It is more important than ever to be hiring qualified companies or people to help grow your business. B2BQuotes is a Montreal-based company that connects you to highly qualified professionals in all aspects of a business. This week we speak with co-founder Mathieu Plante all about the platform.Transcript:Marc Aflalo:On the line with us is the co founder of a very cool company based in Montreal, called B2BQuotes, Mathieu Plante. Welcome to YourTechReport. Thank you so much for being on the line with us because during this pandemic it's fun to speak to people, quite honestly.Mathieu Plante:Well, thank you so much for having me. I'm excited.Marc Aflalo:Tell us about B2BQuotes, because this is a company that was brought to my attention by one of the PR agencies that we work with, and of course, I went on the website, I did my research, but I always love hearing about the company from the people who created it. You being a co founder, there's obviously a reason that this site was created. I'm curious, what was that reason? What was that defining moment that said, "Hey, we should create something that connects people here"?Mathieu Plante:Well, me and the other co founders, we've had businesses in the past and it's always a struggle to prioritize the different challenges and projects that we will do during a year, whether it's web or marketing challenges that we have. Are we going to do it in house? Do we have the right people to do it? Are we going to be hiring a referral from our friend, but then we don't know if it's the best match for our industry, our budget and everything like that. Then we can always go on Google, but then there's thousands of results and everybody you'll be speaking to, they'll always say, "Well, we're the best fit for you," but in the end we know that it's not the case.Mathieu Plante:In order to be able to navigate all of that, we decided to create B2BQuotes, which is a web marketplace that helps businesses get in touch with the most relevant suppliers for their web and marketing needs.Marc Aflalo:How do you define that? How do you define most relevant for their needs?Mathieu Plante:Right now we have 2,500 curated suppliers on the platform, 80% of them are agencies and 20% are freelancers. And then we have this algorithm that really helps us get the most relevant ones. There's a point system that we have in place, there's a thorough qualification that we do before onboarding suppliers. Only two out of three can actually get activated in the platform because of all these filters that we have to make sure that we really have good companies. And then they're able, in their accounts, to really get those hard filters, again, about the dual localization, the language, the services, the budget per services and all of that.Mathieu Plante:Now, the most important part really is the quality of the work they've done on the platform and with actual customers, and this will really bring their global notes up. Then we send the projects to the suppliers that are relevant, but also have the best quality score to the businesses.Marc Aflalo:Obviously there's two sides to this. There's, as a supplier or a freelancer, let's start there. I'm a supplier, let's say I'm a website designer or some kind of marketing agency. When I sign up for the service, what's the experience like? What kind of questions am I going to be asked that help qualify me?Mathieu Plante:Well, some of the questions are exactly what I just said, about what kind of services you're doing and all of that. Afterwards, to subscript to the platform, it's absolutely free of charge, and then you start seeing business needs that are relevant to whatever you're doing. You don't need to accept any of those, but at some point you'll say, "Well, that's exactly what I'm doing. I already have customers in that industry. I can really be of good value to them." Then you can accept the actual project.Mathieu Plante:The business model, how it works for the business, it's always free of charge, there is no engagement so that we can help them. Now for the suppliers, they pay us a referral fee in order to have access to qualified projects. Whenever you decided, "Well, this is exactly the kind of client that I can help," you accept it. Then there's up to four suppliers that can accept a project, in order for them to have a good chance of getting the deal, but also for the business so that they're not overwhelmed and flooded with 50 people wanting their business. That's the promise that we do.Marc Aflalo:That's impressive. Is it hand curated? Are there physical people who are going through every different bid, or is it all AI or algorithmic-based?Mathieu Plante:That's a really good question. We started doing everything personalized with actual humans, and then we added the filters and all of that. Right now we're part of an incubator called Next AI in Canada, that is helping us integrate AI also, just to, I guess, empower the humans behind. We're never going to be a humanless platform, but the idea is to really get even more relevant matches and even more faster matches for the businesses.Marc Aflalo:You said there's 2,500, was that 2,500 agencies on board or 2,500 businesses using the platform?Mathieu Plante:That's suppliers. Then we help over 4,000 businesses so far with the platform. The businesses that we help are really all kinds of ranges. To give you an idea, the smaller project that will activate on the platform is around $1,000, but the biggest one that we've had is $1.5 million. We'll help-Marc Aflalo:Now, is there a limited type of work? Because I noticed there's website design, marketing, mobile app, does it go with everything to even engineering?Mathieu Plante:Well, the aim for us is to be a one stop shop for every business service needs. We needed to start somewhere, we're only in our third year now, we're having good success in Quebec and in Ontario we're expanding. Some of the core services that we have right now, we started with web and marketing just because that was my background with agencies, and now we're adding services as we go. Right now the core services are website development, application development, whether you need help implementing a CRM or an ERP, web marketing in general, or marketing in general, corporative videos, branding design. And then you have PR, copy writing, translation and stuff like that. This is our core, there's 40 services in web and marketing, but now we're adding accounting services. We want to be able to help businesses with their real estate needs, whether it's to rent or to buy a place for their business, so on and so forth.Marc Aflalo:There really is no limit in terms of the size of, "I'm a small business and I need a logo design," for example. Where in my mind that's a small project, then I shouldn't hesitate because it's not just million dollar projects. It could be, "I just need someone to help me program something."Mathieu Plante:Exactly. We'll definitely help you and by asking the right questions. Because every time we always have a human talking to the business owner or to the marketing coordinator and really digging in. What is it exactly that they're looking for? And then we're able, with also our qualification, to direct you in the right place, because we have freelancers that will do small logos, but we also have smaller agencies, midsize agencies, huge agencies, and sometimes you can get a logo done for $500, but you can always get a logo done for $30,000. It really depends on what you're looking for, where you're at, and as far as branding goals, web marketing goals, website goals, there's different places. We're here to help you navigate all of that.Marc Aflalo:My advice, I guess, for people would be, if there's any business need you have, before you go anywhere else, go to B2BQuotes to check to see if you might be matched with someone who can do the job with great experience, and is curated really. Because there's so many sites out there where you can find developers, freelancers from all over the world. Some speak English, some don't speak English. Really, there's no real moderation there. Yes, there are reviews, but those don't necessarily accurately reflect what you're going to get at the end of the day. I always say you get what you pay for. Whereas this system really is curated. It helps quantify the type of work that you're going to get done.Mathieu Plante:Exactly. Most of the time with these other sites, you will get 10, 20, 30, even hundreds of results depending, and some of those people are just using the bazooka approach to really get jobs everywhere. Whereas on our platform, the suppliers will hand pick the projects that they really think they can nail and that's when they get matched. It's a more curated approach for sure.Marc Aflalo:Now you said the agencies and the freelancers, they're the ones paying the referrals. As a business, if you're seeking out agencies or freelancers, you're not going to pay anything. What kind of referral fee is it? Is it based on the size of the project? Is it a flat fee, a monthly fee?Mathieu Plante:To give you an idea, it's around 1% to 2% that we ask for the referral to up to four providers. We make 4% to 8% of the actual project, and the value of the project we will calculate it over the course of a year. Now, what will differentiate 1% to 2%, it will depend on the kind of service. Because let's say in web marketing, usually there's a good portion that will go to either Google or Facebook, that's the ad spent, so then we'll have a lower percentage because it's not the agency or the freelancer that will take all the money. Whereas developing an application, usually it's serviceable billable hours, then we'll go to the higher bracket, which is 2%, because the money is all going to the supplier.Marc Aflalo:That makes total sense. I'm curious, obviously we're living in the midst of a pandemic now, how has COVID-19 affected your business? Has it helped? Has it done nothing? What have you seen?Mathieu Plante:Actually, we definitely needed to pivot what we were doing. Before, we were taking 10, 15 minutes per businesses that were calling us or filling out forms to really activate their projects. Now we shifted that approach to really more of a consultant approach. I mean, the service is still free, there is no engagement, but we really took the time and we're still taking the time, that that will stay with us, to really deeply understand the business, to understand what kind of projects would they have to help them prioritize those, and then help them with their project brief and everything. COVID changed that for us because we had more time and we said, "Well, let's give more value to the business."Mathieu Plante:From there, I mean, a lot of opportunities came. We added new services like training for employees and businesses, HR services, also financial and financial help for businesses and stuff like that. That all came from COVID. Another aspect of it is that because all the businesses had to go online, or they would just hit a wall, a lot of them, we had a lot of businesses coming for eCommerce websites, web marketing needs and stuff like that. Actually, we doubled the business in the last three months. We're one of the lucky businesses with the COVID situation.Marc Aflalo:Listen, that's absolutely great. Let me leave you with this question, have you guys used the service yourself?Mathieu Plante:Of course, actually, we do it on a monthly basis. Every time we need help for either a video or some content, we have one of the supplier of the platform doing our Facebook ads, another one's doing our adwares. We also hired a branding agency there. John, that introduced us, is also on the platform as a PR supplier. Of course we use it everyday.Marc Aflalo:Very, very cool. Mathieu, thank you so much for taking the time to tell us about this. If you look five years down the road, how do you see the evolution of this platform?Mathieu Plante:That's a really good question. Actually, we bootstrapped the whole business so far, we got a little bit of depth and we have an angel investor, but we really are taking part in accelerators right now and are planning on raising our first round in six months from now, in order to really go faster and be an international business. We're currently doing proof of concepts in France, also in the rest of Canada, we're studying in the U.S. For sure, it's to be a global business that can really take care of every service needs that you have as a business.Marc Aflalo:Well, I think you've definitely got the formula set straight, and I think obviously with the success that you're showing, even in the times of a pandemic, is obviously a great sign. I wanted to wish you all the best. Please do come back and tell us about expansion, tell us about everything you're doing. I think I'm going to sign up now to become a supplier.Marc Aflalo:Still to come, we're going to speaking to Samsung all about their brand new laptop lineup. Check it out. It is your check report. Normally with Mitchell Whitfield, I am Mark Aflalo, back in just a moment.