Ep 55 From a $60M exit to becoming a venture investor with Étienne Mérineau (co-founder of HeyDay AI and General Partner at Telegraph)

Étienne Mérineau, co-founder of Heyday, shares his journey from the creative industry to launching the conversational commerce platform in 2016. He highlights how hyper-focus and strategic branding drove product-market fit and how a Quebec furniture company embraced conversational commerce during COVID-19. Étienne offers insights on market dynamics, personal finance, pre-seed investing, and B2B SaaS pricing, as well as the importance of investors and founder-market fit. He also touches on leveraging AI and building resilient company cultures in the evolving tech landscape.

HeyDay website (acquired by HootSuite 2021) https://www.hootsuite.com/platform/engagement

Show Notes:

03:07 Founding Heyday: The Early Days

05:10 Navigating the Chatbot Revolution

13:16 Pandemic Pivot: Surviving and Thriving

19:21 Acquisition Talks and Strategic Decisions

28:02 Personal Finance Strategies

30:46 Investment Tips and Best Practices

33:18 Post-Acquisition Journey

35:07 Transition to Venture Capital

39:41 AI and B2B SaaS Insights

51:48 Founder vs. Market: What's More Important?

The Great Pursuit is a podcast that dives into the art and science of finding product market fit. Through in-depth conversations with founders, entrepreneurs and investors, we uncover actionable insights to help you go from 0 to 1.

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