Like Tom Hanks, serial entrepreneur Thierry LeVasseur keeps churning out hit after hit. In the past 12 years, LeVasseur has launched three multi-million-dollar technology companies.
In 1999, he founded and launched Maestro CMS, an enterprise-level content-management system that later became Marqui. In 2000, he launched SoftwareCreated Technologies, a boutique custom-software house catering to top-of-mind brands.
And in 2006 he founded email2, an email encryption system that offers organizations the ability to exchange confidential information with their clients and partners. In 2010, email2 received five patents from the US Patent office, testimony to the uniqueness of the system, which is used by government agencies, law firms, and financial and healthcare institutions.
LeVasseur’s fourth business, nQbatr (nQbatr.com), launched five months ago, is his most ambitious to date. Its mission: to redefine the way business incubators and aspiring entrepreneurs start and develop new companies.
“We look at this business as a nouveau incubator – kind of like Incubator 3.0,” says LeVasseur, who holds MBAs from the University of Ottawa and the Reims Management School in France. “Vancouver has such a great pool of talented entrepreneurs with great ideas, but no one has formalized an efficient way of getting those ideas to market.
“In the old model, a geek, or technology person, approaches an angel investor with a product, but has little sense of whether the market wants it,” he says. “Then the angel invests money, often without support for many of the business processes needed for success.
“That’s like throwing spaghetti against the wall. It’s too random and too messy. With nQbatr, we look for seasoned business executives, who have identified a need in their industry, and we help them develop a process or product to serve that need. We prefer to eat our spaghetti.”
For example, nQbatr might work with a bank executive, or a person at a government institution, who has first-hand knowledge of a problem that can be solved with better technology.
“The important part of the equation for us is that the entrepreneur already has a prospect client, and we don’t have to prove the concept,” says LeVasseur, a founding partner of nQbatr. “There’s already a market for the product – the need is already established. And nQbatr’s job is to bring the new technology to market as quickly as possible.”
In a similar fashion, this is how the idea for nQbatr came to LeVasseur.
“Because I’ve had some success with starting and growing businesses, often people will come to me and say, ‘Hey, I have this idea – can you help me?’ ”
Like a true entrepreneur, LeVasseur saw that problem as an opportunity, and developed the concept – and more significantly, the team – to deliver on the idea.
There’s a key difference between nQbatr and other business incubators. LeVasseur has assembled 20 C-level executives. These executives act synchronously as a capital pool, mentors, and business development experts across a wide range of disciplines.
“Each of us has had more than 20 years’ experience as entrepreneurs and business executives,” LeVasseur says. “We’ve all suffered the pitfalls of business and can offer many different vantage points for our clients.
“Our goal is very simple: to get our clients through the first phase of developing the idea with a strong go-to-market strategy and initial financing.”
In addition to straight financing, nQbatr’s talented team supports their clients with some combination of the following:
• Go-to-market strategy, as mentioned.
• Technology vision and resources.
• Research and development.
• Intellectual property protection (patents and trademarks).
• Marketing strategy.
• Financing road map.
• Exit strategy.
And, since the majority of nQbatr’s team has had experience growing and selling businesses, an exit strategy is a key part of the process.
“We won’t touch any deal unless we can define a clear exit strategy,” LeVasseur says.
Another way nQbatr differentiates itself from other business incubators is that it asks the entrepreneur to put up $50,000 as a commitment to their idea.
“This helps to sort out the pretenders from people who are serious about their business,” LeVasseur says. “As a minimum, we match the $50,000 to create a development budget of at least $100,000.”
LeVasseur explains that nQbatr does not sign non-disclosure agreements (he suggests notarizing your documentation if you have confidentiality concerns). Engagement decisions are made within 30 days of receiving the application.
In the short life of nQbatr, they have already looked at more than 100 proposals. They’ve green-lighted two and are considering two others, in both Canada and the US.
“We have the capacity to do two deals a quarter and eight deals a year,” LeVasseur says.
And no two deals are exactly the same.
“With one of the deals we’ve approved, the entrepreneur wanted nQbatr to do the majority of the development, so he chose to keep only a 10 percent stake in the project. On the other hand, if someone has a concept that is extremely unique and is willing to work on it full time, we are happy to own a smaller stake or take royalties on future sales.
“We don’t use a cookie-cutter approach. We judge each idea on its merits and on the strength of the skills that the client brings to the table.”
If the past is any indication of the future, then nQbatr is slated for the same success as LeVasseur’s previous companies. The only difference is that, instead of being the leading man in each business, he gets to be Steven Spielberg and produce the hits.