School of Public Health Sciences alum Marc Lafleur shares how his entrepreneurship playbook has changed since selling his first company.
Ten years ago, Marc Lafleur was often dismissed as a “non-technical founder.” Lafleur proved the naysayers wrong. He grew truLOCAL into a national e-commerce business, offering meat and seafood delivery from local farms and fisheries across Canada. By 2019, the company had more than 60 employees and exceeded $20 million in annual revenue. In 2020, Lafleur sold truLOCAL for $16.7 million. A couple years later, he set his sights on a new project. As he planned his second startup, his non-technical background didn’t seem to matter anymore. AI had changed the game. “I started finding very quickly that I could do more stuff on my own. If I had the vision for something, AI was starting to be able to do it.” OpenAI had just launched a new product called ChatGPT. A few months later, the company released their API platform, allowing anyone to build their own AI products using the ChatGPT models. “It became obvious to me that we were entering a golden age of entrepreneurship,” Lafleur says. After months of research and planning, the non-technical founder launched DB8 Labs, a venture studio building a portfolio of lean, high-impact AI businesses. “If you want to get into AI, you should. But the next thing that you should ask is, ‘Where are you going to have the biggest impact with AI?’” Lafleur is excited to share this message with other non-technical entrepreneurs on special episodes of @CBC’s Dragons' Den Canada this winter. He joins other successful past pitchers taking their seats as Dragons, where he’ll listen to new pitches, share expertise and maybe even invest. You can watch him on Dragons’ Den Full Circle on February 26 and March 6, 2026 — or stream it anytime on CBC Gem. Full Story: https://lnkd.in/gfvXpBvw | #UWaterlooNews
