Inside Montreal, journalist Louis-Philippe Messier travels mainly on the run, his office in his backpack, on the lookout for fascinating subjects and people. He speaks to everyone and is interested in all walks of life in this urban chronicle.
There are seven of them. They have not all finished high school, disdain luxury and are content with two cars for the group. They live together in Laval-sur-le-Lac in a big house, own a collective chalet in Tremblant and an office building in Montreal. I present to you the “Chillionnaires”!
These old friends from Lachenaie and Mascouche, who are between 27 and 30 years old, launch and operate companies.
The Chillionnaires is also the name of their parent company, of which they are equal shareholders, they say.
Photo Pierre-Paul Poulin
The seven roommates-business partners work together in real physical proximity, a matter of really acting as a group.
It is this central company that manages their nine other companies, including one holding real estate called Nocab (the word bacon upside down), explain to me the seven members of this unusual commune where the “One for all, all for one” of the musketeers wants to be the norm.
Millionaire Hippies
“You could call it communo-capitalism”, philosopher Jack Blouin, who often acts as the group’s president.
“We are a communist cell that wants to start a lot of businesses and is on the lookout for good business opportunities. »
“We are very hippies and very business. “Millionaire hippies, look!
I might as well tell you: the intricacies of this corporate quilt escape me. I’ll leave those questions to my comrades on the business pages, if that intrigues them.
Helped by Donkey Kong
“In the very early days, we made money finding things on Kijiji that we could sell for more on eBay…and one day we found a treasure! remembers Guillaume Carpentier, the treasurer.
Future Chillionnaires got their hands on a box full of Nintendo 64 tapes of the Donkey Kong game, which was then one of the rarest and most expensive.
Currently on eBay, the demo tape of this game is selling for around $3,000…
“And we had a box full of them! laughs Zacharie Cloutier, who is responsible for marketing the group’s products.
In 2017, they bought a former industrial building on Angus Street. They all moved there to live together during years of intense renovations. The building is called Kampus and is a space of coworking for many companies and self-employed workers.
They have a marketing company called Orangead, whose flagship product is an affordable “smart” billboard for small businesses.
Photo Pierre-Paul Poulin
Jack Blouin explains to our columnist the operation of an Orangead screen capable of counting views and their duration.
“It applies the principle of the web to traditional billboards: the advertiser only pays if someone sees their ad…and it gives an estimate of the age and gender of the people who see the billboard,” says Jack Blouin .
Ready to take off
Their pilot project took place at La Ronde last year. This year, they are planning the big take-off and the multiplication of these Orangead screens throughout Quebec.
“Our house in Laval-sur-le-Lac is being renovated, but we are already living in it,” says Bruno Deschênes, who plays an important role on the group’s various sites.
Two blondes from Chillionnaires already live with them, two more will soon be added, and the Laval house will be able to accommodate up to 14 people. What will they do when children arise? I’m sure they’ll manage!
