My Story

A transfer of knowledge and experience.

That’s how Michel Girard describes his mentoring style, guiding Pierre-Alexandre Villeneuve and Mélanie Larin in their success with Lavéco Mobile Inc. Michel says he views his role as mentor as someone who is simply available to young entrepreneurs, whether to answer questions, schedule meetings, or just listen to problems.

“I try to help them in the development of their planning and strategies, but it’s also appropriate to share my own mistakes and to show them that it is possible to overcome them. I think that it is important to establish feasible and quantifiable goals, to be positive and to believe in oneself. There is always a solution to a problem.”

Stressing the need to encourage young entrepreneurs to stimulate growth on a local community level, and on a national level, Michel calls the Futurpreneur Canada mentoring program “a win-win solution for everyone involved.”

He explains that the entrepreneur receives the guidance and experience of a mentor, the mentor gets the opportunity to be involved in the next generation of new and innovative business ideas and leaders, and communities have more jobs available to them, and grow economically as well.