Chief product officer appointment at WeMaintain

The PropTech startup has expanded its team with the appointment of Matthieu Laflèche as its new Chief Product Officer.

WeMaintain specialises in regulated maintenance with a view to leading the maintenance operations sector out of the industrial era and into the digital era.

Laflèche, who has spent over 10 years in the US as the Product Manager of global online travel agency, Expedia, will now take charge of WeMaintain’s 10-strong product development team and will contribute to the company’s continuing international expansion by driving IoT product development.

Benoit Dupont, Co-Founder of WeMaintain, said: “It took us more than six months to find a candidate of Matthieu’s calibre, so we’re delighted to have him onboard. He has valuable experience in the United States in an environment of rapid and agile technological innovation. He has also demonstrated an ability to empathise with users’ needs and to lead large teams effectively.

“Matthieu will support the long-term vision of our technological product to effectively meet our business objectives and the needs of our multiple users: building managers, engineers and of course owners. This proves that our product is central to a fast-developing and increasingly international sector. Matthieu is a guru in the requirements of startups, especially their growth.”

Laflèche graduated from Central Lyon with an engineering degree and holds a master’s degree in management from the University of Southampton in England. He has spent his entire career with the American group Expedia and its B2B subsidiaries.

Speaking about his new role, Laflèche said: “Thanks to WeMaintain, so-called traditional maintenance is now behind us. It is entering the digital era where its development prospects are immense. The challenge of the WeMaintain product is to aggregate, with the help of intelligent algorithms, the data provided by our engineers supported by technology in the field with the data generated by our objects connected to the equipment. This will support our customers in implementing concrete actions to enhance the value of their real estate assets. My first mission will be to define the vision of the product based on the existing model, combining the best of the people and the technology.”

Looking ahead to 2023, Tom Harmsworth, UK MD of WeMaintain, commented: “With the recession expected to continue for some time, and with the climate crisis growing more urgent, we’re likely to see building owners and managers turning to tech to reduce costs and become more energy efficient. In practice, this means investing in the Internet of Things—physical devices that can communicate and exchange data over the internet—so that owners and managers can gather the necessary data about their properties to maximise economy and efficiency and—its corollary—reduce waste.

“Outside of the built world, the same principles will apply. Everything will become more data-driven, more evidence-based, more focused on efficiency. It is, ultimately, the best approach to take during times of volatility—as it is, in fact, at all times.”