Fly (finally!) To success

The post-pandemic economic recovery opens up new horizons for Quebec SMEs and start-ups. Overview of the strategies adopted by three emerging companies that focus on development beyond borders.

The pandemic has forced the entrepreneurial community, here and on a global scale, to review its business strategies, to show patience and flexibility and to adapt to new market realities. A period of introspection which has been taken advantage of by certain SMEs, which have reinvented themselves – or outright invented – for the world of tomorrow. This is the case for three emerging companies, whose international trajectory is well underway. They are supported by the MT Lab, the first startup incubator dedicated to tourism, culture and entertainment in North America, of which Air Canada is one of the major partners, as well as by Cabinet Créatif, an accelerator developed by Air Canada for business, the City of Montreal and the Government of Quebec.

My Smart Journey

Founder: Isabelle Lopez

This unprecedented platform, which allows multimedia content to be broadcast in public places, is used by cultural and tourist organizations in Quebec as well as by large national companies such as Radio-Canada and Air Canada. Founded in 2017, the start-up offers a real toolbox to institutions wishing to reinvent themselves in virtual mode. The next step in its growth plan: international deployment.

Collaborate to innovate
“The MT Lab put us in contact with key players in the tourism and cultural industry,” explains Isabelle Lopez. It is in this context of pitches and feedback that we met Air Canada, which decided to give us a chance, in the midst of the pandemic, to enhance the experience of their Maple Leaf lounges. An alliance that quickly paid off: Air Canada purchased the company’s services in 2020 and quadrupled the value of its investment in less than a year, allowing the My Smart Journey team to pass from four to ten employees.

Internationalization, an obligation
“When you create a reproducible technology, the goal is to sell it 1,000 times,” continues the founder. The MT Lab has allowed us to reach early adopters, who are ready to invest in something innovative, less well-known. But moving from these early adopters to the larger early majority is more difficult. The solution: diversify geographically to seek early users from other markets rather than focusing on a portion of the local sector that is not yet showing interest. It is for this reason that My Smart Journey, which has already made its mark in New Brunswick and British Columbia, is now developing the French market. “You have to focus on the places where the apple is easier to pick,” specifies Isabelle Lopez. We need to develop organizational maturity and internationalize. The survival of the company depends on it to amortize the operating costs and the continued investments in our product. “

The crisis as a technological lever
“The pandemic allowed us to legitimize our technology, because we were already using QR codes, NFC tags, short URL links. Everyone quickly understood the importance of being able to communicate and offer contactless interactivity in public places. Isabelle Lopez adds that her company took advantage of the slowdown due to containment to focus on contact with customers. “This allowed us to fully understand their situation, to find out how to help them and to assess our relevance in the market,” she concludes.

Mysmartjourney.com

Gallea

Founder: Guillaume Parent

This techno-cultural enterprise offers dual visibility to works of art via a virtual gallery and a network of “brick and mortar” exhibitions, which are deployed in restaurants, hotels and work spaces. Next step: extend the distribution network on a planetary scale to make art accessible to everyone and everywhere.

An incubator to promote exchanges
“Before the pandemic, we were in the commercialization phase,” explains Guillaume Parent. We were looking for support to develop our product, expand our customer network and achieve our market fit. This is what the MT Lab has enabled us to accomplish. The fact of being able to meet large companies such as Montreal Airport, the Palais des Congrès de Montreal and the ITHQ – with which a major partnership has been signed – has thus enabled the company to validate its business model.

The importance of fieldwork
Thanks to the support of the MT Lab, the Creative Cabinet and Air Canada, Guillaume Parent and his co-founder partner Lin Xi Shang were able to travel to France and Spain to participate in the eTourism congress and meet important potential clients. “In two weeks, we accomplished a job that would otherwise have taken us months,” comments the founder. We established a real dialogue with our interlocutors, which allowed us to understand their reality. »A proximity thanks to which Gallea was able to take a head start by validating the interests of the partners of its ecosystem of international expansion.

Adapt to a new reality
Like the entire cultural sector, Gallea has suffered the repercussions of the pandemic directly. “The closure of shops, restaurants and offices slowed down the development of our exhibition network,” explains Guillaume Parent. But we have adapted to this new reality by focusing on our digital offer, both for artists and consumers. The company has notably launched thematic collections and virtual exhibitions with leading partners, and it has also set up a personalized consulting service allowing Gallea’s experts to recommend works to clients based on photographs. from their walls.

Eloquent figures
“Thanks to these initiatives in times of pandemic, we have gone from 500 to 8,000 artists who are members of Gallea,” says the founder. Today, we broadcast 40,000 works in 37 countries, and our team now has 25 employees. »An adventure that has only just begun, as the reopening of public spaces is leading to an increase in demand for face-to-face exhibitions, which include a rotation of works. “Our partners understand the importance of art in revitalizing public spaces, and they measure its impact not only on humans, but also on local artistic communities,” says the entrepreneur.

Gallea.ca

Already Seen Stimulation

Founder: Audrey Bernard (right in the photo)

This growing company relies on the combination of the evocative power of smell – which acts on memory and emotions – to create real sensory immersions. This emerging component of immersive marketing aims, among other things, at the tourism sector, here and abroad, to make people travel to another dimension by recreating smells linked to sites or memorable experiences.

A world of possibilities
The sensory marketing company was exploring the vein of health by doing research to measure the effects of olfactory stimulation on anxiety when it arrived at the MT Lab. “As soon as we arrived, we were asked how to enrich the visitor experience in a cultural or tourist context, remembers Audrey Bernard. We fell in love instantly with these sectors, and a whole world of possibilities opened up to us. “

Growing in the midst of a pandemic
Since 2020, the company has experienced significant growth, particularly in Quebec and France. “We have doubled our turnover while integrating an internal scientific approach,” says Audrey Bernard. At the start of the pandemic, 90% of our projects were put on hiatus, but we quickly found a concept that allowed us to leverage our expertise and production capacity. This is how the development of experiential sanitary products made to measure for several projects and clients allowed the company to remain active. On the French side, success was also at the rendezvous. It must be said that the ground was well prepared, Stimulation Deja Vu having previously devoted a great deal of effort to establishing itself in this market. “We launched our French subsidiary in April 2021 and we made the right choice,” concludes the founder. We are now working with many partners, and it’s just getting started! “

A concept that is exported
Building on this momentum, the company has the international market in its sights. “Business travel is essential, especially in our field,” says Audrey Bernard. To travel is to discover different cultures, architecture and landscapes. It is to open your senses to new experiences. She adds that Stimulation Deja Vu’s foray into the tourism sector is part of a creative process based on scientific and cultural data. “We create or recreate smells linked to places or events to help people discover future destinations or bring back remarkable and unforgettable moments. “

Stimulationdejavu.com

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