Dialogue turns 4!

Another year, another set of unbelievable accomplishments and adventures that are now part of Dialogue’s history. Our fourth year of operations was marked by huge ups and downs in the midst of a global pandemic, and the largest scale-up the company has lived to date. Below is a summary of some of Dialogue’s highlights from Year 4, showcasing the gargantuan work accomplished by the team!

Cherif, Alexis, and I started the company 4 years ago (with our tech team of 1, led by Victor, who took a leap of faith and joined us while still a student; we called him our interim CTO!) We were operating from a coworking space, determined to build an organization that would make excellent healthcare more accessible, and where our team members would thrive, grow, and do impactful work. This past year has brought us closer to this goal than ever before. I’m grateful for every individual who joined our collective mission this year, and for all our clients who, year after year, reaffirm their commitment to us by offering Dialogue’s expanding array of services to their employees. 

Year 4 was marked by the COVID-19 pandemic. For Dialogue, it meant not only taking care of our employees but also of the millions of Canadians who have access to our healthcare service. As we serve more than 10% of the Canadian population, we knew we had the opportunity, and the responsibility, to flatten the curve. Our team worked tirelessly to launch free tools to HR professionals and to the population in general, from our virtual automated assistant (Chloe for COVID-19), to multiple guides to help support Canadian employers during the pandemic. 

Telemedicine, in general, gained tremendous recognition from federal and provincial governments, and we couldn’t be more proud to support the thinking and share our best practices on safe and high-quality virtual medicine. 

Year 4 was also marked by our expanding partnership with Canada Life to integrate Dialogue’s service into all their group benefits clients with <400 employees, as well as our new partnership with Sun Life to offer Dialogue for free to all their clients during the pandemic. New significant partnerships meant a growing team. Though we quadrupled in size since last year, we’ve never felt closer as a team. Our weekly All Hands meetings, FitBit challenges, weekly group meditations, remote Jeopardy, and informal coffees with new joiners contributed to strengthening our culture even more. 

Year 4 was also marked by a $40M Series B and by our new Mental Health program which has demonstrated impact and gained traction over the year. We added three outstanding players to our C-Level team: Jean-Nicolas Guillemette joined as our COO, previously GM at Uber Quebec; Navaid Mansuri joined as our CFO, previously CFO at Just for Laughs; Rob Sutherland joined as CRO, previously VP at Halogen Software. We acquired a Health & Safety business in Germany to further expand the scope of Dialogue’s offering, and continued to focus on ever-improving service levels. We even added a few new Shackletons to our midst. A Shackleton is Dialogue’s highest recognition award for perseverance, named after Sir Ernest Shackleton’s story of endurance. This year’s deserving recipients were Clara Mazon, Dominique Dumas, Annie Galarneau, and Melissa Trottier. Last but certainly not least, we introduced a new award, the James Caird (we clearly like boats!), to recognize the incredible accomplishments of a member of our Executive Management Team. Our very first recipient was Matthieu Di Mercurio, the mastermind behind our brilliant data team.

But most importantly, Year 4 was marked by the impact Dialogue had on Canadians. Every day, we see thousands of individuals who come to Dialogue at their most vulnerable moments to seek help and support. They speak with a member of our team within minutes, and we provide timely answers, recommendations, prescriptions, and overall reassurance. 

And behind every one of those interactions is a group of team members who work hard to make the experience seamless, fast, and of the highest quality. Thank you for your dedication, your hard work, and your passion. I’m inspired every day by our team, and I cannot imagine a better group of people building Dialogue. 

Cheers to you all, and to Year 5 that we are about to embark on! I can’t wait to see what it will have in store for us :)

Curious to see how far we’ve come? Find links to our traditional anniversary blog posts from 2017, 2018 and 2019.