Forty Under 40

Pierre-Olivier Charlebois, founder and CEO, reDock

June 26, 2018

Editor's Note

Each year, OBJ and the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce choose 40 of the region’s top young entrepreneurs and business executives and recognize them for their professional achievements, expertise and community service.

In these profiles, OBJ highlights some of this year’s recipients – their impressive accomplishments, what drives them and how they like to spend their downtime away from the business world.

See the full list of recipient profiles here and be sure to check out OBJ’s coverage of the 2018 gala here.

Birthplace: Montreal

Company: An AI document composer that builds winning proposals.

Education: Bachelor of engineering (electrical), McGill University (2005)

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Charitable involvement: Professional Engineers Ontario

Biggest biz achievement: Raising over $2 million of capital for reDock.

Biggest biz obstacle: Turning a vision into a sustainable business.

Biggest influence: My co-founder, Amlan Gupta, on the importance of spending more time analyzing before acting. I’ve learned the hard way that hasty business decisions cost significantly more than the effort of thinking the situation through.

Biggest lesson learned: The importance of focusing on a single thing you can become a world leader at. I used to be very opportunistic about chasing business opportunities, but each push was in a different direction and didn’t contribute momentum to our flywheel. To get from good to great, each effort has to synergize with the others.

First job: Selling beauty products on the streets of London

Advice I’d give the younger me: Start your business with a sales and marketing co-founder and don’t start scaling before having validated your product and market fit.

What’s left to do: Find inner peace amid the relentless stream of challenges that life throws at entrepreneurs.

Favourite pastimes: Spending time with my three boys and playing video games.

I’m currently reading: Getting Things Done by David Allen

Favourite movie: The Founder

Favourite song: What Else is There? by Röyksopp

Favourite local pro sports team: Ottawa Redblacks

Favourite local summer event: Ottawa Jazz Festival

Preferred social media platforms: Facebook, Linkedin

Twitter handle: @pocharlebois