The Risk Takers series looks at how a few of Canada's creative minds fearlessly went their own way.
Seven years after starting development on travel site Hopper, founder and chief executive officer Frederic Lalonde realized people weren't really interested in the initial product. But the development process included parsing through masses of data, and it was this burgeoning field of Big Data that allowed Hopper to take off as the product it has morphed into today.
Hopper has become a big data-driven website that analyzes billions of flight prices to help travellers figure out where to fly – and when to buy their tickets.
On Thursday, Oct. 23 at 1 p.m. (ET), we will hold a live video chat with Mr. Lalonde. To view the Hangout, click on the YouTube box which will appear below.