AI and the golden age of entrepreneurship

Ten years ago, when Marc Lafleur (BSc ’14) was raising capital for his startup truLOCAL, he was often dismissed as a “non-technical founder.”    

Lafleur proved the naysayers wrong. He grew truLOCAL into a national e-commerce business, offering meat and seafood delivery from local farms and fisheries across Canada. By 2019, the company had more than 60 employees and exceeded $20 million in annual revenue. In 2020, Lafleur sold truLOCAL for $16.7 million. A couple years later, he set his sights on a new project.