cholette & dufour

Planning Media’s Second Round of Funding!

ecdufour — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 15:45:22 +0000

I was saying in my previous article that it was a tough to find 2nd year funding in Montreal. I still feel the same way. However, with some research and help, I discovered some great VC partners in the Montreal Area!

Planning Media has worked for over a year and a half so far at delivering top performance solutions to small and medium businesses (local advertisers). We are fortunate to sit on some powerful data and a tons of consumer’s needs analysis. We have met since our inception more than 350 advertisers in various fields – analyzing their problems and exact, precise, specific needs!

Planning Media R&D team has created what we call the most powerful leads generation platform (the project is currently 100% funded by Planning Media). The project has a tremendous potential. It is scalable, exportable, and answer’s perfectly advertiser’s needs.

In order for this project to become a leader in its industry, Planning Media has now decided to begin a second exterior round of funding. The funding will be used to fully developed the project’s core features and its commercialization.

We are thrilled to kick off this important step – thanks to our mentors and partners! Based on my previous article, we are at that Second Year funding Step – and Montreal, with some research, has some great VC partners!

Investor’s documentation: Ready!
Financial projections & ROI: Ready!
It is a GO!

www.planningmedia.ca

2nd Year, Venture Capital… Growth Objectives!

ecdufour — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 16:05:46 +0000

I recently read an article about a very cool startup based in Montreal named Localmind. The article was featured in the Gazette and was announcing that Localmind had received funding for 600,000$ and will be moving its HQ to San Francisco. Great News! Good Job!!!!!

Shortly after reading this news, I looked back at the VC Industry here in Quebec – more specifically in Montreal. The industry is quite active but for a specific business segment: companies with usually over a 1M$ in annual revenue – operating in a specific manufacturing industry with a core unique technology (Averna, Mechtronix Systems, and the list goes on).

Is this really Venture Capital? Or regular financing program. In Montreal, Institutions that are suppose to be doing VC are CDPQ, BDC, Roynat, FTQ… Other than these institutions, the private sector become the number one resource.

I don’t believe that we have a real VC industry here in Quebec for startups in the media/internet segment (and we all know that Montreal has a lot of startups – I recall – Montreal Startup Festival). VC are usually critical in the second, third and sometime fourth year of operation for a startup. I noticed that we have a lot of seed funding programs: Year One Labs, Founder Fuel, CYNBF, BDC, FCAMC, but we do not have anything for the 2nd year, third year, and sometime the fourth year. This is where, most of the time VC is required to maintain growth or developement. Banks will never fund any startups unless there are assets to back the funding (which is rarely the case).

Planning Media was funded by BDC (Banque de Développement du Canada), CYNBF (Canadian Youth New Business Foundation) and a local community partner. After one year of operation, the company is now relying on private investors to fuel new projects , new online performance marketing and lead generation applications, and to ensure a strong growth strategy.

This article points a specific problem in the life of a startup. The goal: finding a solution! I am currently working, with a couple of partners, on a project called: Y2, a non profit organization to build a strong and real VC industry here in Montreal for helping startups in the second, third, and maybe fourth year of operation. I believe the seed capital industry is well served, now let’s look at what’s next!

Managing Growth

ecdufour — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 20:07:42 +0000

I have been told that one the hardest challenge in entrepreneurship is managing growth. I confirmed, it is the true! Planning Media is now ready to grow to reach the next step: a 1 million dollar company. To do so, we need some resources: human, material, and financial. We have now a very good turnkey performance marketing solution that established so far a very good track record, and we are innovating with a new solutions to reach other market segments.

We have the chance to have fantastic clients with us that trust us and provide us a lot of feedback so we can improve our business practices, technology, and service offering. Getting to next step and achieving our corporate objectives is a daily challenge but I must say, from my perspective, it is a very good professional experience.

2011 will be a year with a lot of action, we are planning something big for Q1 as well as a lot of innovation in our technology. We will provide our clients with a state-of-the-art experience but before all; performance! The road will be a bumpy ride but I am sure that our passion, intelligence, and results-oriented mindset will provide a very good corporate scorecard!

The first 9 months of official operation have been good and we are on target! We continue! Stay tuned: more to come!! www.planningmedia.ca

Moving forward!

ecdufour — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 03:46:22 +0000

After a … not so good day, Good news are piling up! After trials and errors, sudden change of mind, and some intense brainstorm sessions, a very good agency got our focus straight! Thanks to the great talent of totaro.biz (www.totaro.biz – Awesome advertising agency with very expert advice!). Planning Media will soon unveiled its official corporate identity! Some little details to fix and we are ready to move on!! By the way, we will have a very cool video – thx to the Orangerine team who are doing a fantastic job!

We were also fortunate to have someone over this week to discuss potential initiative for Planning Media to start looking for private or institutional venture capital. So many projects are in my head right now… it is incredible!

New media partnerships has been negotiated so far this week (mostly in mobile and content) and we are now working on a first release of our Planning Media v1.0 platform!!!Our team is motivated and the back log is filled (which is a very good thing!)

Official launch is October 14th! Stay tuned, more to come about our development!

www.planningmedia.ca

Planning Media is going live October 14th!

ecdufour — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 03:51:39 +0000

Let’s move in English for this post!(easier for me . Planning Media , now a leading edge firm in performance marketing and media technology will host its official launch party October 14th @ Mojo Restaurant in Rosemere!! Can’t wait! So much work have been done and so much more to come!! As my previous post was stating, we leveraged 100% of the funds we were seeking for!! We did a fantastic job at writing down one of the best business plan! Thx to Louis-Pierre D. and his great talent at presenting!!

The firm is now expanding its local sales force and the prod team is being built! So much more to come!! Some negotiation on the technological segment are currently in the process – new exciting products and performance solutions for local or national advertisers.

A lot of research and investment are done toward the location based marketing trend that is growing (I must say I am a real fan of Foursquare). There are high probability of releasing a new mobile performance marketing solution soon! Stay tuned!!!

Might sounds a real venture for me but I’m thinking acquisition now!! There are a bunch of companies I have a certain interest for (mostly in the US)… will see!! I love this feeling when you are in charge of your own path – making the next call that might have a huge impact on the way things are done! We just launch the first version of Engagement (an algorithm created by Planning Media that insures advertisers a good return on their media investment). We continue to look in front us with a great team behind us!! I am currently reading the Google story, what a fantastic success story – I can’t believe I was @ the Googleplex in 2006 and I didn’t know I was about to built an organization with Google and Facebook as major suppliers!

My goal still holds! Achieving the entrepreneur of the year @ Ernst & Young Gala before the age of 30!

www.planningmedia.ca (english version coming soon

Le Grand Saut

ecdufour — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 03:54:08 +0000

Sur mon profil Linkedin, il est écrit « entrepreneur ». Bien que ma têtes, mes idées, mes projets sont orienté vers l’entreprenariat, mon corps étais au 9ieme étage d’une tour de verre national. J’ai appris des choses très utile et rencontré des gens qui resteront pour moi de très importantes personnes à mes yeux. Le 1er mai arrive enfin et je fais le grand saut! Je serai maintenant à 100% sur mes projets, je tiendrai la barre de deux projets d’envergure que je veux mener avec santé et succès!

Le Capital initial

Mon père, un CFO qui a levé plus de 100 millions de dollars en « venture capital » pour des entreprises privées dans des secteurs technologiques m’a toujours dit à quel point il était dur de lever autant d’argent. Jusqu’à maintenant, je n’avais jamais eu l’occasion de vraiment valider cette information. Je suis là maintenant et bien que je ne lève pas des millions de dollars, je dois dire que c’est extrêmement compliqué de trouver les fonds de démarrage. C’est en même temps un défi vraiment intéressant. Moi qui est un « marketers » je me vois vêtir les souliers (et les bas bruns lol) d’un comptable à faire des prévisions de « cash flow » et de valuation de projets! (je dois spécifié que j’ai un bon coach)

Le tout commence le 1 mai! Ma firme de relation publique est en plein effervescence avec la conclusion d’une très importante entente d’affaires pour l’intégration économique canadienne au Belize. Nos relations ont aussi joué un rôle crucial dans le développment du segment touristique. Nous serons au BETEX du 23 au 28 juin 2010 (www.betex.bz). Mon partenaire (un génie de la négociation) fignole les derniers détails de l’entente et vous pourrez observez la sortie d’un important « Press Release ». Le second d’Interstrategis depuis son lancement.

Parlons immédiat: je rejoint une des meilleurs partenaires d’affaires et très bon ami avec qui j’ai eu la chance de travailler depuis très longtemps. Nous lançons un projet d’envergure pour le marché locale (province de Québec). Stay tuned- more to come!!

Je poursuis mon objectif de gagner l’entrepreneur de l’année au gala de Ernest & Young d’ici le début de la trentaine!

www.interstrategis.com



Arrivé au Belize
ecdufour — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:28:18 +0000
Après une nuit blanche et un atterissage d’urgence au USA, nous sommes finalement arrivé au Belize.  Ce pays est jusqu’à présent fascinant.  Les gens sont sympathique, la végétation est très exotique et le paysage est unique.
Notre mission d’exploration commerciale commence demain.  Nous avons une rencontre prévue à Belize City et nous allons aussi prendre le temps de visiter la ville.  Nous avons plusieurs rencontres planifiées mercredi et jeudi et si le temps nous le permet, nous allons aller visiter Placencia vendredi.  Placencia est au sud de Belize City et est une région magnifique pour les plages et le tourisme.
Le tourisme est une activité économique importante au Belize.  Dans l’avion, nous étions les seuls à voyager pour affaire.  Les touristes qui prennent des vacances ici sont principalement des américains qui viennent faire de la plongé ou de la pêche (2 activités très populaire ici).   Il va être interessant de voir comment ce petit pays d’amérique centrale va se positionnner dans les années futures sur la scène internationale.  Le Belize possède un riche paysage et une faune & flore unique.
Notre mission commerciales va comporter plusieurs étapes.  I l y a plusieurs facteurs à évaluer avant de  mettre en place un plan d’affaire complet comportant de la valeur.  Ce voyage et les rencontres que nous avons  devrait nous permettre de confirmer plusieurs hypothèses de faisabilité  et de bâtir une structure solide.
www.interstrategis.com

         


Interstrategis au Belize!
ecdufour — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 19:56:03 +0000
Enfin nous partons.  Aprés maintenant 2 ans de travail constant à étudier les opportunités d’affaires au Belize, nous nous envolons vers Belize City.  Plusieurs rencontres sont prévues et l’équipe de gestion prépare les documents et présentations finales.
Notre plan d’affaire se déroule selon l’agenda.  Notre firme de Relations Publiques prend des forces à chaque jours.  Le travail que l’on y met, les longues heures à travailler et les centaines de gigantesques cartons blanc couvert de dessins et de plans se transforment en relations d’affaires concrètes et opportunités commerciales.
Ce n’est en fait qu’un début.  Bien que nous avons commencé à travailler sur le projet il y a maintenant 2 ans, ce voyage marque un point tournant dans le développement d’Interstrategis.  Il va permettre à la firme de se positionner sur son marché cible et entreprendre des mandats relié à son secteur d’activité: les relations publiques et la création d’opportunités commerciales.
Le tourisme est l’industrie visée au Belize.  Le pays offre une panoplie d’avantages et son système politique et économique est stable.
Je me suis finalement décidé à écrire sur mon blog.  En fait ,j’en fait un devoir personnel de vous tenir au courant du développement de mes projets d’affaires.
www.interstrategis.com