Practicing in over 4 countries across the globe with an excess of 130 employees. Macadamian is a leading software design and development studio, grossing over $11M in revenues annually. The core business practice is assisting other businesses develop software to match the strategic plans for creation of market-ready practice.
CEO Frederic Boulanger is an industry veteran with a long professional career before founding Macadamian. With a strong sense for innovation and a perservering attitude, he and his partners have created one of the best software design and development studios in Canada.
CEO Frederic Boulanger is one of the three Co-Founders of Macadamian. Known as “Fred” he began his career at Corel, where he managed development of the Paradox database suite. Founding the business in 1997 with three colleagues, collectively they have grown the business to arguably be one of Canada’s best known software consulting firms collaborating with such clients as Cisco, HP, Avaya, Cognos, and Adobe design and develop their products. Fred is very involved in the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC) and the Canadian technology community. He believes strongly that the future of innovation in Canada rests within the youth; consequently there is a substantial need to encourage more young people to pursue science, design, and engineering as a career path. With (OCRI), Fred founded the Ottawa High School Technology Program, aimed at teaching and encouraging kids get excited about technology.
What is Success? My advice to a young entrepreneur is to take the time to make sure they know what the answer is to them personally, and be crystal clear about it.
What was the spark that led you to starting your business?
Early in my career I managed the development of a number of products at Corel. Corel products were very innovative and complex, and we were sourcing talent from all over the world, including consultants. I wasn’t impressed with most of the consultants and firms being presented, I realized I could do much better, and that Corel probably wasn’t the only technology company with this pain, so I left and founded my own firm.
Where did your business’s seed capital come from?
We have always been self-funded. Our growth has been funded through profits. We’re fortunate, because it means we have always been the masters of our own destiny.
Tell us a bit more about Macadamian.
Macadamian was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada. We help companies, primarily technology companies, design and create software that will differentiate them, and that their customers will love using. We have grown from 4 founders to 130 people. From designers, developers, quality assurance, and researchers, Macadamian now employs them across 4 countries in North America and Europe. We currently serve the North American market, primarily in the Ottawa, Montreal, Boston, Dallas, and San Jose areas.
People work best when they have autonomy and when they are empowered to make positive change.
What makes your services unique and different?
We believe that to create truly compelling software, you need to have user experience design and engineering teams tightly integrated. That’s how you get your best ideas, and how you make sure that the product gets built as you designed it. Plus, you move much faster as communication between the teams is more fluid. We are one of the only firms in our field that have User Experience Design and Software Engineering under one roof, so our customers avoid the pain of having to manage the hand-off between design and engineering, and the rework that goes along with it.
How did you build your management team?
We have a mix of homegrown and outside people, weighted towards in-house talent. We believe in giving our people opportunities and helping them develop.
What insights do you have from building and attracting your workforce?
People work best when they have autonomy and when they are empowered to make positive changes. Most of the process improvements in our business, for example, are derived from the people that work on customer projects, not from the management team. Also, do what you say and say what you do. Word will quickly get around if you say you are a company that cares about employees but you don’t act on it.
How did you brand your business and market it?
First and foremost for a services company is to do a great job. Most of your clients come from repeat buyers, referrals, or reputation, so you need to be excellent at what you do. Second is thought-leadership. We establish ourselves as one of the leading experts in product design and development.
The best part of owning a business is seeing things grow and evolve without you being involved!
Could you give a brief description of your biggest success so far?
One of the best decisions we’ve made was to merge with a user experience design firm about four years ago. We started as a software development firm, and we realized that to be more strategic to our customers, and to be involved earlier in their product cycle, that we would need to add to our core competencies.
What other milestones has Macadamian achieved?
A recent major accomplishment was diversifying our client base over the last year. At one point, we let a single customer become almost 50% of our revenue. When they started having financial difficulty during the downturn, they could have taken us out with them. Thankfully we were able to diversify quickly, and now we have a very healthy mix of customers.
Do you have plans to expand to new markets?
We expand both in industry markets and geographic markets. We recently established an office in San Jose, CA, and we’re working on expanding our market presence there, as well as in the Health Science and Telecommunications industries. That’s keeping us busy for now.
What are your goals as an entrepreneur?
To create value while solving interesting business problems for our customers, and seizing opportunities that are critical to our clients – which they are willing to pay top dollar for to get access to our talents and ideas.
What is your exit strategy?
I’m in this for the long term. I’m not contemplating an exit in the short term. That being said, someone once told me all businesses are for sale, it’s just a matter of price. In that context, I believe the likeliest exit for us is a strategic buyer – someone likely to pay a premium because of the strategic fit. A distant second scenario, another type of exit would be through a private investment to allow existing shareholders to go liquid to some extent.
Do you have any other ventures you are working on?
No. Macadamian’s growth is taking 100% of my attention.
If I could start over, what would I do differently? Go even faster!
How do you define success?
This question is important for a new entrepreneur to really understand. My advice to a young entrepreneur is to take the time to make sure they know what the answer is to them personally, and be crystal clear about it. Review that answer yearly to see if it still makes sense, because it may change as your business grows, and as you grow personally.
To what do you most attribute your success?
Perseverance, and not taking myself too seriously – I’m wrong everyday about something! I love learning and doing better.
If you were to recommend a book or movie to a young entrepreneur, what would it be?
Business is all about communication and dialog. A life changer for me has been Fierce Conversations, by Susan Scott. It frames the complexity of understanding each other in the context of life and work. We make or destroy relationships one conversation at a time!
How has being an entrepreneur affected your life?
As someone running a business dealing with the ups and downs is very important. A bad day at work is not an excuse to ruin your life or family. We need to learn to separate business, from life, and that business doesn’t define life.
What is the best part of owing a business?
The best part is seeing things grow and evolve without you being involved! If I can take a vacation and things run smoothly, it means I’m doing my job well and I have the right people.
If you had the chance to start over again, what would you do differently?
Go even faster!
My success came from perseverance, and not taking myself too seriously – I’m wrong everyday about something! I love learning and doing better.
Startup 3.0 Conclusion
Throughout this article, Fred has constantly demonstrated that in order to find success an entrepreneur must learn balance. Balance between the user’s experience and the engineering behind it. Balance between the work life and the personal life. Balance between working hard and not taking yourself too seriously. Balance between innovation and cost.
Juggling all these things and finding the right balance between it all has been something that Fred has done quite successfully, demonstrated by the successes that Macadamian has experienced. This is especially true of Macadamian’s innovation of combining the User Experience and Software Engineers all under one roof. A true innovation that strikes just the right balance.
For more information on Macadamian, click here.
