As part of our “Where Are They Now?” article series, we’ve been sharing about past collaborations with Osedea clients who are creating waves in the world of business and technology after working with us. Today, we're highlighting the many successes of Tealbook, the brainchild of Stephany Lapierre.
Tealbook is an intelligent information platform that centralizes data from millions of suppliers in real time, across all types of industries. The platform has revolutionized the operations of procurement department teams, helping buyers to base their business decisions on information that’s more accurate and more easily accessible than in the past.
Founded in 2015, the company is experiencing strong growth. Tealbook recently secured $18M in funding, and has doubled their number of employees in the past year. At Osedea, we’re extremely proud to have been their technology partner in the early stages of the company.
Why Osedea?
“Should we develop a digital product internally, or externally?” It’s the age-old question faced by all company executives and Founders as they set their vision on establishing, expanding, or better serving their customer base - and Stephany and her team were no exception.
Stephany had come to the realization that the decentralization of information is a serious problem for businesses today. Obtaining desired information required the use of archaic processes. For example, importing contact information from business cards is a tedious task that is inherently analog. Stephany saw an opportunity for improving information procurement, and had a clear vision of the solution she wanted to bring to market, but she didn’t have the technical skills to build a team or develop an MVP (minimum viable product) for the digital tool she dreamed of creating.
After analyzing the offerings of a few software development firms, she turned to Osedea to develop the first version of the Tealbook product: a centralized portal that facilitates the connection between buyers and suppliers. She chose Osedea because of the confidence that Martin Coulombe, its founder, inspired in her. Martin had literally moved to Toronto in order to introduce himself and propose his approach to Stephany. At that time, Osedea was also a startup. Stephany felt she had found a true partner who would be as dedicated to growing her business as she was.
The benefits of hiring pros to build an MVP
As a mentor to startup entrepreneurs, Stephany always suggests keeping the expertise and technological knowledge about a digital product in-house, in order to facilitate obtaining financing. But she feels it’s better to hire a team of experts externally to build the first version of the product. Doing this means less risk, more flexibility, and no need for the startup founder to manage a product development team. This allows him or her to concentrate on marketing the product, without worrying about technological decisions. The result is that the product development process is much faster, and it doesn’t take long before you can bring it to market. You can therefore tap into fresh capital with minimal delay.
Osedea’s expertise and flexibility have allowed Stephany to design a product that exceeds her expectations - and elegantly meets the needs of her customers. Through our collaboration with her, she learned a lot and deepened her technical skills. This played an important role in accelerating the development of the Tealbook software when her internal team took over from Osedea.
“At one point, we completely revamped the concept of Tealbook and the go-to-market strategy, which had a huge impact on the software. Over the course of a single weekend, Osedea presented us with a solution to implement the new vision, along with a detailed development plan. That's what I call a partner!" - Stephany Lapierre, CEO of Tealbook
Tealbook takes off!
Following the successful collaboration with Osedea and launching the first version of the Tealbook Portal, Stephany assembled a team of experts to spearhead the next phase of the project. Notably, she hired a CTO and several data scientists. Building on the expertise acquired through the development of the first version of the platform, the new team got to work, and seven months later, they had completed a 2.0 platform centred on artificial intelligence and machine learning!
The first version of the platform required suppliers to register in order to populate its database, which was the same way other platforms available on the market functioned. However, Tealbook 2.0 automates the creation of supplier profiles by searching the web for relevant information using machine learning algorithms.
Today, its database details 4.7 million profiles, monitors 12 million companies, and browses over 400 million data sources daily to get the latest information. With just a few clicks, users can connect Tealbook to their system to gain access to an invaluable source of information on different vendors that are relevant to their business.The implementation of this unique platform in the market has attracted thousands of companies that want to digitize their business processes. Tealbook has taken off, and Osedea is honoured to have contributed to the success of the company!
If you are curious and want to learn more about the benefits of entrusting your digital projects to a team of professionals, check out this article on 4 reasons why real pros are a must for your digital solutions.
