I'm an entrepreneur, business advisor, and opinionated autodidact with a passion for technology.My work is situated at the intersection of digital, marketing, strategy and operations. Specifically, I help organizations design clean, modern, and efficient tech stacks—plus the workflows and systems that go around them—to construct best-in-class business and marketing functions.I spent ten years in Tokyo, where I co-founded and led YF, a multidisciplinary brand agency, before returning to Montreal, where I currently live with my wife and daughters.If you'd like you can read more about my background and what I'm doing now.I'm glad you're here. Thanks for stopping by.
You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.
† From James Clear’s Atomic Habits
The current business environment is incredibly demanding: disruption lurks around the corner, customers have seemingly impossible demands, and the war for talent keeps raging on. Plus, cloud computing and low-code/no-code development platforms have completely transformed the playing field, unleashing massive optimizations for those who know how to use them. And this was true even before 2020, which has decentralized the workforce, transformed work practices, and unleashed new problems of coordination, productivity, and visibility.To address these challenges, my work focuses on designing (or redesigning) systems that help businesses thrive. Whether it’s a new workflow, channel, product, or brand, my goal is to help you achieve the level of performance and overall fitness that’s required in today’s complex and ever-shifting times.
In short, my contribution to projects can be summarized as such:
I help individuals and teams do their best work by finding tools, defining protocols, structuring workflows, leveraging technology, and finding hacks so that even small teams can achieve big goals.
I solve problems swiftly and creatively. I have the ethos of a fixer, which means I’m able to find novel solutions to unique problems without the need for fuss or useless aggrandizement.
I make ideas become reality. Ideas are not useful if they don’t ship. I’ve launched countless brands, campaigns, events, and products.
I build consensus on multidisciplinary project teams and act as a leader to help set direction, navigate ambiguity, and deliver for impact.
Current Ventures
GERV Inc. — a Swiss-army-knife brand and marketing consultancy
The Alpine Review — broad research organization focused on sensemaking
The Boxing Club — incredible-tasting natural wines
Full Stack Banana — a podcast exploring what would be life's basic scaffolding
I grew up in Canada but spent the better part of my 15-year career in Tokyo, where I founded and managed YF, a small (but nevertheless mighty) agency with blue-chip international clients, and a collection of related ventures.Prior to that I worked at YPG, National Bank of Canada and Valtech. I also hold a BA and MA in business from Sherbrooke University in Canada.
Yoroshiku Fantastic
The story of YF is too long to tell here (you can imagine what it was like for a 25-year-old French Canadian to start a business, from scratch, in Japan), but suffice it to say that, through hard work and an unconventional, outsider’s approach, we rapidly grew to work with some of the biggest brands in the world—notably Volvo (UD Trucks), Imperial Tobacco, and Sony. Working on inbound and outbound projects alike, we brought the world to Japan and Japan to the world.As co-founder and managing director, my role at YF was primarily focused on revenue acquisition and overall operations, managing a growing multicultural and multilingual team to execute ever more ambitious projects.Our recipe for success? 1 Capitalize on the complacency of large incumbent agencies, 2 Say yes to unconventional, irregular and scary opportunities which require innovation and risk-taking, and 3 Be ruthlessly efficient to keep the team small, nimble, cohesive, and focused.
Other ventures
Dot (2018) — a consulting firm that focuses on distributed ledger and blockchain technology. This venture grew more or less organically, given Tokyo’s early role in the crypto scene. Effectively, as YF grew, we got a lot of requests for digital marketing x crypto advisory services, which eventually led to the consultancy’s spin-off.Soudesune (2020) — an online shopping platform that allows creators to produce and sell their own streetwear and accessories. We were excited by the promise of digital commerce and worked with many brands hoping to make a DTC play, so we decided to make our own brand platform, partly as a learning experiment, partly for fun.After 10 incredible years in Tokyo, where in addition to building a thriving number of businesses I met my wife and started a family, we eventually returned to Canada for the next chapter.
Some organizations I’ve worked with:
