“I want to invest in companies that make a difference in terms of health, people’s quality of life and the environment. It’s not just a question of profitability”, warns Isabèle Chevalier, joined by 20 minutes. The Canadian forties is the new recruit, on the investor side, of the third season of Who wants to be my partner? launched Wednesday on M6.
She is familiar with the concept of the show because, for the past four years, she has participated in the Quebec version, In the eye of the dragon. “I found it strong that M6 and French production came to get me. I think they wanted an international opening and a bridge between continents. I may also bring another perspective,” she suggests.
“It’s also people who make business work”
Is there much difference in the show from one side of the Atlantic to the other? “What for me stands out the most is the difference between the maturity of the companies that come to see us. In Quebec, the program has been on the air for ten years. At first, the companies that presented themselves were very small, had the concept but not necessarily the product. Today, those who participate in the Canadian version can claim sales ranging from 1 to 5 million. “Which is far from being the case for everyone in Who wants to be my partner?
Isabèle Chevalier knows what she wants. “I will never invest in cigarettes or oil,” she says. She doesn’t let herself be fooled by hyper-rehearsed presentations either: “It’s one thing to have an innovative product, but you have to see if the industry is buoyant. Also, even if a project leader is shy or misses his presentation, it is not necessarily prohibitive for the investor. “The profile of the entrepreneur is very important to me because it is also the human being that makes the business work. Above all, you have to ask yourself the question: will he be able to gather a strong team behind him? »
Isabèle Chevalier says she “appreciated” her experience in Who wants to be my partner? “It was really fun. I like participating in a program that helps restore the image of entrepreneurship,” she insists.
“We had no other choice than it works”
She has “always wanted to be an entrepreneur”. A graduate of HEC Montreal, she co-founded in 1996, with her father – “who was always employed and wanted to get into entrepreneurship” – the company Bio-K +, specializing in probiotics. “We weren’t a very wealthy family so my father, who was already in his mid-50s, re-mortgaged the family home. We had no choice but it worked. Luckily, it worked. The fact that there was no other option but to succeed gave us the energy to keep pushing even when it was super difficult,” says Isabèle Chevalier.
Sales began in a natural food store, then the brand gradually developed in Quebec, Ontario, the rest of Canada, then California, then the whole of the United States. For more than ten years Bio-K + has been the number 1 in its field in Canada, says Radio Canada.
This adventure ended in 2020, when Isabèle Chevalier, who had held the position of CEO for nine years, sold the company. “Now, I invest, in several companies, in funds,” she explains. She does not do this lightly, nor unethically.