Transformation Marketing and Revenue Acceleration for Entrepreneurial Organizations

We help entrepreneurs create and grow businesses faster and with less capital.

Strategic Marketing . Sales Enablement . Financing Advisory

Sales and Marketing

How we are different from an “Accelerator”

Unfortunately, the term accelerator has become synonymous with a speedy incubation model.  Many of these processed-based programs, exchange mentoring, a small cash infusion, and offices, for an equity stake in the venture.

Flint’s model focuses almost exclusively on sales and marketing, and relies on deeper, hands-on implementation, with a vested interest in the success of the venture.

We strive to align our interest with those of our clients by using a variety of mutually-beneficial venture-based compensation models including; fees, revenue sharing, options, and equity.

We do 3 things…

Marketing

We develop better sales-generating marketing through improved marketing assets and go-to-market strategies.

Sales

Flint’s methods expand the reference-able account list, build the funnel, and land the new clients quickly and profitably.

Funding

We are well positioned to assist in raising capital required to fund your venture’s acceleration.

For 3 groups…

Emerging Ventures

Flint helps promising emerging companies with differentiable value propositions, technological innovations and leverage-able intellectual property.

Companies in Transition

Flint facilitates value creation for mature companies by helping them innovate and plan for the future.

Investors

Flint helps potential and current investors with strategic marketing insights during and after the due diligence phase.

Our Ventures

Flint Venture Catalyst Client Logos

Our Approach

Raise revenue – not capital

An entrepreneur’s goal should be to build their company on the backs of their customers, not their investors.

Be realistic…

about your stage of development. By clearly understanding if your venture is at the incubation or the acceleration stage, Flint Ventures will be better poised to assist in delivering appropriate services.” following “…about your stage of development

Transformation Marketing

Marketing in a broader context – leveraging inspired marketing strategies to stage an emerging business for rapid growth, and if necessary, financing.

Incubation and acceleration

Our Model

Incubation deliverables

These are the prerequisites of acceleration:

  • MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
  • Validated proof-of-concept
  • Proof of revenue and functioning scalable financial model
  • 3 referenceable accounts
  • Raised money

Depth of engagement

Emerging ventures are culturally unable to take consulting. Our approach involves an unusual blend of analysis, deep strategic advice, and roll-up-the-sleeves, hands on execution.

To Ultimately:

  • Build start-up value faster
  • Find new revenue sources for an maturing venture
  • Maximize an entrepreneur’s chances for success, speed to revenue, and “Return on Sweat”

Our Team

Charlie Bartlett

35 years experience across a wide cross section of industries.

13 years in Advertising: Charlie held senior client management positions with respected and fast-growing advertising agencies focused on strategic planning, new product introductions and brand building.

Coincident with his time in advertising, Charlie co-founded Montana, a successful bar restaurant which until its sale continued to do revenues in excess of $4.2 million. Charlie was responsible for concept development, strategic planning, brand development and securing financing for this start-up.

Next 12 years in digital marketing including co-founding Trajectory as a frontline sales force performance-improvement Company, deploying online game based, experiential learning and motivation to call centers, VARS, retailers, agents, and authorized distributors. In 2005, Charlie co-founded a venture that recognized the emerging trend of video gaming going online. Resulted in an all-new sales channel for Sony’s PlayStation division and increased ARPU for Aliant Telecommunications.

In mid-2006, Charlie and his partners sold Trajectory into Pareto Inc.
In 2011, as part of his ongoing role in Flint Business Acceleration, Charlie founded SalesHub, an Inbound Marketing lead generation practice, and SalesForce Outsource. Both are now part of the SalesForce Group of Companies.

Bartlett continues to be managing director of Flint Venture Catalyst, a revenue and transformational change agent for entrepreneurial organizations providing outsourced marketing and sales enablement.

At this time Flint is helping a diverse group of B2C and B2B companies including companies in travel, hospitality, wealth management, content marketing, on-demand IT services, estate litigation, cognitive enhancement, and lifestyle publishing.

Charlie has a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Toronto

Daniel Doiron

Daniel he has been teaching in the areas of Management Information Systems, New Venture Development, Small Business Management, Competitive Strategy and Managing Innovation at both the undergraduate and graduate levels for the past six years. Innovative teaching methods are his passion and one that he has recently created and implemented can be viewed at casequest.net.

Daniel serves as the Director of the Electronic Commerce Research and Training Centre and has been involved in founding four technology start-ups, the most recent of which is a company which provides a GIS based Marine Electronics solution to the global in-shore fisheries market.

Daniel began his career in the telecommunications industry in 1984 following graduation from the University of New Brunswick where he received a Bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering. In 1991, Daniel received a Masters Degree in the Management of Technology from the Sloan School of Management at MIT.

Daniel and his wife Jackie reside in Saint John, Canada with their three young boys.

Nicole Kemp

Nicole has over 15 years experience in digital marketing. She holds an MBA in strategy from the Sauder School of Business at UBC, and teaches Social Media part time at Seneca College’s graduate Corporate Communications program.

She has been the account lead on a wide variety of digital engagements including large-scale CRM programs, online advertising, social media campaigns, content management systems and search engine optimization.

Nicole has led the strategic planning process for many clients across a wide range of verticals including Molson Coors, Reckitt Benckiser, Plan Canada, the LCBO and Fountain Tire.

Nicole’s ability to deftly assess challenges, and rapidly devise multifaceted strategic plans to approach and overcome those challenges is a key strength.

Craig Renick

Craig has built and sold four successful technology companies including FloNetwork (sold to DoubleClick), Fortiva (sold to Proofpoint (NASDAQ: PFPT)), and Ampifii (recently sold to Postmedia (https://goo.gl/t3MrN2)).

He has managed multiple sales offices, sold into North America and Europe, hired hundreds of sales people, and created millions in value for investors, founders and employees. Through this experience, Craig has perfected sales processes and the skills to create and lead teams.

Craig started his career in the corporate world working for companies like Rogers, Bell, Quebecor and even the World Wrestling Federation.
In the mid ‘90’s he made a conscious decision to move into the marketing technology business because of its’ capability to build customer relationships based on data. Craig was also attracted to the challenges and complexities of managing teams by using CRM tools to create best practices and repeatable processes.

Craig has had the opportunity to work with some very smart people in hyper competitive industries and has managed and coached hundreds of Sales Managers and VP’s, Account Executives and Account Managers in B2B companies. Through on-going skill development and years of experience building, managing and selling successful companies Craig developed a system on how to manage and coach sales and customer service teams to perform at their peak.
She has been the account lead on a wide variety of digital engagements including large-scale CRM programs, online advertising, social media campaigns, content management systems and search engine optimization.

Nicole has led the strategic planning process for many clients across a wide range of verticals including Molson Coors, Reckitt Benckiser, Plan Canada, the LCBO and Fountain Tire.

Nicole’s ability to deftly assess challenges, and rapidly devise multifaceted strategic plans to approach and overcome those challenges is a key strength.

T. Christopher Bulger

Chris has over 25 years of experience combining operational management of young public companies with a track record in venture capital investment, merchant banking and turnarounds.

He was President and Chief Executive Officer of eLab Technology Ventures Inc., a top quartile performing e-commerce venture capital fund that delivered a realized IRR of 200+% to investors.

He served as EVP Business Development following his role as CFO for bid.com, which reached a peak market cap of $1+ billion.

He was previously a partner with HDL Capital Corporation, a Toronto-based merchant bank which specializes in the venture capital sector.

Today, Chris provides financial and management consulting to a number of companies, including: Zeno Global Limited, a revolutionary out of home advertising medium; and Megawheels Technologies Inc., a software and solutions provider to the online classified advertising industry. Chris is also Chairman of the Board for Northcore Technologies which owns a 50 percent interest in GE Asset Manager LLC, a joint venture with General Electric that works with leading organizations around the world to help them gain more value from their assets.

Mr. Bulger is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and holds an MBA from the European Institute of Business Administration (INSEAD).

Board of Advisors

David Guy

David has over 25 years of sales and marketing experience

As a Managing Partner at Flint, David has provided senior leadership on a number of projects including:

• CEO of Pomo Systems Inc. a software company providing data centres power monitoring & metering capabilities. Sold to Bell Canada

• Developed and accelerated Memberlinx Inc. a buy / sell portal for Home Hardware’s 1500 dealers (www.hdoconnect.com)

• Sales and marketing strategy consulting for Northcore Technologies Inc. and Avante Securities Inc.

Previously, David worked for 3 years at Bell Canada as Director of Hosting and Value Added Services where he managed a $40M portfolio of products and services.

Prior to Bell, David worked for 5 years as VP Business Development at Canada’s premier dedicated hosting provider Q9 Networks.

Mr. Guy worked for Arrowpoint Communications as Canadian Country Manager. While at Arrowpoint, Mr. Guy hired and developed the Canadian sales and engineering team. Cisco Systems acquired the company in 2000.

Prior to Arrowpoint / Cisco, David was a Networking Sales Manager for Intel. Based in Atlanta GA., David managed the South Eastern sales force.

Prior to Intel, Mr. Guy worked for Isolation Systems / Shiva Corporation where he successfully established the Canadian reseller distribution channel.
Prior to Isolation Systems, David worked for 5 years at R.E.D Technologies (cabling / LAN components) where he was promoted Sales Manager to manage the wholesale division National Connect.

John Wright

John D. Wright is a founding partner with the firm. John graduated from the University of Toronto where he received his Bachelor of Arts in 1972 and his LL.B. in 1975 and was called to the Bar in 1977.

John's preferred areas of practice are corporate and commercial law relating to owner operated and junior public companies. He has particular expertise in the areas of capital pool companies, real estate joint ventures, corporate reorganizations, mergers and acquisitions, securities law and debt and equity financing.

Areas of Practice:

• Corporate and Securities
• Capital Pool Companies
• Real Estate Joint Venture
• Equity Financing
• Debt Financing
• Acquisitions/Dispositions

Sandy Somers

Sandy has an extensive background in Sales, Marketing and General Management within the consumer packaged goods industry. His last corporate position, as a divisional President of Canada's largest producer and marketer of wine and related products, capped a 25-year career of progressively senior roles with such well-known and highly regarded organizations as Campbell Soup Company Limited, Maple Leaf Foods Inc, Canada Bread Company Limited, Parmalat Canada and Vincor International Inc. Within each of these organizations, Sandy led business turn-arounds and managed corporate and divisional mergers and restructurings, all the while building strong management teams committed to achieving outstanding results.

More recently, Sandy served on the Board of Directors of Food Starter, a Toronto-based business incubator/accelerator for food and beverage start-ups. In this capacity, Sandy oversaw training, mentoring and support initiatives to assist early stage entrepreneurs bring unique food and beverage products to market. In 2019 Food Starter was acquired by District Ventures Capital of Calgary. Sandy coordinated the due diligence and sale process, leading to a successful outcome for the organization and ensuring a seamless transition for its clients.

Sandy's strategic insight and extensive business background provide him with a unique perspective on the challenges involved in building winning teams, as well as in identifying the necessary ingredients for business success. He is skilled in strategic planning and execution, with emphasis on:

• Identifying/leveraging competitive strengths
• Developing team-oriented, results-driven culture
• Leading groups and individuals through change
• Building organizational depth for long term success
• Driving revenue and earnings growth

Matey Nedkov de Lacamp

Mr. Nedkov founded Infonet Media. It became the largest instore advertising company in Canada and Europe. He was actively involved in all aspects of the company’s operations and was the driving force behind the Company’s growth and expansion into the European markets. Infonet was sold to Actmedia after 17 years of operations and is now owned and operated by Newscorp Canada, one of Rupert Murdoch’s Companies.

Mr. Nedkov currently is the founder and president of Nedcorp Holdings Inc, a Merchant Investment Banking, and M&A company specializing in small and medium enterprises. In addition, Nedcorp Holdings Inc. assists companies to expand worldwide, throughout North America, Europe, and Asia & South America by setting up appropriate infrastructures, recruiting local management and establishing sales networks.

The company is currently invested in companies including medical services, medical technology, software development, alternative energy and mining. He is shareholder and Chairman of Eminence II a CPC/TSX Venture Company.

He is currently on the board of the Maple Leaf Angels, the National Angel Organization in Canada, committee member of the Angel Capital Associations in the USA and the Canadian Representative of La Baule World Investment Conference. Prior to forming Infonet; Mr. Nedkov served as director of Sullivan Language Schools in Montreal and as Advertising Manager at MacLean Hunter/Rogers Communications Inc., the largest business publication company in Canada.

Prior to moving to Canada 30 years ago, the European-born Mr. Nedkov lived in France and the U.S.

Our Partners

Flint Venture Catalyst Partner Logos

Contact Us

Contact Us

Charlie Bartlett
Cell: (416) 526-7321
Office:  (416) 342 0634
cbartlett@theflint.ca
Twitter: @BizAcceleration

Flint Business Acceleration Inc.
204 Parkhurst Blvd.
Toronto, Ontario
M4G 2G3

Flint Eastward
40 King Street,
Saint John, NB
E2L 1G3