Like many tech people in Montreal, Ian Rae (@ianrae) went through Coradiant in the early 2000′s, before eventually starting his own business. He now runs a successful company which I’d describe as the “Jaguar of web hosting companies”. It might not be affordable for all companies, but it does offer top of the line expertise and service that would be hard to find in more “mainstream” companies like Rackspace.
Ian Rae has had many ideas, and one of them was to get technology entrepreneurs and companies together in a space. I actually met him 2 years ago, and my immediate answer was that he wasn’t the first one to think about this, and the hardest thing was covering operational expenses and marketing, like Mark McQueen from the Wellington Fund pointed out in an earlier MTW post.
Unlike many in Montreal tech scene, who make much more noise than Ian Rae on starting incubators and the like, it seems actually Ian Rae got things starting off the ground, quietly. He now has a large space, in a University Street building. The office is of course Syntenic’s headquarters, with its staff setting up servers hardware and also Syntenic daily operations, but it also is home for several Montreal startups, a few funded by MSU, plus also companies where Ian is an active contributor, and also consulting companies providing key advice to startups.
Not shown in the pictures are the variety of office spaces being occupied by the various Montreal startups.
If you see this, it’s immediate to conclude that it’s a de-facto startup incubator, with all the advantages (proximity of entrepreneurs, people focusing on innovation, technology-oriented allowing quick development, having a central space for discussion and meetings), and none of the disadvantages (since everything has been managed very informally so far, with tech companies coming in by word of mouth). There’s also no marketing at all done, and it’s easy to see the national & international potential of such a place, plus the immediate benefits for any entrepreneur who’d move in there.
Ian Rae says he doesn’t want to compete at all with projects like Station C ; he’d just want to “let’s get things working right now, we’ll see how things go in 90 days…”. Seeing the success so far, I’m asking myself questions if the entire community wouldn’t be better after all to support that space, and see if it’s possible to present it as the main hub for Technology in Montreal … although it probably needs a clear plan and clear intentions before being presented as such.
Comments
Bruno August 05, 2009
DokDok moved in in June and we’re very happy. New people teams moving in this week, the place is starting to be increasingly lively.
Big thanks to Ian and Alistair
Twitted by georgesduverger August 05, 2009
[...] This post was Twitted by georgesduverger [...]
Heri August 05, 2009
Alex Kovalenko August 05, 2009
–
Alex Kovalenko
Director of Operations
http://www.kovasys.com
alex@kovasys.com
Tel: 888.568.2747 x701
“IT Recruitment & Consulting”
“Recrutement et Consultation en TI”
READ ABOUT US IN THE NEWS:
http://www.kovasys.com/IntheNews/tabid/130/language/en-US/Default.aspx
Bruno Morency August 05, 2009
The office is perfect if you’re looking for office space for a small team vs. business centers targetted at independent workers and freelancers. You have best of both worlds: a private space for a small startup but the atmosphere and “dynamisme” of a larger shared space.
Mind you, I haven’t visited that many business centers and exec spaces, maybe they also offer this.
Alex Kovalenko August 05, 2009
You can look at Regus for one: http://www.regus.com/offices/options/default.htm#menuOne
They do provide many services among them VoIP, conference board use, secretary, mail, fax, etc.
–
Alex Kovalenko
Director of Operations
http://www.kovasys.com
alex@kovasys.com
Tel: 888.568.2747 x701
“IT Recruitment & Consulting”
“Recrutement et Consultation en TI”
READ ABOUT US IN THE NEWS:
http://www.kovasys.com/IntheNews/tabid/130/language/en-US/Default.aspx
Georges Duverger August 05, 2009
New central place for new technology companies in main downtown Montreal area: http://budurl.com/ld6w (by @mtw) #entrepreneurship #startups
Heri August 05, 2009
Because after all, an entrepreneur could set up in a Starbucks, get free wireless, somewhere in South Africa or Thailand…
heri August 05, 2009
@fnthawar u have seen this? http://bit.ly/4jnHob
David Crow August 05, 2009
@fnthawar u have seen this? http://bit.ly/4jnHob (via @heri)
Alex Kovalenko August 06, 2009
Alex
Now we are three » Blog Archive » This week’s links August 06, 2009
[...] Ian is in the news! He was interviewed by Montreal Tech Watch about his company and the space he is creating at 2020 University. [...]
Twitted by riadhzellagui August 06, 2009
[...] This post was Twitted by riadhzellagui [...]
Alistair Croll August 06, 2009
Rednod and Bitcurrent are both based out of the space. It’s hard to define what makes it more of a “startup fit” than an office on demand (like Regus.) Of course, one aspect is the huge amount of bandwidth and the awesome coffee, but those are just perks.
I think what’s different is the dialogue and shared spaces. Having areas where different companies can chat and ask questions of one another is great — yesterday, for example, I had discussions with one company about financing; another about taglines and positioning; and one of the other startups was helping us with some WordPress issues.
Of course, this flies in the face of the “open” co-working model, because we have doors. Tara Hunt was nice enough to stop by yesterday, too, and give us her thoughts on what works and what doesn’t in shared space. She has a lot of experience from Citizen Agency. What we’ve found is that there’s a certain size of startup that’s too big for shared tables, but still wants the interaction and speculation that comes from shared areas.
Right now, as you point out, Ian has just been trying to grow the area. Now that there’s a critical mass of startups, we’re hoping to organize “lunch and learn” events among the startups, and hopefully to the Montreal tech community at large.
Montreal Tech Watch » New central place for new technology … | centralafrican August 06, 2009
[...] here to see the original: Montreal Tech Watch » New central place for new technology … Share and [...]
Carl Mercier August 07, 2009
Ben Yoskovitz August 07, 2009
Congrats to @ianrae and @acroll for the shared startup space in Montreal: http://bit.ly/MkuKU
Chris Arsenault August 07, 2009
Congrats to @ianrae and @acroll for the shared startup space in Montreal via @byosko: http://bit.ly/MkuKU
Carl Mercier August 07, 2009
RT @byosko: Congrats to @ianrae and @acroll for the shared startup space in Montreal: http://bit.ly/MkuKU
Richard Beck August 07, 2009
RT @cmercier: RT @byosko: Congrats to @ianrae and @acroll for the shared startup space in Montreal: http://bit.ly/MkuKU
David J. MacKay August 07, 2009
RT @byosko: Congrats to @ianrae and @acroll for the shared startup space in Montreal: http://bit.ly/MkuKU (via @cmercier)
Book Oven August 08, 2009
@mtw: hey heri, what plugin do you use to get trackbacks from twitter on your wp blog? http://bit.ly/ofpbr
Hugh McGuire August 09, 2009
@BorisAnthony yep, check this post: http://bit.ly/ofpbr …twitter mentions of the url are showing as trackbacks.
Book Oven in the Gazette August 12, 2009
[...] a good article about Book Oven and the new publishing landscape, with a nice pic out the window of the office (with me blocking the view, unfortunately): Before the Internet, when a writer could not find a [...]
hughmcguire.net · Book Oven in the Gazette August 12, 2009
[...] a good article about Book Oven and the new publishing landscape, with a nice pic out the window of the office (with me blocking the view, unfortunately): Before the Internet, when a writer could not find a [...]
Montreal Tech Watch » BookOven crowdsource book editing August 12, 2009
[...] BookOven is funded by MontrealStartup and is based in the “no-name” shared startup space [...]