In Toronto, in the new premises of sendinblue, everything is white. Here, the space is decompartmentalized, flexibility in the organization of work is at the rendezvous, teleworking has entered the customs. For this French company that offers mass marketing, email and SMS solutions to small and medium-sized businesses, there are no offices or traditional organizational methods. “That’s what appealed to me from the start,” says Oliver Page, 22, business development manager.
T-shirts and jeans are popular. Most ? A basketball hoop, offered as a reward to employees for exceeding sales targets last year. The energy is palpable. About twenty motivated young employees rub shoulders. They will be thirty by the end of the year, fifty next year and a hundred in 2024, predicts Steffen Schebesta, CEO for North America, with a broad smile.
The company moved to Toronto in August 2020, close to the train station and not far from the CN Tower and Lake Ontario. As Steffen Schebesta points out, it has already proven itself in the North American market, with its new revenues exceeding those of the European market. “It’s a sign that we have ‘traction’ in the market,” he said, adding that the small French company must compete with Amazon and the other giants of the industry. And since nothing is decided in advance, directors and employees work twice as hard…
A wealth of young talent
Created in 2007 in Paris where it still has its head office, Sendinblue quickly benefited from a boost from French Tech, a support project for start-ups launched by the French government, aimed at boosting the high-tech sector. In 2021, for the second consecutive year, she was selected to integrate the French Tech Next40 programwhich supports the development of scale-up (companies changing size) at the World level.
Six hours behind Paris, the Ontario capital has quickly established itself as the ideal choice for developing activities in North America while serving Europe. Because the time zone was better suited to discuss with Paris than the first office in Seattle, nine hours apart. And that Canadian social programs, health insurance for example, were more in harmony with those of France. Finally, talent was easier to find in Toronto, a city populated by universities, than in Seattle, where competition is fierce. “I received twenty to thirty very good CVs after a week, specifies Steffen Schebesta. It was impressive.”
Because everything moves very quickly in this innovative sector. Especially since Ontario benefits from the greatest concentration of start-ups in the world after Silicon Valley. In the Greater Toronto Area, the high-tech industry employs some 290,000 people. “A hundred French Tech companies are now established there. We have made great progress,” says Romain Le Merlus, co-president of French Tech Toronto.
“Be careful, turnover is high there and employees move from one employer to another,” warns Ian Lee, of the Carleton University business school. For now, the relaxed atmosphere of Sendinblue retains more than one. “Rather than showing off your professional personality, you can show off your own character traits,” says Oliver Page. And to invite visitors to a basketball game…