“I didn’t see myself contributing towards the society by just getting the pay check. I wanted to do something bigger, create something to help people in their personal development.” Alexandre Maximen, co-founder, APY (Mentorship Platform).
Alexandre completed his Masters in Entrepreneurship in Paris and worked for an advertising agency for three years before immigrating to Canada in 2016. Having the benefit of being bilingual, it was easy to find a job for Alex. He started working for one of the largest companies in the recruitment industry.
Within 2 years of working, Alex came across some of the pain points of the industry. 1. There is a divide between employers and employees in terms of charting a career path, corporate culture, growth and the list goes on. 2. The days of “paycheck and benefits” only are gone. Everyone wants to defend a set of values and belong. 3. In a hyper growth or crashing economy, if you don’t run a tight ship where you can count on your people, you won’t make it. To address these pain points and to serve a bigger purpose in life, Alex jumped on to the entrepreneurship path. The path filled with uncertainty and risk.
He co-founded a mentorship platform called APY, to be implemented within organizations and a public marketplace where everyone can be mentored. APY provides a framework where individuals connect with experienced professionals such as CEOs, CFOs, CTOs, Directors and Vice Presidents, learn and acquire new skills to boost their career, overcome their challenges and make the right choices to attain their goals.
As the team believes having a mentor can change your life for the better, they have also developed a solution dedicated to the corporate world: APY Enterprise.
APY Enterprise aims to help companies reveal the full potential of their workforce. Management teams can increase the skills of their employees, boost productivity and retention while identifying their next leaders by capitalizing on their most valuable asset, their people.
APY Enterprise: Mentoring SaaS Solution
The tool extends the facility of scheduling meetings with Mentors, taking notes during the meeting and also reflecting the mentorship journey throughout the process. Organizations willing to implement this service integrate the platform within their systems to help increase retention rates and identify the people willing to take charge and step up to the next level.
Alex and his partner have been running the company bootstrapped for the last two years. Though approached by multiple companies, they decided to utilize their own funds in order to maintain the autonomy. Alex explained “The idea to staying bootstrapped enables us to be laser focused on the vision, mission and keeps us on our toes regarding spending. Hence, the day we require funding, be in the best position to negotiate the terms.” The company is currently operating on a LEAN model, focusing on getting quick wins. There are 4 developers, 1 CTO and 2 co-founders doing the daily grind. The product has been running successfully at a few organizations and will soon go LIVE for the masses. The founders are committed towards making it a success and delivering tangible value to the society. The link to the mentoring platform is GETAPY
