Flagship Podcast

On this week’s show, we held a special debate series with Francis Gosselin, President @ FG8 Consulting.  The topic we chose to debate was the media landscape.

 

Francis is the president of FG8 and Director with SAGE Consulting and he focuses on innovation and strategy. He advises top-level executives in matters pertaining to leadership, change management, innovation and digital technologies.

He has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Strasbourg and a M.Sc. in International Affairs from HEC Montreal. He’s achieved graduate-level education while remaining strongly involved in project management in numerous fields, including print and online media content production and management, institutional consulting, social network management, economic development and teaching responsibilities.

 

We had a deep dive into the world of media

•      The fundamental business model changes
•      The growing importance of journalism
•      Why paying for news is important
•      His Fail Camp conference and the lessons he’s learned from running it.

 

I’ve known Francis for a few years and he’s one of the smartest (and well travelled) people I know. It was a really interesting deep dive into the world of media – I hope that you enjoy the debate.

 

Let us know what you think. What types of guests would like to see on the show? What topics interest you the most? Send me your thoughts at [email protected]

 

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On this week’s show, we spoke with Fred Ranger, Vice-President Product Marketing @ Stingray. Fred is an award winning experienced business leader focused on connecting people with brands through engaging content made for the real-time world.

On this week’s show, we spoke with Matt Fogel, Founder & COO @ Fuzzy.ai.

Trained as a software developer, Matt has also worked as a designer, project manager and product manager at startups and marketing agencies throughout his career. Prior to cofounding Fuzzy.ai, Matt was Vice President of Product Management and Strategic Partnerships at Agendize, a startups that provides customer engagement software to over 100,000 businesses worldwide.

On this week’s show, I spoke with my partner in crime, Martin. On top of being a great guy, Martin is my co-founder at PNR.

Martin is an operations and technology executive with over 15 years experience building high performance teams within a wide range of industries. Before PNR, Martin was VP Operations at Global Eagle Entertainment, the world leader in in-flight entertainment.

In his role Martin led a significant restructuring and post-M&A integration initiative to optimize resources, lower attrition and significantly improve bottom line results. Previously, Martin took the lead as head of operations at nventive: a mobile applications agency working with marquee clients such as Expedia, Yelp and Bloomberg. During his tenure, the company grew from 15 to 100+ employees in 18 months.

In 2004, he joined Electronic Arts in a technology role, and eventually transitioned to Director of Operations for the new world-class game development studio. The studio scaled from 30 employees to more than 800 over a span of 7 years. Before EA, Martin began his professional journey as an IT consultant in the special effects and super-computing space. In his free time, Martin enjoys Kitesurfing, Crossfit training and riding his motorcycle.

 

We had a great conversation about his career and a debate around new technologies. We spoke about:

• Martin’s career progression that touches video games, technology, M&A and consulting
• His thoughts on moving from a big company to a startup
• What no one is talking about- the pace of change is actually faster than what people think
• Debate around where we stand today in terms of frontier technologies - hint: AI is not ready for prime time
• The development in technology that excites him the most

 

I’m a little biased on this; Martin is one of the smartest people I know. I learn every single day from him. I hope that you learn something as well.

 

Let us know what you think. What types of guests would like to see on the show? What topics interest you the most? Send me your thoughts at [email protected]

 

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On this week’s show, I had the immense pleasure of talking with a long time colleague, François Arbour @ Arbour Investments.

François is a true entrepreneur. He founded his first company at the age of 19, before going to work in marketing for Bell, as well as several major agencies, including Cossette and Sid Lee, on major accounts such as Adidas, Cirque du Soleil, GM, Molson, SAQ And Sony. He then founded Premiumbeat in 2005. PremiumBeat is a production music library for television, movies and other media. In a few years, PremiumBeat has become the world leader in its market and counts among its customers: Facebook, Apple, Google, Tesla, GE, Microsoft, BMW and even Barack Obama. In 2015, François sold Premiumbeat to Shutterstock and served as vice president products until 2017. Today, François is an active investor and mentor in the startup community.

 

We spoke about a wide range of topics:

• How and why he’s invested in 17 startups so far and what he’s planning next
• Why he doesn’t like SAAS investments
• The joys of angel investing (as well as some of the heachaches)
• The myths around customer acquisition (as well as its importance). Interesting conversation around the difficulty of customer acquisition today.
• When he realized that PremiumBeat had become more than a hobby
• The supply and demand model of PremiumBeat.
• How bootstrapping was instrumental to building a sustainable business
• How he chooses his investments and entrepreneurs
• The death of Flash!

 

Francois was generous with his time and wonderful insights. I learned a ton about not only investing but also what it takes to have a successful exit. I hope that you learn as well.

 

Let us know what you think. What types of guests would like to see on the show? What topics interest you the most? Send me your thoughts at [email protected]

 

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On this week’s episode, we had a live conversation with Ben Mattes, VP Product Management @ IntelliSports. We had a great conversation about his career and his new startup that is looking to bring measurement to real-world sports

 

We spoke about the following

• His path in the gaming world
• Why he decided to leave and join the consumer tech space
• How Intellisports is looking to bridge the gap between our digital lives and the real world.
• The business model they are going to market with
• His thoughts about where consumer technology is headed #veryinteresting

 

Ben is a seriously smart guy. I’m lucky to have met him through my partner Martin. We had a great chat about his cool new startup whose mission anyone can relate to: getting kids to be more active & to play more sports. I hope that you enjoy the conversation.

Let us know what you think. What types of guests would like to see on the show? What topics interest you the most? Send me your thoughts at [email protected]

 

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On this week’s show, we spoke with Marie-Eve Prevost, CEO @ MissFresh.

Marie-Eve discovered meal kits while living in Australia with her brother Bernard. As a foodie and hard working professional, she instantly fell in love with the concept of getting recipes and pre-portioned ingredients delivered at home. Her adventure as an entrepreneur started in 2015 when she moved back to Montreal and co-founded MissFresh with her brother and childhood friend Ritter. Marie-Eve is a digital leader with over 12 years of experience in various industries including Media (TVA, Yahoo!7 and Seven West Media), E-commerce (Mediagrif) and Telecommunications (Bell). As CEO of MissFresh, she oversees strategy, marketing and product and acts as the permanent in-house MissFresh client ambassador, making sure they stay front and center of everything they do.

 

We had a great conversation and covered a variety of topics

• Where she got the idea for MissFresh and why she launched it
• What makes MissFresh different than the other players in the space (hint: it’s about a relentless focus on the customer)
• The plan to go big
• Her biggest priorities and concerns for her startup
• She was nice to offer of a coupon code for our audience - PNR30 for 30$ on your first dinnerbox

 

I’ve known Marie-Éve for over 13 years and she is one of the smartest and hardest working people I know. It was real pleasure to reconnect with her and learn about MissFresh. I hope that you enjoy the chat as much as I did.

 

Let us know what you think. What types of guests would like to see on the show? What topics interest you the most? Send me your thoughts at [email protected]

 

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On this week’s show, we spoke with Liesl Barrell, Co-Founder @ Third Wunder

Third Wunder is a digital agency specializing in marketing for brands looking to change and disrupt how they do business. They’ve worked on multiple award-winning projects in social media, digital strategy, search, integrated marketing; they’ve launched B2C, B2B and e-commerce sites, planning online campaigns for Canadian, US and international brands.

She has over 10 years experience in digital marketing and seasoned public speaker, writer and passionate community leader for women in technology.

 

We spoke about the following:

• The origin of the name ThirdWunder and third culture kids
• How being a constant outsider has helped her career in digital marketing
• The work they do at their agency and the need for constant adaptation
• Why it’s ok to sometimes fire clients
• Her concerns about the singularity and workforce displacement
• Her involvement with MTL girl geeks

 

I love Liesl’s passion about the marketing space and her knowledge on just about everything. I hope that enjoy the show!

 

Let us know what you think. What types of guests would like to see on the show? What topics interest you the most? Send me your thoughts at [email protected]

 

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This show was a real pleasure for me. I got to interview a person I really look up to, Alistair Croll. I’ve been a huge fan of Alistair’s for years

 

Alistair helps to accelerate startups, and works with some of the world’s biggest companies on business model innovation. As an entrepreneur, he co-founded Coradiant; the Year One Labs accelerator; and a variety of other startups. A sought-after speaker, Alistair has also launched and chaired some of the world’s leading conferences on emerging technology, including Startupfest, Strata, Cloud Connect, and Pandemon.io.

Alistair is the author of four books on technology and entrepreneurship, including the best-selling Lean Analytics, which has been translated into eight languages and is in its tenth printing in China. A graduate of Dalhousie University, he is a visiting executive at Harvard Business School, where he teaches data science and critical thinking.

 

On the show, we spoke about:

• His gig at Harvard Business School and “Big Data”
• His conference Pandemonio, StartupFest and Strata
• How he considers organizations to be living organisms
• The weaponization of misinformation
• His blog, Solve for Interesting
• How he choose projects

 

I really enjoyed this episode and humbled to have spoken to someone that’s really moving the needle in terms of innovation and thinking. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did.

 

Let us know what you think. What types of guests would like to see on the show? What topics interest you the most? Send me your thoughts at [email protected]

 

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On this week’s episode, we spoke with Deborah Cherenfant, founder @ Marché Coloré. An enthusiastic entrepreneur, Deborah founded in 2011 Mots d'Elles, a blog dedicated to the inspiration and influence of businesswomen and influence. A year later, she launched Coloré Design, a line of fashion accessories and handmade design in Montreal of traditional fabrics.

In 2009, after studying entrepreneurship at HEC Montréal, she worked as a start-up and corporate finance consultant before coordinating regional entrepreneurship projects within the Montreal CRE until 2015.

Dynamic and curious, she volunteers in project management within the business community, notably with the Young Chamber of Commerce of Montreal, Capital Innovation, the Young Chamber of Commerce of Haiti and Compagnie F, Entrepreneurship for Women, She has been chairman of the board since 2016.

 

On the show, we spoke about:

• Her path from Haiti to Montreal
• Her current company Atelier Coloré
• The importance of entrepreneurship
• How she helps female entrepreneurs with Compagnie F
• The non-profit that she started Fondation Bias
• Her blog Mots d’Elles

 

Deborah is an incredible entrepreneur and a dynamic leader. I enjoyed learning about her career path and her relentless pursuit to help others with their entrepreneurial projects. I hope that you enjoy the show!