Welcome to Silicon Island! (16)
I just read an unexpected article from La Presse, titled Bienvenue A Silicon Valley, PQ. The article from Alain McKenna states that Montreal is now Canada’s Silicon Valley. He interviewed Tom Sweeney, general partner from Garage Canada, who now believes Montreal is the first place in Canada to launch startups. Tom Sweeney talks about entrepreneurs, local bloggers, investors, universities and events like DemoCamps and Barcamps, which all contribute to create a startup culture. The article also confirms one thing I was unsure of, which is Garage Canada prefers to invest in local companies.
About VCs and investing, the article mentions that Montreal has the highest concentration of risk capital in Canada, to the point that entrepreneurs from Ontario are now settling in the metropole. Tom Sweeney also announced that they will create this fall a seed fund, which lacked in the city. It will enable entrepreneurs from Canada or other parts of the world to start their company, as long as they do it in Montreal.
What do you think? Is Montreal Canada’s Silicon Valley?
Montreal is slowly but surely improving, however. I’m really starting to feel the vibe: I wasn’t feeling it 6 months ago.
Comparing Montreal to the Valley is still a huge overstatement, however.
;)
Mat: Montreal has confident entrepreneurs, that’s for sure :-) you nearly fell from my chair when reading your comment
Anyway, we’re definitely not there yet, but we’ve certainly got a start now that we’ve all found each other since nearly a year ago.
Now, we just have to do everything we can to make one (or more) of the newly launched startups a success! I think the moment that Montreal produces a Flickr-like success story, *then* we’ll have arrived as a player.
Fred
Tom Sweeney from Garage Canada tells the press that Montreal is Canada’s Silicon Valley http://tinyurl.com/3xjnyw
I’ve had feedback this morning from local entrepreneurs. They basically say that if Mtl is to become a larger tech hub, it will need better support from the government.
Isn’t always the same complaint again and again?
can you elaborate about “local entrepreneurs”? what is their market and also what is their size? i think you should redirect them to ressources that are already avalaible.
fred: Silicon Island is a great blog name. mcken had the direct allusion to silicon valley so i made the link.
P.S.:80% of people in silicon valley were not born there.
Mehdi
[...] For more on this, read La Presse and Montreal Tech Watch. [...]
mehdi: yes i agree, that’s Montreal’s main strenghts (like vancouver). i belive most of Montrelal’s innovation potential is still untapped
[...] Canada was also mentionned in the press this week about starting a seed fund. This is all great, although I am not sure what JLA’s definition of early funding is. The [...]
[...] job. And I have to say I have never seen an outstanding article from cyberpresse. It’s true they get the news (and more) but the analysis and insight is much to be desired. Like the Journal de Montréal, it [...]
Leave a Reply