Optionality

Optionality is on a mission to transform the M&A industry, while redefining what it means to be a Trusted Advisor. With our AI Co-Pilot alongside, Advisors can instantly  benchmark their client’s business, estimate and predict its value over time, generate Optionality scenarios (build, buy or sell), craft customized value creation roadmaps and monitor progress.

Founder & CEO

Local Logic

J'ai été nommé par Investissement Québec comme membre du conseil d'adminstration de Local Logic.
I was appointed by Invest Québec as a board member of Local Logic.

Board Member

Multiforme Metal Inc

Chairman of the Board

Go2 Partners

PE Investor

Beeye

Advisor

Inovia Capital

VC Investor & Entrepreneur in Residence

Lightcast

Ensure smooth transition Post-acquisition of Gazelle.ai by KKR / Lightcast.

Vice President, Product

Gazelle.AI

Co-founder of Gazelle.ai (AI and big data to identify companies poised for growth and expansion) acquired by KKR, a leading global investment firm and further integrated into Lightcast, a leading provider of labor market analytics.

Gazelle’s heuristic ML algorithms access vast pools of data across multiple data sources including industry, spatial, and firm-level data spanning more than ten years.

Some accolades: Financial Times 2022 - The Americas' Fastest Growing Companies,  Deloitte Technology Fast 50 2021 Canada, Report on Business 2021 Canada's Top Growing Companies, Canadian Fintech & AI awards 2019.

Co-Founder

ROI Research On Investment

ROI Research on Investment has established itself as an award winning global authority on foreign direct investment (fdi) attraction for economic development agencies and B2B companies.

Owner & Executive Vice President

Vice President, Sales and Marketing

Bell Canada

Reporting to the Vice-President, Sales for the Small and Medium Business Market, I managed a $55 Million + P&L (Quebec Mid Market segment and strategic customers).

General Manager of Sales - Mid Market

Reporting to the Senior Vice-President of Marketing, I led the marketing team responsible for the Mid Market segment ($600 Million P&L). I was responsible for a team of over 15 marketing professionals and together we radically transformed Bell's mid-market go-to-market strategy. I Received the BCE Marketing Excellence Award. I was also part of the M&A team and I was responsible to evaluate and identify acquisition targets (to expand BCE's presence in the IT space).

Director of  Marketing - SMB

- Managing the SMB BI,Strategy and Segmentation team (10+ data analysts and programmers) 
- Establishing and tracking budgets and business plans
- Created an innovative BI application allowing consolidation and optimization of the budgets 
- Been on loan to McKinsey & Company  - including an assignment at British Telecom (UK) 
- Received the Ovation Award – the highest distinction awarded at BCE
- Contributed to the development of Bell SMB Channel strategies

Associate Director - BI,Strategy and Segmentation

I'm a serial entrepreneur and I'm working on my next start-up, backed by Inovia Capital. We are on a mission to transform the M&A industry, while redefining what it means to be a Trusted Advisor. 

With our AI Co-Pilot alongside, Advisors can instantly  benchmark their client’s business, estimate and predict its value over time, generate Optionality scenarios (build, buy or sell), craft customized value creation roadmaps and monitor progress.

My last start-up, Gazelle.ai (AI and big data to identify companies poised for growth and expansion) was acquired by KKR, a leading global investment firm and further integrated into Lightcast, a leading provider of labor market analytics.

I began my career in the private sector at Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) where I held senior management positions in business strategy, sales and marketing. As part of a special task force at McKinsey & Company, I developed a predictive, algorithm-based model that was used for advanced market segmentation and targeting strategies. For that work, I received BCE's Ovation Award, the company's highest honour. In 2009, I became an owner and partner at ROI Research on Investment, a management consulting firm specializing in business development and attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) where the idea of Gazelle originated.

The M&A market is back … but the rules have changed. 

If you want a 12x outcome, you can’t run a 3x company.

I spent some time digging into EY’s latest Software M&A recap (EY-Parthenon Q3 2025 Software M&A Report), and one thing is clear: the market is heating back up — but buyers have changed the way they value companies.
The best outcomes today go to companies that can prove scalability, not just growth.

A few signals really stood out:
-Revenue growth is still the #1 driver of multiples
-Cash efficiency matters way more than before (NTM FCF margin is now a big lever)
-The Rule of 40 is back

And the gap between top and bottom is massive:
90th percentile SaaS companies trade around ~12.8x revenue vs. ~2.9x at the 25th percentile

This is the part founders often underestimate:

You don’t jump from a 3x company to a 12x company in the six months before selling. You build that valuation over years …  by fixing tech debt, tightening ops, improving onboarding, shipping consistently, and building a team that can scale without you.

That’s exactly why we built Optionality.

We help entrepreneurs understand their valuation today, benchmark against thousands of private companies, identify the gaps holding them back, and map the right buyers … long before they’re “for sale.”

If you’re thinking about your next chapter or just want to know where you stand, DM me or check out Optionality. Happy to share your exit snapshot.

Simon Leroux

Founder @ Optionality (backed by Inovia) - The First Agentic AI for M&A | 4x founder, 2x exits

Yesterday I had the chance to sit on a panel at the M&A Club to talk about how AI is reshaping the world of M&A. Great conversation with Annie Veillet from PwC and Kosta Kostic from Dentons, two people who are really seeing the impact of AI on the ground.

I shared a bit about Optionality and why we built it in the first place. After three exits, one thing became clear to me: entrepreneurs and the advisors helping them deserve better tools to prepare, plan, and execute a business transfer or sale. Too many owners start this journey way too late and with incomplete information.

Optionality uses AI trained on over a million real companies to give business owners clarity long before a transaction. What is my business worth today? How can I improve that value over the next few years? Who are the active buyers that look for companies like mine? And how can advisors support owners earlier, with better data and better conversations?

That’s where AI creates real value. It gives entrepreneurs more options, not less.
If you’re a business owner and you’re not sure where to start, or you want to discover what your real options are, including your value range, how to improve it, and which buyers are active in your space, feel free to DM me or visit Optionality.

Happy to help you get clarity and plan the next steps of your journey.

✨ Place à l’Intelligence Artificielle et à son rôle grandissant dans l’univers du M&A.

La salle est attentive, curieuse, et clairement prête à plonger dans le futur des transactions. Nos experts Kosta Kostic, Annie Veillet et Simon Leroux explorent comment l’IA transforme la due diligence, éclaire la prise de décision et révèle de nouveaux leviers de création de valeur — tout en soulignant les écueils à éviter.

Une discussion brillante, actuelle et incontournable pour toutes celles et ceux qui suivent l’évolution du M&A.

#ForumMA2025 #IntelligenceArtificielle #IA #MergersAndAcquisitions #FusionsEtAcquisitions #Innovation #DueDiligence

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