10 Things You Didn’t Know About Frederic Lalonde
Frederic Lalonde is a North American businessman and entrepreneur. He is also the CEO of a travel company called Hopper. The business has become a huge success in the travel industry, despite the recent issues brought about by the current Coronavirus pandemic. If you’re not familiar with Frederic Lalonde here are 10 things you probably didn’t know about him that you might find inspiring.
1. He is also the founder of Hopper
According to Crunchbase, Lalonde is the founder and owner of Hopper. He wanted to create a company that would provide advisement for the general public about the prices of flights, and when to fly, and when to buy. The result was a company that predicts price changes for flights in advance of the trip to provide notification about when the best time to book would be according to complex processes that use pricing and economic trends for finding the ideal times to find the best pricing.
2. Lalonde has received numerous accolades
Hopper is a company that helps consumers to save money when booking flights. The advice that is given is extremely valuable and it has received a great deal of attention and appreciation. Hopper has been recognized as Apple’s App Store Best for the year 2015. Besides, it received the Google Play Award for Standout Startup for 2016. Hopper has also been awarded the Webby Award for Best Travel App.
3. Hopper isn’t Lalonde’s first startup
Before Frederic Lalonde launched Hopper he was the owner of another company. He is the co-founder of a company called Newtrade. He built Newtrade up as a successful startup raising $7 million from venture capital rounds and established a company, with a partner of 70 employees. Expedia bought Newtrade in 2002. This was a business that was sold just 21 months from its first round of venture capital funding, which is fairly remarkable.
4. Frederic Lalonde is a college dropout
According to his Linkedin page, Frederic Lalonde is a college dropout. The information that he provided is limited but we can assume that he must have given it a try and decided that it was not for him. Although most will advise that it’s best to get an education, Frederi has shown us that it’s not necessary to have a college degree to become a very successful business owner.
5. Lalonde worked for Expedia
A college degree wasn’t required for Frederic Lalonde to land a job with Expedia. After selling Newtrade to Expedia he was hired as Expedia’s vice president, hotel supplier strategy from 2002 to 2004. In the position, he oversaw the integration of the Newtrade development team in the Expedia software engineering group. He also worked in signing hotels up to one of Expedia’s projects. In 2004, Expedia moved him to the position of vice president, hotels and packages product planning because of his intensive skillset. He managed a team of 10 throughout Montreal, Dallas, and Bellevue, working with Hotels.com, Trip Advisor, and eLong.
6. He is a board member of MakeMyTrip.com
In addition to his other responsibilities, Frederic is also a member o the MakeMyTrip board of directors. The company is a leading online travel company in the country of India. Lalonde joined the board in 2007. He has served on the board for 14 years and is still currently active with the group. He understands the importance of networking with his peers in the larger global community and this is one of the ways that he stays connected.
7. He’s getting ready for another growth spurt
We also learned that Fredric’s company has recently raised more venture capital funding. Hopper is getting ready to expand and launch a new Hopper Cloud B2B platform. This platform will power Capital One’s travel portal for millions of cardholders. It’s the start of a new partnership and marks yet another period of growth for Hopper with $170 million raised towards the effort. Lalonde is doing an exceptional job of leading the company forward in expansion and growth.
8. Lalonde has formed some powerful connections
It’s difficult to get a new business off its feet unless one has the proper financial backing. For Frederic Lalonde, this hasn’t been a problem. According to Phocus Wright Conference, Lalonde has secured the confidence of some of the wealthiest venture capital firms in the world. He has successfully garnered support for Hopper’s expansion from Brightspark Ventures, Accomplice, Investissement Quebec, BDC Capital IT Venture Fund, OMERS Ventures, Citi Ventures, and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. These powerful allies help to provide the financial backing necessary for him to achieve his goals in the forward movement with Hopper, which is based out of Montreal and New England.
9. Lalonde has a sense of humor
Frederic recently gave an interview to Forbes Magazine. We couldn’t help but notice that throughout the interview, he could move through serious topics about how he built Hopper into a successful business, to funny little things that happened that he chuckled about. He comes across as a stern person when you look at his photos, but when you talk to him one on one, he really does have a good sense of humor and he laughs so easily about mistakes that he made early on in his career.
10. Frederic Lalonde is a role model for college dropouts
Nobody is suggesting that it’s wise to drop out of college, but it’s not something you should let hold you back. Frederic Lalonde dropped out of college for reasons he didn’t choose to share, but it didn’t make him a loser nor did it mean the man lacked direction. He just got about the business of following his passions and making his dreams come true.
