Bolidea – Giving Rise to Stellar Companies

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.

Time to buy and move out

The area was pretty dead in the winter and food joints were becoming excessively redundant. Yes, we love food and we more than appreciate it in all its variety. Most of all however, is that we didn’t own the place and the landlords were PITAs. Every time something broke – like the water pipes leaking on our screens or the stinky shared bathrooms – it took ages to get fixed. So when the day arrived that we needed more space for the people, Marty and Oli decided it would be better to buy something instead of finding a new place to rent out. That way they could pick the best location, setup their new offices however they liked and not have to deal with a landlord. They picked a 3 story building on the St-Laurent Boulevard right in front of the Mont-Royal. Amazing Spot. Tons of restaurants, tons of bars, tons of shopping for me! We were all sad to know we’d be leaving our familiar and snug headquarters but incredibly excited to soon be located smack downtown on The Main.

Our second offices

We were moving into the third floor, but before we could do so, we had to fix it up. The place was bleak and uninspiring. It was a big slab of concrete covered with old carpet and had columns located evenly throughout the length of the floor. Oh, and two bleak bathroom stalls. We ended up hiring an architect firm who made the place very industrial-techo looking. The carpets were ripped off the floor, leaving them bare to the grey concrete. The space, painted slate and white, was left open with two closed offices facing the boulevard and with the dining space in the back. All the black desks were disposed in the middle area and some bright red plexiglass panels were suspended in a few strategic locations. It was very nice looking – contemporary, sleek and high-tech. However, slowly but surely, people who had worked at the previous offices started mentioning that the new office didn’t have the same feel. It wasn’t as cozy. It wasn’t as fun. It was too big for the amount of people we were. That stayed at that. Until it was time to think up the next offices – the ones for Bolidea!

Thinking up the Bolidea offices

The plan was to take up half of the second floor which was in the same state the third floor had been in when we bought the building. We had a clean slate. We knew we’d be spending countless hours in our office to make our companies as successful as possible and we knew we absolutely wanted our new offices to feel like our first ones. We had to make it a remarkably comfortable and welcoming place, a place you’re happy to walk into weekdays and weekends. We decided to call in our architect friend Gen – she’s the one who had done the stairway of the building, a small job, but a job well done. We gave her our initial requirements and helped her throughout the development of the architectural plans and once the space was built out, I helped her on the interior design. Once again, Gen did a great job and we love the results.

Our Bolidea offices

In comparison to the first offices, Bolidea’s office is a modern open space, has wooden floors instead of carpeted ones, and has no fireplace. Even if the new office is not exactly like the initial one we were so fond of, it has so many other characteristics that we find make it even better. First off, the bright orange paint on the walls gives it life and energy – precisely what you need when you spend countless hours working! The kitchen is used every single day to prepare the delicious lunches we eat around the vintage massive wooden dining table. Our lounges are perfect spots to go brainstorm, talk, have meetings or chill with a beer poured from our Beertender. Basically, we love it here and we love working here and we’re really grateful to Gen for having helped us make this place what it is. It’s not rare that I stop and exclaim “isn’t it SOOO nice here!” – and every time I do, I’m happy do to so.

Here are a few pictures I’ve just added of the new office: