Building a success story. . . one coffee at a time

Have you ever heard of Mathilda Café in Saint-Jérôme? It’s a fantastic establishment that opened its doors in January 2024. A brand new café that already has its regulars. The café reflects its two owners, Jessica Lusignan and Miriam Magnan: young, dynamic, modern, friendly and aligned with their values. The location is ideal, close to a sports centre, arena and parks. And what’s more, there are no coffee shops like it in the surrounding area.

More than a café, featuring locally sourced products

This shop offers coffee, of course, but also a variety of dishes to eat in or take away. Mathilda Café offers several types of lunch boxes for different occasions. As the establishment has a liquor permit, you can also enjoy a nice cold beer from the Herman microbrewery in Prévost. Soon, the shop will have a designated area for local and terroir products. One of the central values for these two entrepreneurs is buying locally at reasonable prices. That’s why their suppliers are mainly from the region.

Aware of the scarcity of reception and meeting rooms in the surrounding area, they also offer meeting room rentals, with or without a turnkey service.

A helpful nudge

Getting financing is always the biggest problem for a start-up company. They entered a Desjardins contest and won the title of Start-up Business of the Year. This was helpful, as was the CAE financing that enabled them to pay for leasehold improvements.

«I was planning on expanding our premises in the future, but the help from CAE enabled us to start earlier, which makes a big difference in terms of customer reception and employee comfort. Everything went smoothly with CAE, and I’m very satisfied,» says Jessica.

These two young entrepreneurs love their busy but stimulating lives! They each have their role and they trust each other. There are 24 people running the business, a close-knit team. Each employee brings their personal touch to the job, and the team enjoys working together, which customers indeed take notice of. For them, the most important thing is to listen to customers, and they make adjustments as needed.

Who knows what’s next? A second location maybe? Time till tell!

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