The emergence of a great entrepreneur

At the age of 29, Joey Hébert, president and co-founder of MOS, has already accomplished a lot in his professional career. Although this talented entrepreneur of Atikamekw descent has never lived in the community of Wemotaci, he still had the opportunity to immerse himself in Indigenous values and culture thanks to his father and grandmother who provided the necessary resources to allow him to forge his own identity.

Over the years and through his life experiences, he discovered himself to be just as passionate about entrepreneurship as he is about sports and outdoor activities. Indeed, entrepreneurship gives him the same adrenaline rush as he used to get from his basketball tournaments at Collège Laflèche or his mountain biking descents at the Sentiers du Moulin.

It was at the age of 16, when he left home to study in Trois-Rivières, that Joey multiplied his opportunities to develop the skills that are very useful to him today as President of MOS: his resourcefulness, autonomy, sense of leadership and taste for adventure. Once his degree was completed, he figured, why stop there? He therefore decided to enroll at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières in Business Administration, and that was when his love for entrepreneurship began.

How can you recognize a good entrepreneur when you see one? They are dedicated to what they do and do not count the hours they invest in achieving their goals. They tend to have difficulty shutting down their computer at night, but still know the importance of taking a break for mental health reasons. And above all, they know how to surround themselves with the right people and are not afraid to take advantage of opportunities when they arise, even if that means taking risks. Joey has demonstrated all these characteristics in recent years.

The emergence of MOS

Since his university studies or his 40 hours a week as an account manager in the industrial field weren’t enough for Joey but especially since he thrives on challenges, he registered in 2015 for the Startup Weekend Maker Edition. And what exactly is that? It is a weekend event during which many aspiring entrepreneurs come together, in a competitive context, to create a business concept from A to Z featuring a business plan, prototypes, financing opportunities, etc. At the end of the weekend, the teams are asked to present their business projects to a panel made up of leaders in the industry, and the 10 best teams go on to develop their concepts. This marked the beginning of the MOS story. At the time, Joey had surrounded himself with the best people to form his team, particularly Frédéric Laurin Lalonde, who today is a co-founder of MOS. With his technical knowledge in industrial design and his creative spirit, he perfectly complemented Joey’s experience in business development and strategic planning.

The idea of designing a product that would simplify access to the roof of a car came to Joey while he was practicing one of his favourite sports, mountain biking. Being over 6 feet tall, he rarely had trouble putting his bike on the roof of his car. However, every weekend in the mountains, he noticed that this was not the case for many cyclists. Indeed, people often had to climb onto their cars or use a bench to reach the roof. In short, loading gear felt anything but simple or user-friendly. He therefore wondered why sporting and outdoor enthusiasts continued to use these types of products if they were not practical. He concluded that, in most cases, these were unfortunately the only options they had for transporting their equipment by car.

Based on this observation, the MOS rack was born: “We believe that the roof racks available on the market are simply not designed to meet people’s height-related needs. The concept is to make the roof of the car as easily accessible as the trunk,” explains Joey Hébert. MOS is a Quebec-based company that draws its inspiration from Indigenous roots to design, manufacture and market an assisted-lift multisport roof rack that makes loading equipment onto the roof of the car easy, simple and versatile.

MOS means moose in the Atikamekw language

When starting a business, one of the first steps is to come up with a name. For many, this can be quite difficult since you are looking for something unique, which describes the activities of the company, but also something that manages to represent its founders. Joey and Frédéric wanted to find a name that referred to the forest, nature and the vast expanses of Quebec and Canada. Faced with a blank page, Joey went back to basics and contacted his grandmother who sent him an Atikamekw dictionary by mail. It was while perusing this dictionary that the word MOS, which means moose, stood out. It met all the criteria, in addition to representing the product and its structure, which resemble moose antlers.

The emergence of a strong team

Located in downtown Quebec City, the MOS offices are a gathering place for the team of eight people who work full time to develop the company. According to Joey and Frédéric, without the employees and partners who have been there since the very beginning, this great adventure would not have been possible. The strength of this team is that it surrounds itself with the right people to be able to properly grow and develop. Indeed, MOS works with several external stakeholders who offer guidance at both the strategic and technical levels. This makes it possible to offer customers a reliable and high-quality product while having access to experienced people who are specialized in their field.

The launch of a brand-new product, the MOS UpLift

The MOS UpLift, which will be officially available on April 29^th, is an improved version of the MOS Rack roof rack that we knew until now. The MOS UpLift rack is an addition you make to your current transport equipment that allows you to quickly and easily access your sports and outdoor equipment mounted on the roof of your car. It’s like having access to two powerful arms that can lift up to 85 pounds up to your bike rack, kayak rack, ski rack or roof box. Thanks to this powerful ally, you no longer need to carry a small bench or climb onto the car.

The MOS UpLift is compatible with all cars equipped with a transverse roof bar system. The idea behind the MOS UpLift is to complement what people already use to transport their gear. It sets itself apart in three ways:

• Its accessibility: the MOS UpLift roof rack deploys 51 cm lower on the side of the car, parallel to the ground;
• Its versatility: it can accommodate a wide variety of sports equipment such as bike racks, kayak racks, ski racks and roof boxes;
• Its complementary nature: it is compatible with the equipment you already have (roof support and mounting accessories). Therefore, you don’t need to buy new equipment to use the MOS UpLift.

Made of aluminum and plastic, the MOS UpLift is very light at 33 lbs, which makes it easy to install on the roof of a car. Since it was very important for Joey and Frédéric to ensure that the product is built to last in order to reduce the ecological footprint, they opted for solid and resistant materials that will not suffer the harmful effects of corrosion. The MOS UpLift can therefore be used in both summer and winter. Over the past two years, the MOS team has also worked very hard to optimize the supply chain and source of materials, which allows them to price the MOS UpLift cheaper than the previous version at $949.99 + tax.

The MOS UpLift is available for pre-order today on the brand new mosracks.com website. It will also soon be available in several distributor stores across Quebec.

Opt for the MOS UpLift and easily go from car to adventure, without compromises or limits.

To visit their Facebook page, go to: https://www.facebook.com/MOSracks/

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