Archive for December, 2008
FreeHackers Montreal at Bolidea
by Magda Rocki
Preparations for the event:
A few hours before the first FreeHackers meet was to be held in the offices of Bolidea, the team itself was efficiently scrabbling to provide a welcoming space fitting for big and small hackers alike. So late last night, while other worker bees were nectaring their stressful workweeks away with alcoholic pollen, the Bolidea team was fervently at work, prettifying our offices, and finally installing our company’s name plate.
As I arrived sleepy-eyed at the office on Saturday under the noon sun, I was greeted by the infectious grins of the newly arrived participants of the inaugural edition of the Free Hackers meeting. continue reading…
2 comments December 17, 2008
Our Offices
by Magali Janvier
Our first offices
Our first offices were located in the Old Port, a historical and pleasant Montreal neighborhood, exceedingly lively and happening in the summer, while more tranquil in the winter time. Not only was the neighborhood lovely, our office space felt really cozy and was fun to work in. The work spaces were divided in little rooms each of them with their different feel: the well organized marketing/design room, the paper and poster plastered Biz Dev spot and the coders’ area, likely dark and always overflowing with blue “bawls” bottles. Not only did all the staff love the office space, people arriving at the offices never missed a chance to compliment on how great it felt. There was a fireplace, big wooden ceiling structure beams and comfortable couches surrounding a long coffee table. That’s where we always sat at lunch time, eating our homemade or McDonald lunches – the McDonald’s was right around the corner – talking about the next release but more often about the latest party. Indeed the place was perfect for parties, the famous fireplace was always topped with multiple bottles of booze – too often left over booze such as absinthe – but renewed with the drinkable kind before any plan of festivity. Writing this brings back good memories. Overall it was great, but as everything, there were some downsides.
1 comment December 10, 2008
The Team Behind Bolidea
by Magda Rocki
The mastermind behind our enterprise, Martin-Luc Archambault (pic: bottom left), concocts and engineers seamless business strategies that cause our mouths to fall open – more often than not – during meetings. Having sharpened his visionary approaches on more than a few online businesses, he enthusiastically seeks and shapes everything into fast: turnovers, entrepreneurs, executions, and automobiles. Open and receptive to all things entrepreneurial, he is one of the investors behind Montreal Start Up and is always excited to brainstorm and talk about business with anyone. He attributes his farsighted intelligence to daily nibbles of dark chocolate. continue reading…
Add comment December 8, 2008
Got a Problem?
by Martin-Luc Archambault
We’ve always been coming up with cool ideas of products that we like to think people would really need. In the past, we’ve usually been too swamped working on other projects to develop even a fraction of these new ideas. The result is that we missed out on a few amazing business opportunities that others executed on and that became great successes.
It’s commonly said that for a startup to be successful, the stars need to be aligned. In theory, that means a lot of things, including a fantastic team with a great idea and a real market. We think the toughest thing to nail down is what makes an idea “great”. We don’t have the perfect answer to that, but after much reflection, we are now convinced that no idea can be great if it doesn’t really solve a market problem. continue reading…
Add comment December 4, 2008
Bolidea’s First Blog Post
by Martin-Luc Archambault
Hello there! I’m Martin-Luc Archambault and this is my first blog post – ever. I am an entrepreneur based out of Montreal and I’ve been developing and launching technology startups since I was in high school – 13 or so years ago. Obviously some of these companies were complete failures but I was fortunate enough to have a few pretty good successes!
In the past few months I’ve been working hard with my long time partners Olivier Cabanes & Magali Janvier on developing our dream which I am happy to present today!
Our new company is Bolidea. It’s an incubator with the mission of developing technology companies that strive to provide solutions to real market problems.
With this blog, we obviously want to highlight our solutions, products and companies. However, we promise that we’ll do so in a very candid manner because our most important goal is definitely to share and discuss our experiences (both good and bad) with the community.
We know that we can’t be good at everything and we think that the best way for us to get better is to engage and learn from each other’s mistakes and successes.
So we really hope you’ll talk to us either by commenting on this blog or by emailing or calling us. Better yet, if you are in Montreal and you are walking on St-Laurent Boulevard, don’t hesitate to drop by our office and we’ll be happy to take some time to show you around and chat about your projects and our companies. You’ll find our address and complete contact info on the About Us page.
Add comment December 1, 2008
