Our approach
The Foundry is a set of highly targeted and personalized services designed to connect and prepare the startup for its next source of revenue: customers or financing.
The Foundry accelerates your business objectives and your societal impact by leveraging the resources, expertise and partner networks supported by Desjardins.
La Foundry, who is it for?
For startups and scale-ups:
- Ambitious and audacious team
- Willing to go faster and further, by strengthening their strategic capabilities
- No specific level of maturity, between commercialization and internationalization
- That meets at least one of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals
- A particular attention will be given to diverse teams and teams led by minorities
What La Foundry is not
- La Foundry is not an incubator or an accelerator. We work in complement with the actors of the entrepreneurial ecosystem
- La Foundry is not a formatted program but a personalized service based on the startup’s commitment while adapting to its pace
- La Foundry is not just a connexion agent or an automatic pass to the decision makers of Desjardins, Montreal Newtech and their partners
What makes us unique
Complementary to the ecosystem
La Foundry works closely with incubators, accelerators, and other stakeholders in the entrepreneurial ecosystem to maximize your impact.
Tailor-made service
We favor personalized support that adapts to your pace and your specific needs rather than a rigid program.
Strategic support
Access to a vast, select network of partners, professionals, and experts in preferred industries.
What our relationship will be like
Listen
Set
*Certain conditions apply.
Implement
Advantages of La Foundry
Flexible and scalable service
customized to the specific needs and pace of each startup.
Access to a vast selected network
of partners and experts, decision makers and professionals in targeted industries.
Development opportunities
visibility and growth in a dynamic entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Community diversity
facilitating learning, idea exchange, and cross-polination of experiences and expertises between startups, subject matter experts, and professionals.
Committed team
with extensive experience in supporting startups, many of them having already gone through the entrepreneurial journey.
Free of charge
initially for startups thanks to the financial support of our partners.
We can help. What would you like to do?
Benefit
I am a startup that would like to benefit from La Foundry services
Refer
I want to refer a startup, an expert or a potential partner or client
Help
I’m an expert or a potential partner who would like to help startups
Testimonials
Who better to talk about La Foundry than the people behind the startups that have received support from us?
“Adaptive: flexible and responsive to changing business needs.
Human: as opposed to industrial.
Concrete: anchored in action, results as opposed to academic processes.”
(Translated from French)
Adèle Salin-Cantengrel
Co-founder and CEO, SCIKOOP INC
“La Foundry’s support is very unique: from day one we were in action to find tangible solutions to our challenges. Whatever our needs, they have an incredible network of contacts. They supported us, particularly during the signing of one of our biggest contracts, providing legal support that was critical during the negotiation. “
(Translated from French)
Nicolas Fortin St-Gelais
Co-founder and Scientific Director, CANN Forecast Logiciel
“Three months ago, we set ourselves the mission of achieving three major goals that would strengthen the foundations of our company and help make a traffic-free future a reality.
Today, thanks to the massive help of each and every one of you, we’ve achieved these goals and more! This has only been possible thanks to your continued support.
It’s been a pleasure working with you, and we’ll see you again!”
(Translated from French)
“La Foundry provided invaluable support by connecting us with top-level coaches and professionals such as Raphaëlle Fluet and Nicolas Bonnafous. Their expertise has enabled us to improve our communications, fine-tune our business model and market penetration strategy, and draft our first contracts. In addition, La Foundry guides us in identifying networking opportunities and has introduced us to several key contacts. We’re grateful to have their support.”
(Translated from French)
“Following the Cooperathon program, we were fortunate to benefit from the support of La Foundry. The help we received through the service was highly personalized and aligned with our needs, allowing us to accelerate Ora’s progress. Whether through the networking events or the dedicated time of La Foundry staff, the program has been a great help to our business.”
(Translated from French)
Louis St-Pierre
Cofounder & COO, Ora Medical
“… what we particularly appreciated was the support we received from our company to move our project forward on two fronts: the pilot project and financial support. What’s more, the great openness of the people in charge of the Foundry to hearing our needs and realities as a company.”
(Translated from French)
“Sanctuary: for all early-stage founders who face lots of challenges with their journey, they need to talk with someone. My mentors at La Foundry have always had a fair hearing to listen to founders.
Resourceful: My mentors leverage their network to assist me in reaching out to other resources, which is vital for many startups
Patient: Indeed, they are patient and kind, which know no boundaries, and their support goes beyond their commitments to only the work-related tasks for the startups. In other words, my mentors are also my coaches.
Hope it helps, however, words are not able to depict what you are. Many thanks for your amazing support and congratulations to Desiardins for having such valuable people in their team.”
(Traduit de l’anglais)
Mehdi Masoumi
Founder, Deaf-Ai
“What I appreciated most about your support was the quality and diversity of your network of partners. Thanks to you, I’ve been able to get in touch with competent professionals specializing in different fields. Your ability to identify and put the right people in touch with each other is a real asset of your service.
As for the three words that best define your services, I would choose: connectivity, expertise and support.
Your service offers true connectivity with a wide network of partners, enabling you to explore numerous opportunities for collaboration. What’s more, your partners’ expertise is undeniable, and their contribution has been invaluable to the development of my project. Finally, the support you offer throughout the process is very much appreciated, as it enables me to benefit from comprehensive and personalized guidance.”
(Translated from French)
Anouar Kalboussi
Fondateur, Eventboo
“La Foundry’s services were invaluable to Redeo, especially at the start of our entrepreneurial adventure. As we faced the challenges typical of early-stage startups, we found in La Foundry a dedicated and competent partner. Their expertise, network and advice were invaluable as we navigated the hurdles of starting a business. We are grateful to La Foundry for their ongoing commitment and contribution to our first steps towards success.”
(Translated from French)
Dr. Vincent Dumouchel MD
Cofounder, CEO & Frontend Developper, Redeo
“La Foundry is a tailor-made service offered by a team dedicated to the success of our business. La Foundry listens to the needs of the company and, above all, of the entrepreneurs, and is always available to pass on opportunities for outreach. In short, La Foundry is a human-to-human service based on listening to the needs of startups and supporting their growth.”
(Translated from French)
Frédérick Drouin
COO and Co-founder, Displaid inc.
“I appreciated the personalized support, and your availability. I really liked the flexibility of the support, the fact that I could access services (legal, financial etc…) and the contacts with coaches and entrepreneurs. For me, having the support of a structure like the foundry gives me the confidence to move forward.”
(Translated from French)
Mariem Abid
CEO, Applicare
“3 words :
Unconditional support
Unlocking
A reliable network connection
Without La Foundry, the road would have been a lonely and difficult one.
Without La Foundry I’d probably still be looking for someone willing to work with a garage contractor like me. With La Foundry, all their connections were followed through. That’s why I’ll always trust their ability to put me in touch with the right people who can help me.
What La Foundry has offered me that no other program can is support over a long period of time that really addresses the issues I’m facing at any given time.”
Rebecca Ung
CEO, Kumu
“Our coaching with La Foundry was offered following our participation in the Coopérathon. A business coach was assigned to us in 2023 to listen to our needs and guide us in certain decisions related to the growth of our organization. Thanks to La Foundry, we also had access to services from Cabinet Langlois. Cabinet Langlois’ intervention to review an intellectual property sharing agreement between API-Enfance and the authors of the Mots d’enfants innovation was invaluable. I particularly note their specialized legal expertise in the field of copyright in digital businesses, and their ability to understand our needs. Thanks to their support, we were able to clarify and strengthen our intellectual property agreements, which not only protected our interests, but also facilitated future collaborations and strategic partnerships. We would like to thank La Foundry and its partners for this rich experience! “
(Translated from French)
“Three keywords:
1. Knowledgable team,
2. Caring support and
3. Supporting startups on their own terms.
Let me flash out the above. Instead of imposing your own programs and beliefs… you ask us first on how you can support us. This allows us to be truly accelerated instead of following a fixed curriculum that is not aligned with where things are for us.
I really appreciate that at La Foundry, you work with the founders in the ways they need support.”
(Traduit de l’anglais)
Dóra Jámbor
Co-founder & CEO, Mohana
“First of all, thank you very much for the continuous support of La Foundy and you are very efficient and to the point. If you want to give just 3 keywords to describe La Foundry’s services, it would be supportive, responsive and great visibility for us. La Foundry’s support service is an excellent benefit to any startup that needs it.”
Mahsa Alimi
CEO, Biosam
“An opportunity for growth through the acquisition of a competitor in distress arose, and La Foundry responded, well aware that it’s important to consolidate local startups, and that the real competition is international. To do this, they found us the perfect expert, who had both the knowledge of our market, and the experience of having navigated some twenty acquisitions. With his expertise, we were able to move forward, resign the competitor’s customer for several millions, and position ourselves in a new market segment; the one with the strongest growth. This story would not have been conceivable without the unfailing support of La Foundry, a really pleasant team to work with!”
(Translated from French)
Mathieu Lachaîne
CEO, Sentiom
“We are very proud to have been supported by La Foundry and look forward to continuing to grow with their ongoing support. This collaboration has led to some great introductions with the Desjardins team, with whom we continue to exchange ideas for our financing needs. In addition, our introduction to Startup Montreal (today Quebec Tech) was crucial to our selection for the Hyper Croissance program, also supported by Investissement Québec, which reinforced our positioning as a scaleup with high growth potential. This led us to participate in high-profile events such as Tiecon 2024 in Silicon Valley, where I had the honor of being invited as a guest speaker last week, opening doors for our next round of serial financing.”
(Translated from French)
Dany Papineau
Founder & CEO, WeChalet
Startups supported
2022
2023
2024
2025 (1st semester)
%
Satisfaction score
A startup is only as strong as its weakest link.
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