Startup Tattoo

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I met up with Frédérick Lavoie, co-founder of Deck. We each grabbed a coffee and sat under an awning at the Archer Hotel on 38th street.

I persuaded him to flex so I could see the “Flinks” tattoo on his arm which he and his co-founder got after selling their first startup.

They founded Flinks in 2016 as a system — similar to Plaid — that connects consumer banking data to fintech platforms. Flinks raised $19 million and was acquired by National Bank of Canada in 2021 for $140 million.

Frédérick followed that exit by launching Deck in June 2024. Deck is an API platform that provides secure, user-permissioned access to fragmented data across industries. The company started with utility data (energy, water, waste) and is expanding to other industries.

Deck automates connections to platforms that don’t have APIs, enabling businesses to gain insights without gathering data by hand. For example, a food-tech client like Evive Smoothies can use Deck to access distributor data, streamlining access to supply chain analytics.

The company has raised $18.5 million in total funding, including a $12 million Series A round in April 2025.

Frédérick recently moved to New York City with his wife and daughter to help build out commercial operations. While the company is based in Montreal, he said it’s important to be closer to potential clients in the American market.

As the company is growing quickly, they try to remind themselves not to get too comfortable. One way they do that is with the chairs in the office.

When the company first launched, Frédérick’s co-founder suggested they do something dramatic to signal their commitment to startup mode. He suggested they unscrew the backs on their chairs.

The idea was that you couldn’t sit back and relax. You had to sit up straight.

They agreed to keep the backs off until they hit an annualized run rate of $1 million in revenue. Deck has since hit that target, but they never reinstalled the chair backs.

Chairs without backs became a cultural marker. As they added employees they would buy chairs and remove the backs. Now they buy dentist-style stools instead. Frédérick said it’s always a bit of a surprise for the board when they visit the offices.

The initial challenge to growing revenue was spreading the word. Frédérick said it required a lot of challenging cold calls because it wasn’t easy to explain the product over the phone.

The hope now is growth will continue to accelerate.

Assuming all goes to plan, Frédérick hopes it will lead to second tattoo.

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BRIEF OBSERVATIONS

PREDICTIVE MARKETS: Predictive markets in general have a good track record. But recently I’ve noticed more and more examples where they got it completely wrong. The New York Mayoral race is a good example.

NY MAYORAL RACE: One of the interesting reactions to Zohran Mamdani’s victory was that it sparked a number of billionaires including Bill Ackman, Dan Loeb and Tyler Winklevoss to post on social media looking to recruit another candidate. I cannot recall anything like that happening before. While I don’t think Ackman’s argument was particularly persuasive, it’s something we are likely to see more of.

ELECTION: Among all the takes on the New York mayoral race, I agreed most of with this one. That Zohran ran a disciplined campaign focused on affordability. Also that he smiled.

CAR SITTER: Necessity is the mother of invention. Moving your car because of street sweeping is the bane of existence for many New Yorkers. Thought this was clever. It’s like a modern and urban version of husting to cut someone’s lawn.

WHATSAPP: Most everyone outside America uses WhatsApp to communicate. This seems somewhat insane.

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