Ottawa’s ReDock Selected for 500 Startups Accelerator

Ottawa-based reDock was announced as one of 36 early-stage companies that recently started 500 Startups’ accelerator program as part of its latest cohort.

The software as a service company applies AI and machine learning to help professional services respond to requests for proposals (RFPs) more quickly and accurately. The software can cut company costs typically associated with the time it takes to fill out the lengthly and often tedious proposals.

Joining 500 Startups, reDock’s CEO Pierre-Olivier Charlebois will spend the next four months in San Francisco growing the SaaS company. Charlebois said he’s already learning how to embrace a growth mindset.

“It’s all about experimentation,” said Charlebois. He left his job at Montreal’s Ubisoft almost a decade ago to launch a consulting business in Ottawa that evolved into reDock.

The accelerator program’s funding and support will help reDock speed up the advancement of its automated proposal-development software that’s already being used by half a dozen global and multinational companies and a handful of small businesses.

“My ultimate goal is to build a sustainable and predictable growth engine… What I’m really hoping to learn from the program is how to transition from the discovery stage to product market mode where we have the foundation to grow,” said Charlebois.

The CEO said he’s most excited to “breathe in the California growth mentality” and incubate in an environment where companies are hustling to scale.

“This is a great inspiration. American companies embrace failure as part of the growth model. Building a company is a large experiment; many won’t succeed. In Canada, thats not always seen in a positive light,” said Charlebois.

500 Startups just wrapped up its notorious sales and marketing bootcamp known as Marketing Hell Week. The four-month seed program culminates with a demo day in October where reDock will present their software to thousands of investors.

The 22nd batch of startups come from 14 countries, with the majority focusing on fintech, data and digital health innovations. To date, the global venture capital seed fund has invested in more than 1,600 technology startups since 2010.