The new generation of consumers likes to do everything online: order at a restaurant, buy groceries or buy clothes. She now has access to the services of accountants, notaries and financial advisors, without having to travel. This is the proposal of a small company from Repentigny, Welcome Spaces.
It was a pandemic idea. They are four partners, Jean-Philippe Laforge, Éric Welters, Christian Nadeau and Maly Charbonneau. They designed an app to allow merchants to see their customers face-to-face, remotely. The concept has evolved into a virtual meeting place between those who provide professional services and their clients.
“Millennials want to do everything online. They don’t like talking on the phone and don’t like face-to-face meetings, but they don’t want to do business with a robot either. I know, I am one,” sums up Maly Charbonneau, 28, co-founder and chief marketing officer of Welcome Spaces.
The company that officially took off last January is a web platform that connects specialists duly approved by a professional order with a clientele that is often difficult to reach.
The application uses artificial intelligence to establish the best possible relationship between the supply of professionals and the demand of customers. Accountants, insurers, mortgage brokers and lawyers, among other specialties, are just a click away from those who need them.
The place of exchange offers permanent, private and secure spaces, where the two parties to a transaction can chat with or without video support, sign documents and keep files.
Welcome Spaces is not a fintech subject to the regulations of the Autorité des marchés financiers, specifies the co-founder. The security that the company offers to users of the platform is that which comes with a professional title, absolutely necessary to use it.
Professionals can try the Welcome Spaces service for free and then choose between two proposals: $438 or $998 per year per user, depending on the options selected. Then you just have to wait for the customers, who come to them for free and without any more effort on their part.
Welcome Spaces currently welcomes 74 professionals from several specialties who offer their expertise on its platform. His immediate goal is to increase this total and attract as many specialists as possible who want to expand their clientele.
The small company is currently focusing on Quebec territory, but would eventually like to expand its playground to all of Canada. Investissement Québec has invested $1 million in Welcome Spaces to help market its product.