Launching a technology startup in Montreal
This is a guide for resources avalaible in Montreal. It assumes you have done your homework and are aware of resources avalaible outside Montreal.
Here is the “textbook” path to launch a technology startup, the one you would want to follow if your project involves R&D, hardware, and lots of resources.
Here, the more resources you need to get a prototype or a beta product out, the more you will have to plan and spend time on plans, make sure your business model works, look for investors, development&production etc.Gather a team
- You can meet other technology entrepreneurs in Montréal by going to the tech entrepreneur breakfast organized by Ben Yoskovitz.
- A good bet is also to go to democamps and barcamps.
- You can also find people interested in marketing and social media at yulbiz
Designers
- Guillaume Thoreau does user interfaces and crafts UXP.
- Marie-Claude Doyon does graphic design for the web, and print as well.
- Hello Architekt does UXP and Information Architecture
Developers
- Patrick Tanguay is an integrator and developer.
- James Golick does Ruby on Rails
- MontrealOnRails does monthly meetups about the Rails framework
- MontrealPython gathers the local Python community
- MontrealTechWatch has also a job section allowing you to advertise jobs.
- Stephane Daury is a web technology generalist and strategy consultant.
Localization
- translationjm provides translation services for startups
Marketing
- NVI does marketing, SEM and SEO
- reflexity does SEO, SEM, and customer acquisition
- rednod provides strategic marketing advice
Law
- Brouillette & Partners are lawyers specialized in technology entrepreneurship
- BCF are specialized in patents and intellectual property
- Benoit&Co, former Ogilvy Renault partner, focused on patent work
- Borden Ladner Gervais
- Burns Levinson, which is a Boston Law firm, but also has a good track record in helping Canadian companies do deals with US investors
- Fasken Martineau
- Gowlings
- Osler
- Stikeman Elliott
Accounting
- If you are generating decent revenues (>$2M), is selling and/or considering raising money in the US, you should go for Big 4 firms:
- Deloite & Touche
- PwC
- BDO is also an option, they have the scope of the Big 4, but cater to small businesses and have in Montreal a team specialized in technology
- Regional firms are
Incorporating a company
- gov québec
- federal
- registering in the States (Delaware)
Business Consultants
- Flow consulting helps startups go to the “next level”
- David Massé is a financial advisor, and helps writing business plans and preparing to meet investors,
- Embrase helps entrepreneurs find a business model and start a company,
- Synaforce provides business help to technology startup
Non-profit or Governement-backed organizations which help technology companies
- ceim provides advice and guidance for new technology companies.
- inno-centre is a nation-wide organization helping technology companies
- Technomontréal can connect technology companies located in the greater montreal area
Events
- Startupcampmontreal is a camp for entrepreneurs and startups
- Montreal tech entrepreneur breakfast is a monthly meetup instigated by Ben Yoskovitz
- Founders&Funders is a quarterly dinner and networking event gathering technology entrepreneurs and investors (invite-only)
Angels or VCs doing early stage deals
VCs
Agile development
It’s possible to follow another model, which is the path of fast, iterative development. Here, releases are early and often, and reaction times aspire to be instantaneous. It also means investing in a great product experience, rather than heavy planning, sales and marketing.
The bet is that by having early feedback, it will be easier to adapt your product to your audience, instead of planning 6 or more months for development and discovering that you have lost focus, that it’s too late to change, and that the technological and business environment has changed since then. Worse, the market might not be there anymore, as others have filled the need or it’s not the “right moment” anymore to launch a product in this market.
In practice, you will want to keep the overhead as low as possible. For instance, it’s quite possible not to raise any capital, you might not have to write any business plan at all, you don’t need either a large development team - although a few
Go blitzweekend, barcamps, democamp, etc
Gather a team
- montreal tech entrepreneur breakfast
- blitzweekend
Designers
- Guillaume Thoreau does user interfaces and UXP.
- Marie-Claude Doyon does graphic design for the web.
Developers
- Patrick Tanguay does XHTML, CSS
- Heri does Ruby on Rails, and front-end work, if he’s nice
- James Golick does Ruby on Rails
- MontrealOnRails does monthly presentations about the Rails framework
- MontrealPython gathers the local Python community
Marketing
- yulbiz is a monthly meetup of pro. bloggers
- 3rd tuesday is a monthly meetup about using social media
- Robert Crecco does wearables if you are planning event launches.
Places
- station-c
- la SAT has regular venues and camps gathering developers, hackers, entrepreneurs, investors, designers and artists,
- Coffee shops in Montreal with Ile-Sans-Fil or any other place with fast and open Wifi
- la bande passante has a history of regrouping hackers and developers working with Free Software
Events
- A great way to delve into technology is to go into “camps”: democamp, facebookcamps, rocococamps, barcamps, CUSEC
- blitzweekend
- montreal tech entrepreneur breakfast
Angels
