies. 

Simon est un entrepreneur avec 20 ans d'expérience entrepreneuriale dans la mise sur le marché de technologies disruptives dans tous les secteurs.

SmartD Technologies développe des variateurs de fréquence (VFD) pour le contrôle de moteurs.

Leur variateur de fréquence Clean Power VFD peut augmenter l'efficacité des moteurs, réduire l'usure des équipements, économiser de l'énergie et réduire les coûts pour les entreprises de nombreux secteurs, notamment les infrastructures, les services publics, l'agriculture, les mines, les transports, entre autres.

C’est un marché adressable énorme avec des gains en efficacité énergétique significatifs. En plus, Simon est un entrepreneur chevronné avec énormément d’expérience. Il a participé au lancement de trois entreprises, a introduit de nombreuses technologies sur le marché, et mentoré des entrepreneurs.

I had the pleasure of hosting the Flagship podcast at last week’s CDL / NextAI Community Dinner. 

The first guest was Sarah Jenna, Managing Director @ QV Studio

We spoke about quantum computing and how Sherbrooke is rapidly becoming a global leader in the quantum.

Note - this convo was in French

The second guest was Raphael Steinman, Co-Founder & Co-CEO @ Maxa

Raphael shared some great insights into building & iterating products. He also spoke about how founders can support founders. 

Note - this convo was in English

J’ai eu la chance de parler avec Simon Pelletier et Gilles Duruflé de Réseau Capital. Ils ont publié un rapport très pertinent en novembre à propos de l'écosystème de capital de risque du Québec. 

L’objectif de cette étude était de comparer le dynamisme de l’écosystème d’investissement en capital de risque du Québec à ceux de l’Ontario et de la Colombie-Britannique afin d’identifier certaines forces et faiblesses et d’en tirer des pistes de recommandations. Le rapport a fait beaucoup de vagues dans l'écosystème et je vous invite à le consulter!

I had the pleasure of speaking with Andria Santos, Co-founder & CEO @ Fülhaus 

Fülhaus is an AI-powered interior design and furnishing company dedicated to improving performance of furnished real estate properties and hospitality business through good design. 

We spoke about: 

• Building a solid interior design company over 10 years

• The AI new product they launched with Ludwig and how it can empower interior designers globally

• How Fülhaus is the first & best customer for Ludwig

• The huge market opportunity ahead with their new AI

• Entrepreneurial lessons after 10 years