There are entrepreneurs who want to change the world. Hugo Lefebvre and his three friends – associates, change lives.
They have marketed an innovation that allows people in wheelchairs to access natural spaces: an all-terrain wheelchair.
Trackz Mobility is the response to a tragic event. Fifteen years ago, at the age of 35, one of Hugo’s friends suffered an accident at work and lost the use of his legs. Even playing outside with her children on the grass had become inaccessible to her.
“So he sort of invented walking boots for wheelchairs. He made prototypes and afterwards, he needed help to market, then give freedom to those who didn’t have it,” says Hugo, who already had a long experience of entrepreneurship.
When he was younger, Hugo opened a Subway restaurant in Saint-Raymond, long before it became popular. He had to hone his marketing skills and wait four years to pay himself a salary!
“There are similarities between that experience and today’s,” he notes.
Everything to build
Indeed, it is still the first in a market with Trackz. Everything is to be done. And that stimulates him.
“We talk to customers and they’ve had a thousand ideas for years, but there haven’t been any innovations in this sector for a long time,” observes the entrepreneur.
The main obstacle: it’s a very niche market, where mass production is unthinkable, so you have to be creative so that the product doesn’t cost too much.
Each chair is adapted according to the person and their disability in the workshop-boutique of Saint-Raymond. The team welcomes customers on site and gives them a great experience.
“They say we sell smiles. There are people who had been in wheelchairs for 15 years and dreamed of this, but nothing existed for them. It changes their life. We have a consultant who cries every time we make a delivery,” says Hugo.
I imagine the scene. It reminds me of the illuminated faces of disabled people who rode a horse when my mother, several years ago, gave riding lessons. The horses gave them legs, but maybe also wings.
Made-to-measure happiness
Trackz customers send them photos of their new activities. A little girl at the beach, a man on a path in the forest. It’s shared happiness, day after day.
To create it, entrepreneurs go beyond the manufacture of armchairs. Because 80% of people who need it don’t have a paying agent like the Société d’assurance automobile du Québec or the CNESST. So what ? Own the solution and not make it accessible? It was out of the question.
“I was inundated with calls, but they told me I couldn’t afford it. We brainstormed as a team and thought about crowdfunding,” says Hugo.
With the program A little push, Trackz organizes a campaign with a godfather or a godmother for the client, who can be a relative of the person or simply a generous soul who wants to help and make a difference. Already more than 20 people have received the little push and the money has been found in less than two weeks!
At the start of the year, Trackz Mobilité is opening another workshop-boutique in France, the country where the first all-terrain wheelchair was sold. The demand is continuous and comes from several countries, even if the company had not done any promotion outside Quebec. Hugo and his associates set off with enthusiasm. There are no borders when you want to make life more beautiful.
TrackZ Mobility
- Year of foundation: 2018
- Founders: Hugo Lefebvre, Jean-Francois Giguère, Christian Giguère
- Place of the head office : Saint Raymond
- Activity area : Outdoors
- Number of employees: 12
PROFILE OF HUGO LEFEBVRE
- Job : Managing Director and Partner
- Age : 47 years
- Education: College studies in electronics