Flagship Podcast Amiral Ventures

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
 

Simon De Baene is the dreamer and visionary at the top of Workleap, which designs software used by over 15,000 organizations in 110 countries. Recognized as one of Quebec's largest SMEs, Workleap now has over 200 employees and is currently one of the fastest-growing companies in North America. Early in his entrepreneurial journey, Simon realized that employee fulfillment was the key to success, and began building what would quickly become one of the most inspiring business cultures on the planet. Audacious and non-conformist by nature, he is more motivated than ever to challenge the status quo in the workplace.
We spoke about: 
Being obsessed in order to build a world-class product How you need to be relentlessly determined to achieve a breakthrough How competition has radically increased in software  The global opportunity for Workleap The market for employee experience and how it’s growing