Past IT ventures
You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em,
Know when to walk away and know when to run.
- Kenny Rogers on "The Gambler"
DIGITAL STRATEGY CONSULTANT focused on content, media and brands November 2008 to January 2010
I help answer the strategic questions :
How do I best use existing and future digital platforms to... :
- create the most value with my existing content ?
- accomplish my strategic objectives ?
- create brand addiction with my target consumers ?
and then translate those answers to tactical operations
- Where do I invest my next dollar ?
- What is my 3 year road map ?
- What projects should I prioritize ?
- How do I manage them ?
Brands for which I have developed digital strategies:
Retail / E-Commerce: Tim Horton's, Canon Canada, Visions Canada
MEDIA - Magazines: Canadian Living, Coup de Pouce, Les Affaires, Elle Canada, Elle Quebec, The Hockey News, Home and Garden, Éditions Protégez-Vous and many others
MEDIA - Newspapers: Umbrella digital strategies for 110 local newspapers, 1 major daily Canadian newspaper
MEDIA - Others: Publisac
MEDIA - Online: Auto123.com, JustFundraising.com
OTHERS: Diocese of Montreal, A large financial institution, A Montreal business university
Methodology
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TRANSCONTINENTAL MEDIA November 2007 – November 2008 (6 first months as a consultant)
Director, Digital strategies
Public company
Following the brainpen venture, I was given the responsibility to create, develop and oversee Transcontinental Media's digital strategies.
Concretely, it meant
- create the new Digital Strategy Center to consult the media brands, the pureplays and the clients by developing scenario-driven business cases
- extend the life of a print article in a magazine or newspaper to web to e-paper to online communities to mobile to local and to all other digital mediums
- create thriving communities based on interests and the phase-of-your-life
- help our consumers learn, do and share and our advertisers reach those consumers
- develop relationships with suppliers and partners to help us get there
- grow an R&D practice to be on the forefront of digital developments
Today, Transcontinental Media has close to 200 online brands to renew, deploy, leverage and optimize. We are the biggest Canadian magazine publisher and the top Canadian group to reach Canadian women online. Each month, 4.2 million people happily consume TM's online content.
www.medias-transcontinental.com
The role was abolished in end of 2008 because of the economic crisis, permitting me to consult many other brands on their project management and digital strategies.
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BRAINPEN INC. September 2006 – February 2008
Web 2.0 knowledge sharing site
Founder and CEO
Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Internet industry
Founded in September 2006 and in negotiations to sell in 2007, brainpen.com is an ebay-like new media ecommerce web site that captures, packages, sells, rates and secures unique experiential knowledge through advanced story - telling techniques.
Corporate description: brainpen.com helps anyone make an online product of their unique life experiences and sell it online. The site permits people to create and sell an eternal personal experience database.
Concept and R&D sold in 2007
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VYANOVA INC. January 2004 – May 2008
Founder and President
Privately Held
Corporate description: To aid technology, internet and software focused companies as a virtual Chief Strategy Officer through the development of the right processes, products and people. We are experts in audits, strategy, execution, investments, coaching and networking...From innovation to profits.
Suspended in May 2008 to focus on Media Transcontinental's digital strategies.
Partial Clientèle:
- Insourcia: building an offshrore web development shop in Hainan, China (strategy, operations, sales and marketing)
- Feeling Software, SRDP Telecom, JustFundraising.com, LSR Development
- Titanium mobile
- Collins
Startup mentoring:
- BidDay Auctions
- FibreNoire
- MyWave Creation
- LED Creations
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OPENFACE INTERNET INC. June 2004 – September 2006
Boutique Internet Service Provider
VP Sales and Services
Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Internet industry
Corporate description: I restructured a local 10-year-old Internet Service Provider by focusing on VIP, white glove, high speed, redundant, no fault, commercial internet connections in Montreal, Quebec and across Canada.
- 58 employees (including subcontractors)
- doubled recurring ebitda and revenues to 5M in 2 years
Typical client : Medium sized financial service business in Montreal looking for a reliable fiber connection redundant with SHDSL, connecting their 4 different locations with multiple suppliers, all on the same network.
www.openface.com
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EUREKIUM INNOVATIONS INC. October 2000 – December 2003
Mobile middleware solutions
Founder and President
Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Wireless industry
Corporate description: I saw an opportunity where companies could access any back-end data in real-time through any mobile device on any cellular network. We built a middleware that could do that and captured the European market with clients such as AXA Insurance, SOS Medecin, France Telecom and Orange, Cap Gemini, Deutch Telecom, etc.
- 53 employees & 4 international offices
- R&D project: 90 man-years
- 6M in investments, profitable
Typical client : Big 4 European systems integrator who needs a complete and robust mobile development platform for AXA Insurance in order to help them reduce the insurance sales cycle from 7 days to 2 hours.
www.vyanova.com/eurekium
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ENSIGNA.COM INC. September 1997 – October 2000
Low cost, high quality IT services
Founder and President
Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Information Technology and Services industry
Corporate description: I saw an opportunity where IT students could work from their homes part time to collaborate and create products and services for the SMB market with an unbeatable value proposition.
We had a network of over 100 students working from their homes or school labs and doing the mandates I would get them. My first entrepreneurial experience, I did everything (except the actual programming). We had specialized IT services for the textile, manufacturing and services in Montreal and abroad. Before the sale, we became experts in huge dotcom website programming and rollouts.
- 12 employees + 55 part time
- 800K in annual revenue
Typical client : Textile manufacturing company with 115 employees. They need a new website connected to a new database-driven back-end to manage the inventory and workflow from tissue to clothing. They also needed a network upgrade and maintenance.
Sold in 2000.
www.vyanova.com/ensigna