The Canadian Unicorn Who Stayed

About this episode

Fred Lalonde discusses building and scaling companies in Canada, emphasizing the need for more local founders.

Canada has a scaleup problem. We create entrepreneurs, but too many of them feel they need to leave to build world-class companies. Fred Lalonde is one of the exceptions. He is the founder and CEO of Hopper, the Canadian travel-tech company that used data, prediction and fintech to help travellers book with more confidence. Now Lalonde is bringing that same ambition to Deep Sky, a Canadian carbon removal company. In this episode of Disruptors, recorded in front of a live audience, John Stackhouse speaks with Fred about what it takes to build and scale from Canada - and why the country needs more founders willing and able to do it here. Fred is funny and blunt, but underneath it all is a builder's clarity: disruption is not something he manages. It is something he assumes.

People in this episode

Host: John Stackhouse

Guest: Fred Lalonde

Topics covered

• entrepreneurship
• technology
• scaleup
• carbon removal
• travel-tech
• founders

Keywords

• Canadian unicorn
• Hopper
• Deep Sky
• entrepreneurship
• scaleup problem
• travel-tech
• carbon removal

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Hopper, Deep Sky

Places: Canada

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