Cream.HR went to New York City to check out potential clients. It came back three months later with a makeover.

Today, meet Plum, an employment assessment platform.

Plum went to New York through the Canadian Digital Media Network (CDMN) Soft-Landing Program, which provides assistance with travel costs and helps find workspace for mature startups and SMEs looking to expand outside of Canada.

“We went down to New York to see if it was worth opening an office there,” said Christine Bird, Plum co-founder.

The team had previously tried an office in San Francisco, but it wasn’t the right city for their product, said Caitlin MacGregor, CEO and co-founder. The team wondered if NYC could be.

“We had tried this experiment a year before with [Bird] moving to San Francisco,” said MacGregor.  “In reality, the product wasn’t addressing the main pain points of the city.

“We thought New York City would be. But having spent the money and taking the risk before — and having it not be the right fit — the Soft-Landing Program really allowed us to reduce the risk and test if New York was the perfect sister city for us to spend time in, and to see what the commitment would be.”

While in New York, Bird and MacGregor also participated in two different programs. MacGregor participated in Springboard, an accelerator program for companies led by women; Bird, in the Canadian Tech Accelerator program (CTA) through the Canadian Consulate.

“You don’t know where things will take you, and you don’t know what opportunities will provide you,” Bird said. “I was accepted into the CTA, and now one of our long-standing clients in New York is the Canadian Consulate. I never thought they would buy us and use us. They became a really good customer.”

Living and working in New York City allowed Bird to learn about the city’s quirks and rhythms. The program got her desk space, which proved to be invaluable.

“One of the biggest things [in New York] is that they like to work with people already living there,” Bird said. “They would ask where our offices were, and we could say, ‘Waterloo and New York,’ and they would perk up.

“I wouldn’t have understood that without going there and spending time there.”

Time in NYC also led to Cream.HR’s rebranding process.

“When we went to New York, we found our target audience and messaging,” MacGregor said. “It’s what led to a complete rebrand of our company. It made everything click. We got enough volume of feedback from the right people, and we could see what was working and what wasn’t.”

Today, the team formerly known as Cream.HR realizes it helps many more business people than just those working in human resources. The company worried that without a name change, it would be pigeonholed.

Feedback from CEOs and COOs also let the team know it had outgrown the charm of its original name. While riffing on “cream of the crop” was good for a startup, MacGregor heard loud and clear that the name didn’t work as the team developed into a company.

Plum now focuses on helping corporate leaders assess current employees and potential hires. From the NYC feedback, MacGregor and her team see Plum as tool to help employees find — or embrace — their own plum job.

“Left on our own, we wouldn’t have gone down to NYC for an extended period of time,” Bird said. “It would have been far too nerve-racking to go without knowing the ROI.”

Bird is currently back in Canada after spending a few more months in New York City following the soft-landing. She returned to support her team during the rebranding process. She and MacGregor maintain ties in NYC and hope to re-open an office there in the future.

The Plum team is using a second, three-month-long soft-landing grant this spring to follow up in NYC, close their fundraising and participate in a new initiative with Aon’s NYC office.

“It takes a long time,” MacGregor said of the sales cycle. “We got a lot of ROI from sales and partnerships, but it didn’t happen in the three months that we spent the soft-landing money.

“So the program helps the cash flow for opportunities that are going to take more time. It helps bridge the payoff from the investment.”