I’ve always wondered how self-made millionaire founders spend their leisure time. Space odysseys, tropical dives in Phuket, mind-bending retreats come to mind.
Turns out, if you’re Marc Lafleur, who founded and sold truLOCAL for $16.7M then wrote a book about it, it’s none of those things. At least to a large extent. Marc goes where inspiration, and the next big thing leads him.
With a rich ecosystem of founders, and startups, that’s Austin, Texas for the time being – and the AI business. While not cosmic exploration, his life has the makings of the next blockbuster TV series. Entourage meets Silicon Valley, perhaps?
But in reality, it wasn’t always so seemingly glamorous for Marc. Born in Cornwall, Ontario, he wasn’t the kid wearing the fancy Jordans. His shoes were well worn, occasionally with few holes in them.
In his early 20s, while most people his age were hitting frat parties, Marc was busy founding his first two startups. When they failed, he got back up.
truLOCAL’s success story: A tale of perseverance
At 25, during the peak of the food delivery innovation era, he established truLOCAL, a meat subscription business. What started out with him doing door-to-door sales, turned into a wildly successful endeavor. Within 5 years, he sold it to Emerge. He was just shy of 30.
When I caught up with him recently, he’d just returned from Tesla’s 10M sq. ft. Gigafactory, the hub for Model Y and home of Cybertruck. I cheekily asked him if this is what founders do for fun. He concurred it likely was the case. However, he wasn’t there for a specific reason, other than what sounded to be humoring a faint curiosity.
Time is serious business: Free time happens when you sleep
If you knew Marc, you’d understand why he made this clarification. His time is quite literally, serious business. He is vigilant and deliberate about how, where and with whom, he spends it.
I can personally vouch for this. While handling PR & corporate communications for truLOCAL, I’d sometimes ask him what he was doing on the weekend. Marc’s answer was surprisingly uneventful. “Closing the blinds and locking the doors,” was his go-to response.
When Marc had a chance to power-down, he took it. As CEO of truLOCAL, his weeks were jammed with negotiating partnerships, visiting farms across Ontario to meet with suppliers, and everything in between. Packing frozen meat into boxes was a given.
“As a founder, you have to take a really good inventory of your time. Figure out how much free time you have,” he said. “The only time that’s not free is your work time and your sleep time.”
Bootstrapping or bust: Stick to your vision and mission
Unlike some other first-time founders, Marc wasn’t interested in VC life, fancy offices or a big staff. Those things meant giving up control. He wanted to bring on investors who believed in his vision. His persistence paid off. He eventually put together a group of angel investors that aligned with his vision.
Although one would think it would be easier to take more liberties now, Marc sticks to his guns. Outside of the rare unplanned jaunt to places like one of the biggest manufacturing facilities on the planet, his time is divided among DB8 labs, 5AM workouts in preparation of the Boston Marathon, and his lifelong dream made true – pro car racing.
Destination is inspiration: Where you are matters
Nevertheless, these projects don’t materialize by chance. Marc chooses his environments thoughtfully to inspire his ambitions. When he was writing True Founder, that place was Vancouver, B.C. Nature fed his creativity. Now in self-described “work mode,” Texas is a hive of the bustling inspiration he needs.
“I’m massively influenced by my surroundings. I get a lot of inspiration from where I am and depending on the type of work I’m doing, my environment is going to influence that. When I was writing the book, I was in much more of a creative mode. I needed as many moments of inspiration as possible. It’s less about grinding it out, and more about increasing the amount of times that inspiration strikes. Vancouver is great for that. I find on hikes, when you’re not trying to force thoughts, are when the best ones appear,” he said.
Marc recognizes it’s not always possible for everyone to just pick up and go. However, as a new founder you have to utilize your skill set wisely and work with what you’ve got.
Surroundings fuel success: put yourself in the right place, with the brightest people
“Play the cards you’re dealt. For example let’s say you only have $500. You’re not going to be spending money on travel and AirBnB’s to be in inspiring places. Instead, take that money, and find the most expensive gym membership you can in your city. Instantly, you’re around a certain group of people that tend to be entrepreneurial, and care about their fitness, and they have money to spend. Being around the right people is going to be a better ROI than 10xing $500.”
Speaking of fitness, Marc is in the best shape of his life. This seems befitting for someone nurturing a healthy business in a highly competitive, and rapidly evolving industry. I asked him to define it.
From DTC to LLM: A whole new world, a whole new model
“DB8 Labs is a prompt engineering firm. We specialize in solving expensive business problems using Large Language Models. We service clients and develop, and go to market with our own innovations. Most notable right now is RealEstateContent.ai,” he said. “We’re well on our way to building three $10 to $15 million dollar companies over the next five years with profit margins of about 30 per cent.”
Instead of focusing on one clear mission, with DB8, Marc and his team are building a venture studio. They’re honing in on a skill set rather than a singular product.
“My philosophy right now is that technology is moving much too fast to be doubling down on anything,” he said. “truLOCAL was a different animal because it was a direct-to-consumer food business with high overhead and low margins. Now I’m working with a small team of A players and leveraging AI to achieve what would normally take 20 people,” he added.
When comparing the global value of the meat subscription industry that’s anticipated to reach $7.1B by 2034 against the LLM market, Marc is betting on a sure thing. The LLM sector is valued at $6.4B, and anticipated to grow to $36B within the next six years.
From marketing departments trying to keep up with content creation, sales teams focused on hyper-personalized connections, or developers needing a second set of eyes, LLM’s are increasingly prevalent across all industries. For organizations, they represent the pinnacle of efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Able to comprehend and produce text akin to humans, these tools are invaluable for automating mundane tasks and elevating user interactions.
Marc is able to stay ahead of emerging trends because he is a diligent worker. Yet his vigor never seems to wane. In every exchange I’ve had with him, he’s consistently exuded positivity and charm. Besides all that, he’s funny, and nice. Perhaps that’s why he gets away with being candid in a way others might not be able to.
“If you actually want to make money, you can’t sit around and watch Youtuber’s explain how to make $100,000 a month and then just not do it. That’s where I think a lot of wasted time is coming from,” he said referring to founders. “Like, just go do something.”
Revved up to give back: How Marc’s driving toward fulfilling his dreams and those of others
Even when he’s having fun, he’s doing it with purpose. With the sale of truLOCAL, he earned the financial freedom to pursue his lifelong dream of purchasing a car and entering the world of racing. He went all in. In 2022, he became the CASC Pirelli Sprint GT3 Champion and earned the title of Rookie of the Year.
He’s inspired by how racing has become a path to broadening his long-term commitment supporting young people and founders under 30. As part of Driving Your Future, a Mercedes-Benz Canada initiative, he’s part of a team that empowers the next generation of Canadians through a national partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters.
“If my story can inspire even one kid to take a risk, and go after something someone told them they couldn’t achieve, then I’ve done what I’m here to do,” he said.
It is admirable of Marc to dedicate time to helping guide tomorrow’s leaders. However, even those of us beyond 30 can’t help but feel inspired by him.
