Montreal, Investors are Waiting for Your #UberPITCH

Entrepreneurs, visionaries and self-starters – your big break is arriving now.

On April 7, from 11am to 3pm, you have the chance to make your passion a reality.

Request UberPITCH and we’ll bring you one of Quebec’s top investors, ready to hear your big idea. Have a project you’ve been working on and always dreamt of pitching in front of ex Dragons François Lambert & Dany Vachon, or to Alexandre Shee, Luc Poirier, Sophie Forest from Brightspark, Jean-François Marcoux & Edouard Gaussen from White Star, or Antoine Nivard from iNovia? Now’s your chance!

Demand will be high. If no UberPITCH vehicles are available, please try again.

*The operation zone includes downtown Montreal, Plateau Mont-Royal, Mile-End, Old-Montreal and Griffintown.

In addition, we’ll be hosting a pitch class in collaboration with District 3 from Concordia University the night before, April 6th. To register, please fill this form before April 5, 5pm.

François Lambert
Managing Partner Impulse Capital

A wise businessman, François Lambert is an investor and a seasoned manager. A man of action, insight and convictions, François has found success both professionally and personally. Recently, François joined the team of Radio-Canada’s Dans l’oeil du dragon as a dragon in search of talent and innovative ideas. As a child, François Lambert wanted to become a sheep farmer. His dream came true when his parents purchased a farm in the Outaouais region. Seeing a business opportunity, he decided to raise quail to sell their eggs and used the farm’s equipment to remove snow from the neighbour’s yards. A brilliant but distracted teenager, François developed a passion for sports that allowed him to satisfy his need for challenges and performance.  After graduating from Université du Québec en Outaouais, he joined the federal public service as a financial analyst. On paper, his career seemed to be taking off. But the entrepreneurial spirit in him never vanished and by 1994 he resigned and decided to try his luck in business in Montreal.

In 2000, with his partner Georges Karam, he co-founded AHEEVA, a company specializing in providing technology solutions for call centers. In 2003, Georges and François repeat their success, and start ATELKA, a contact center management company, which currently employs over 2500 people in six cities in three provinces and serves customers throughout North America. Both companies are experiencing phenomenal growth allowing François to take a step back and focus on his passions: the land, sports and the development of new projects. With Georges Karam, in 2011 he launched Impulse Capital, a venture capital company. Always eager to explore new territories, François is also a member of the Anges Quebec investors group. A sports enthusiast, he has completed four marathons and trains daily. Father of two children, he now lives with his family on his farm in the Outaouais region, where he grows corn and oats, in addition to producing maple syrup and honey.

Dany Vachon
Founder Winner4Life

As the son of a successful entrepreneur, Mr. Vachon inherited his father’s leadership and visionary skills, as demonstrated time and again during his brilliant career through the many nominations he received both for his personality and his sporting & artistic performances.

From 2001 to 2009, Mr. Vachon experienced unprecedented success in relationship marketing. At the end of his mandate, his company had tens of thousands of customers and representatives on different continents and generated annual sales of several million dollars. His success earned him the recognition of his peers who consider him today as a world leader in this marketing technique. During this period, he also built a worldwide network that he can leverage today to support other companies.

Due to his remarkable performance, he was quoted in major publications such as Success, Fortune, Success from Home and Occasion d’affaires. In 2009, he was invited for the second time to the reality show The Apprentice, broadcast to millions of viewers each week on NBC.

In 2011, Mr. Vachon has been selected as a ‘dragon’ investor for Dans l’oeil du dragon TV show, Quebec adaptation of Dragons’ Den. This series, which aims to stimulate entrepreneurship and provide financial support to entrepreneurs, was broadcasted on Radio-Canada in 2012.

In 2014, he co-founded Winner4life, a health and wellness relationship marketing company offering nutrition and activities high quality tips, with companies such as Proteina21, Come and Train & Bootcamp-Race. In its first year, the company was very successful and generated several million dollars of income, which already ranks Winner4Life among the best startup companies in North America for the marketing industry.

Besides being a highly sought-after speaker on entrepreneurship and leadership topics, he is also active in product distribution, technology, stocks and real estate, with specialized companies in each of these sectors, such as Azur & Capital, a real estate investment fund based in Quebec.

Luc Poirier
President Investissement Poirier

Luc Poirier is the president of Les Placements Luc Poirier and Poirier Investment Ltd. He is also a shareholder of over two dozen other companies and has a large portfolio of investments spread across different sectors.

Over the years, he has acquired several million square feet of land, on which more than 15,000 new residences and businesses will eventually be built, for a total development over $7 billion, making him one of the most important real estate developers in Quebec.

With his expertise in real estate, Mr. Poirier acts as developer, promoter and builder of several major projects, including the Griffix, an exceptional 20 floors condominiums project recently completed that won the Gala Habitation award in 2014.

Previously, Mr. Poirier was the promoter of a 2,500 habitations project on Charron Island, and also unveiled in 2012 the construction project of a new tunnel connecting the South-Shore to Montreal. Called the ‘Downtown Tunnel’, this project will be entirely financed by private capital. It will help reduce the impact on traffic during the construction planned for Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine Bridge-Tunnel and Champlain and Mercier bridges, not to mention the major work planned for the Turcot Interchange.

Mr. Poirier currently oversees the construction of RUBIC, a 10 floors tower on René-Lévesque Boulevard in Montreal. This tower is being built using a revolutionary technique called Upbrella, a world first.

Alexandre Shee
Alex is passionate about helping entrepreneurs build their businesses and helping drive the startup ecosystem in Canada. In a former life he worked as a corporate lawyer at Norton Rose Fulbright Canada focused on startups and M&A. In fact, he is a qualified lawyer in Quebec and holds two law degrees in both Common and Civil law from McGill University. Moreover, he also completed certificates in business and law at Stanford University, the University of Oxford, China University of Political Science and Law and National University of Singapore. He was awarded the Scarlet Key Award and has been involved in leadership roles in numerous organizations. On his downtime, he loves to backpack and sail.

Sophie Forest
Managing Partner Brightspark

Sophie has more than 20 years of experience in the high-tech venture capital industry. She has been Brightspark’s managing partner since 2003. Brightspark is the leading early stage Internet, media and software venture capital firm in Canada. Prior to joining Brightspark, she was a partner at CDP Capital Technology Ventures, a subsidiary of La Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec, a position she held since 1996.

She has led or overseen more than 50 investments in technology companies in Canada and abroad over the past 15 to 20 years. Sophie played a pivotal role in the investment, growth and exit of Radian6, one of the most successful technology exits in Canadian history. As co-CEO of Brightspark 3.0, Sophie helped develop Internet solutions that led to the creation and growth of Jewlr.com and iStopOver.com.

Sophie sits on the Science, Technology and Innovation Council of Canada. She is a member of the Women in Technology Advisory Board for YES Canada. She also sits on the Board of Directors of a number of companies, including Hopper, eXludus, Jewlr, Jazinga and others. Sophie is a Managing Partner of Brightspark and is based in Brightspark’s Montreal office.

Edouard Gaussen
Analyst White Star

Edouard Gaussen is an Analyst at White Star Capital where he performs due diligence on potential investments, mainly in the Canadian market, and supports the overall Fund operations.

Edouard has had experience operating and advising startups on growth and user acquisition. He was one of the early employees at Tinder, a social discovery app based in Los Angeles, which disrupted the online dating industry and creates millions of matches everyday. His role evolved from handling all on ground growth strategies in the Canadian market to leading the international marketing team, launching the app across 15 different markets worldwide. As an active member of the Montreal tech community, Edouard serves as a mentor at the Dobson Centre for Entrepreneurship at McGill University.

Edouard holds a B.A. in Economics and Finance from McGill University. Born and raised in Switzerland, he is a dual Fench-Swiss citizen and calls Montreal home.

Jean-François Marcoux
General Partner White Star

Jean-François is a General Partner at White Star Capital where he leads the fund’s operations and dealflow in Canada.

JF has several years of experience in managing startups and investment projects. He was the co-founder of Ludia, a leading digital videogame publisher, and managed all non-product related operations including Finance, Legal, Strategy and HR. JF gained extensive operational experience with his role at Ludia which grew from a startup to a highly profitable 300 employee company today. Ludia was acquired in late 2010 by FremantleMedia, a leading global TV producer. Prior to co-founding Ludia, JF held senior positions in M&A, financing and VC in the media and technology sectors, with a large publicly-traded media and printing company, a leading Canadian Investment Bank and one of the largest institutional fund managers in Canada.

JF graduated from HEC Montreal, holds an M. Sc. in Finance from the University of Sherbrooke, and is a Chartered Financial Analyst. He divides his time between New York and Montreal.

Antoine Nivard
Associate iNovia

First startup: as a teenager, he convinced a local real estate agency in his hometown to pay him to build their corporate website. Once they agreed, he started to learn how to build one. Antoine developed a strong passion for entrepreneurship before deciding to make the transition to venture capital. Prior to iNovia, he worked more than two years for the SECOR Group, a management consulting boutique (now KPMG), where he advised high-profile clients in financial services, retail & consumer goods and other areas. He also studied, travelled and worked in Asia where he gained experience in management consulting.

District 3 is an accelerator of innovation from Concordia University which enables entrepreneurs and their teams to make a dent in the world. By animating a collaborative ecosystem, District 3 puts the necessary tools, resources and knowledge in the hands of innovation leaders in order for them to move from idea to impact with confidence.