TLDR
If the market isn’t ready for your idea, education may be just as important as execution.
Setbacks are inevitable. Long-term success depends on how quickly you adapt and keep moving forward.
The biggest opportunities often come from challenging assumptions and solving problems others have overlooked.
There’s no single path to starting a successful business. Les Marchands began with an idea, learned as they went and evolved over time.
There is no secret recipe for starting and building a successful business. Some entrepreneurs spend months refining a business plan before they launch, while others seize an opportunity and bring it to life with energy, speed and ambition.
That’s exactly how Les Marchands, a Montreal-based company operating since 2016, built its premium ice business. Guided by a knack for innovation and a willingness to adapt, the company transformed a niche idea into a thriving business, expanded into new markets and, ultimately, solved a problem the industry didn’t even know it had.
Selling an idea before the market was ready
Pierre-Olivier Prince has always been a problem solver. He knew that one day he would build a business around solving a problem – he just didn’t yet know which one.
The idea came to him at a time when, as he puts it, the profession of “bartender” was transforming into that of “mixologist.”
“Bartenders were making their own syrups and their own recipes, but it was before what I would call the ‘golden age’ of the cocktail,” says Prince. “Ice was an afterthought – a niche obsession. They would make ice blocks in coolers, store them in their freezers, and cut them with kitchen utensils or tools. The problem was that bartenders could only produce fifteen to twenty decent pieces of ice per night or per week.”
Over the next three years, Prince tried to convince bars that premium ice deserved a place in every great cocktail. Clearer, denser and more aesthetically refined than conventional ice, it melts more slowly, helping preserve a drink’s flavour and temperature. Produced in a variety of shapes and sizes, it is designed to complement different spirits, cocktails and glassware. But the challenge wasn’t the product – it was convincing customers they needed it.
Ice-cold ambition — and a refusal to give up
A lack of uptake meant Prince and his then-business partner had to keep working in bars at night to cover rent and the bills tied to the project.
In the early days, deliveries were made by taxi. “We’d tell the driver: Wait ten minutes. I’m going up to the bar, putting this in the freezer and I’ll be right back,” recalls Prince. To make ends meet, they decided to start selling bags of ice. But the bags, filled by hand, just could not meet the demand.
Eventually, Prince’s original business partner chose to leave the business after the two realized they had different visions for its future. That’s when Alexandre Cabrejo-Jones, fresh into his career in venture capital entered the picture. He drafted the buyout agreement, ensuring the departing partner left on fair terms, before taking responsibility for the company’s finances, administration and legal matters.
With the finances steadied, Prince and Cabrejo-Jones brought on a third partner, Conrad Pomerleau – recently back from a year-long journey across South Asia and ready to buy into the vision.
Working together, the three moved into a larger facility and upgraded their equipment. By late 2019, demand had finally caught up. Taxi deliveries were a thing of the past, replaced by a growing roster of bars and restaurants that had come to see what a better cube could do for a cocktail.
Then came the pandemic
But the momentum didn’t last. In March 2020, lockdowns shut down bars and restaurants almost overnight, wiping out nearly 90% of Les Marchands’ revenue. Rather than viewing the shutdown as a setback, the team treated it as an opportunity to rethink how they operated. They refined their processes, strengthened the business behind the scenes and prepared for the day customers returned.
Expanding to new markets, challenging norms
Today, Les Marchands serves the greater Montreal area, Ottawa, Toronto and Boston through a network of partners and affiliated companies. Expanding into the U.S. required adapting their business model to a new market, while closer to home, a strategic acquisition in Toronto strengthened their presence in Ontario.
Day to day, the three partners lead a small, tight-knit team built on autonomy, accountability and celebrating wins together each week.
Les Marchands has never been shy about its ambition: more than anything, the partners want to upend the status quo.
The next chapter for Les Marchands is a proprietary technology platform designed to rethink how ice products are ordered, fulfilled, and distributed. It will help power Les Marchands’ own operations and customer experience, while also connecting independent producers to a decentralized marketplace, creating a single source where businesses of all sizes can meet their ice needs while producers gain access to modern technology, streamlined operations, and expanded market reach.
Lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs
Choose partners you can trust and align with your vision. “You can achieve greater things with someone you truly trust,” says Cabrejo-Jones, who cautions that going into business with a partner is always a risk. “Both partners’ visions need to be well aligned.”
Starting a business is hard. There’s nothing wrong with a gradual transition. “I spent eight years in venture capital before joining the company full-time,” says Cabrejo-Jones.
Recognize that every entrepreneurial journey is different. “Every entrepreneur has their own reality. They’re all different from one another, and so is the way you grow a business,” says Prince.
Love what you do. Managing problems, putting out fires is constant. “The most important thing is to be satisfied with your day,” says Prince. “Love what you do. And do something that will set you apart in the market.”
Curiosity, adaptability and the willingness to fail and start over have defined Les Marchands from the start. Ask the partners what has carried them through years of uncertainty, and one word keeps coming up: “entêté” — stubborn. Though perhaps perseverance is the better translation.
Long before premium ice became commonplace, they kept showing up at bars with a product few people understood, patiently explaining why it mattered. Eventually, the market caught up.
Their story is a reminder that entrepreneurship isn’t always about having the perfect idea at the perfect time. Sometimes, it’s about believing in an idea long enough – and working hard enough – for everyone else to see it too.
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