As a college student, Marie Chevrier made extra cash by standing on an Ottawa street corner handing out free samples. She thought it seemed like wasted effort for the brands who provided the samples – sure, they got their products into more people’s hands, but there was no way to collect feedback, let alone target specific groups of consumers or track conversions to sales.

Marie spent several years at a global ad agency in Toronto, learning the ins and outs of the industry, and then switched career paths to become entrepreneur-in-residence for a New York City venture firm. Thinking back to her days as a student passing out samples, she came up with the idea for Sampler^®—a tech company that digitally targets consumers, delivers physical product samples, and gathers feedback and insights that brands can use to inform strategy.

She drew up a sketch for what would become the Sampler^® interface, successfully pitched it before she even built the technology, and knew she was onto something big. Within a few years, the Sampler^® client roster included some of the world’s top CPG companies—Unilever, Mondelez International, L’Oréal, and Kimberly-Clark, and many more.

Marie met one of Factory’s partners at an investor conference in Canada, and they both immediately saw the value of a leading-edge digital sampling and data company partnering with an innovative CPG operator/investor. Sampler^® quickly capitalized on Factory’s network of industry connections, and Factory’s brand partners have benefitted from Sampler’s ability to deliver product samples to precisely targeted consumers.