A community is centered around a need (not the other way round), and is most effective if you’re interested in collectively pushing for change, making a difference, where the interest extends beyond the existence of the community itself, and beyond the collective ego of the community.

Montréal already does well in getting people connected with demands vs needs (we’re not really a big city). I’d be more concerned with creating false hype around our presence, than just doing what we love to do, and being good at what we do.

The Arcade Fire, as The Dears drew attention because they are good (if we average out the quality of the repective albums). If we do good work, we will be noticed.

To quote you: “There are a handful of people across the country and within Montreal specifically that are leading the charge, that are organizing, that are creating conversations, that are taking the initiative to organize something. I encourage all of us to continue, to take initiative ourselves; Always seek out ways to network those around us, to help connect a startup, an engineer, an entrepreneur with those that can help him/her; I encourage those that have the means to get the investment community, government agencies, tech associations and other larger software companies involved in the process of developing this community, this infrastructure.”

Initiative taken:

We now have the Montreal Tech League to make the local Tech scene more visible. Tech is not just technology though.

Read more at: http://www.yashlabs.com/montrealtechleague/blog

We have a forum and a public wiki too.

I am calling on all of you to join in.

Best,

Josh Nursing

1. Montreal does indeed have a vibrant software sector/community. There are close to 3000 tech firms located in the region, employing about 110,000 people in the industry. Not all of these firms are headquartered in Montreal however. Montreal has very talented people, technically, artistically and creatively. The city’s joie de vivre and culture creates an environment for creativity. The region excels in digital technology, microelectronics, advanced materials, mathematics and modeling, computer and networking applications, computer services, multimedia, nanotechnology and biotechnology.

2. Also, based on numerous studies by KPMG and other consulting firms, Montreal boasts the absolute lowest operating costs than most major cities in North America; giving it a great edge for companies starting or a moving a business here.

3. With its 11 university-level establishments, of which four are major universities, numerous colleges, private and public schools and first-rate research centers, Greater Montréal has over 160,000 students, 10% of which are registered in ICT-related programs. Montreal also ranks second in North America for the number of university students per capita….behind only the Boston area. In edition these universities also graduate plenty of business minded folks from their business programs, many of which end up working in the tech sector. Bottom line is that the talent pool is available.

4. Montreal had more university research investment than any other Canadian city. It is well known that the intellectual and research capacity in Montreal universities is second only to that of Boston in North America.

5. There has been great talent and success from entrepreneurs in Montreal. The city is that

So with all of these advantages, where is Montreal’s software sector? What are the challenges? And what can be done?

A.Students graduating from Montreal schools received great educations, but went away to find jobs or postgraduate positions elsewhere. Either to Ontario but especially in the US where it seemed there were better networks, better connections, more jobs and certainly a stronger entrepreneurial system.

B. The majority of Montreal’s tech graduates and employees are NOT entrepreneurs, they do not get involved in StartUps and most don’t exactly end of working for Montreal based software companies either. Most are employees in tech firms ranging from IBM, CGI, BCE, Emergis, Matrox, Ubisoft, CAE, Nortel, Ericson research, Softimage, EA, DMR, Telus, Videotron, etc. Most of these employees are not entrepreneurs or don’t work for startups not because it is their choice not to do so, rather, and this is my opinion, the Montreal software environment does not provide as many opportunities as it should.

C. Although the software industry in Canada is vibrant, it is also not that large: I don’t think people realize that there aren’t many large software companies in Canada…that are Canadian based companies. People don’t seem to thin there are alot of software firms in Montreal…well thery are right. There is only 1 software company that has a billion dollars in revenue or more in Canada and that is Cognos, the next one has close to 800 million and that is OpenText, the next one dips close to 200 million and that is Constellation Software, then around 3-4 companies around the 100 million mark and all the rest are below 100 million,…well below. In fact, the largest software company in Montreal is only in the 70-80$ million range. Not very impressive for a city our size. Montreal only has about 17 or so software companies that are larger than 10 million in revenues. Toronto by comparison has much, much more and far bigger firms. In that sense, Toronto’s software sector is far more vibrant than Montreal in terms of number of software firms, employees, VCs, investment community, VARS, resellers, etc. Nevertheless, there seems to be a surge in software development across Canada and in Montreal over the past couple of years. More startups, more internet companies.

D. Montreal is really two cities in one. French only firms and startups and English/Bilingual firms and startups. There are services, organizations and associations more geared towards the French focused firms and separate services, organizations and associations geared to the English/bilingual firms. Although there are a handful that cater to both communities. Unfortunately this fact makes Montreal operate as if it were a smaller city because resources are divided between these two language communities. The fact is that Montreal, despite it being Canada’s 2nd largest city has less business resources and programs for the entrepreneur than other smaller cities across the country. Take Ottawa or Vancouver for instance: There are more, or rather more visible resources, organizations, associations, communities etc than in Montreal, or so it seems that they are better organized to the casual observer. What seems to be a lack of services or tech organizations in MOntreal goes directly towards
reducing the effectiveness of the city’s software sector.

E.The Investment community in Canada and in Montreal:
Simply put, the investment community in Canada and in Montreal is too conservative and too uninvolved. There are too many government based investment houses making wrong or biased investments. Not enough deals are done in Canada let alone in Montreal focused on seeding, nurturing and growing a community of healthy software or tech firms. There is no comparison to how business is done in Canada versus how it is done in Silicon Valley. The entrepreneurial effort and infrastructure there, as well as the Boston area is absolutely intoxicating. The investment community has really molded and developed an infrastructure that enables software and tech firms to startup and flourish. It is their environment that allows entrepreneurs there to take the risk, to startup, to get funding, to grow and create wealth. More Montreal startups need to be presented and introduced to the investment community, including other tech companies that can fund them. The more these technologies are seen, the more opportunities there will be for investment and business development discussion. Bottom line, the investment community in Canada and in Montreal absolutely needs to be part of any startup effort or community being grown here. Without them to share the financial risk and to share their network, there will not be as much financial gain as there could be. The investment community includes VCs, investment bankers, private equity, and government subsidies (not government owned VCs), among others.

F. Media, PR and Marketing:
Montreal media, newspapers, magazines, and onlinemedia simply do not provide as much buzz and PR for Montreal based firms as Toronto does for their firms and especially not as much as the US does for US based firms. There are many reasons for this, too many to list here. However we only have 1 major newspaper in English in Montreal and the french press obviously cannot get picked up in other markets in Canada or the US. As well the country’s top national paper, the Globe & Mail does not really favour Montreal based content all that often. Media creates buzz, buzz increases web site views, stock prices, investments, corporate and product mentions, etc. MEdia is key and we need to engage more of them in Montreal and throught the country.

What is to be done?

The Montreal sector is split into many areas: Firms making enterprise software, consumer software, Multimedia software, telecommunications and video companies which are getting into the software business because of IP technologies, and then there are the web 2.0 firms and other software startups. All these sectors require organized efforts in terms of communities, associations, investment opportunities, networking, etc, etc. This is what is happening across the country as well as in Montreal especially around the next generation of internet and software startups. Mesh conferences, democamps, networking events and get togethers. There are a handful of people across the country and within Montreal specifically that are leading the charge, that are organizing, that are creating conversations, that are taking the initiative to organize something. I encourage all of us to continue, to take initiative ourselves; Always seek out ways to network those around us, to help connect a startup, an engineer, an entrepreneur with those that can help him/her; I encourage those that have the means to get the investment community, government agencies, tech associations and other larger software companies involved in the process of developing this community, this infrastructure.

For Investment folks in Canada: Start investing more in Canadian software/internet startups. More and more software will be offered as a service over the internet and there is no reason why Silicon valley should give “birth” to all the successful ones.

For tech associations & organizations:
Provide value and services to internet/software startups instead of only focusing on enterprise software and hardware companies.

For other Canadian tech & software companies:
Be curious, take the initiative in partnering or investing in internet/software startup firms. These firms have technology and functionality that can add value to your existing product lines and customers. Look within the Canadian scene before going to the US for the exact same and probably overpriced functionality.

For large multinational software firms in Canada:
I mean Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, SAP, SAGE, even HP.
These companies have tremendous influence on the software buying habits across the country. They also have plenty of resources within their partner programs to assist another software/internet firm or startup. Free development software, marketing resources, sales resources, funding for development, and of course they all have huge reselling channels of VARS, resellers and solution providers across the country. Although these companies recruit software firms as partners, what they do not do well here in Canada is organize efforts to recruit and then help startup firms in the country. These large companies can give a startup a very attractive headstart in return for a loyal and productive partner. More should be done to seek out startup partners. Attention startups and software/internet firms…..go seek the partnership of one of these firms….not all will be effective, but certainly one or two will make valuable partners if approached effectively.

For Media in Montreal and the rest of the country:
AS mentioned above, buzz and PR is required in order to development further interest ina sector or a company. Not enough attention is placed on software and internet sectors. We need writers who can deliver content and buzz for this sector, not just those that blog about the sector. More content and buzz equals more advertising dollars for your Media firm :)

Over the next few years certain organizations or networks will ultimately develop in Montreal and Canada to the point where they will be the magnet for the software/internet startup. Every industry has its community “magnets”. The question I have for all who read this is what effort will you put in? Will you be an observer or will you initiate and create a part of the infrastrucure?

I appreciate the time you gave in reading this.
My best

According to an article in La Presse (which, unless you can read French, don’t even bother clicking), Google has braved the great Canadian frontier and established a small R&D branch in Montreal.

Thank you
Nathalie

#1/ Why does tech Montreal need a tech community? I always thought communities responded to a need.

#2/ Does a (perhaps semi-fictional)community that is engaged with tech have to ascribe to a ‘camps’ model of social development. I have been booting around the tech scene in this city for years, and as Zeke points out and as one can glean from the fact that the next Barcamp is at the SAT, Mtls emergent-tech scene owes a lot to the cities creative culture as much it’s existence as a digital hub in Canada.

Montreal is an unique city with different priorities and different histories than most, so its culture is also going to look very weird and possibly not as easy to classify as a silicon valley type locale.

C’est demain que se tiendra notre première rencontre de l’année, la dernière remontant à novembre.Je pense que nous aurons une belle variété de sujets à discuter entre autre avec l’arrivée de G…

Could it be that we lack the kinds of events where people can get together and simply discuss things on a more abstract level? (i.e. ideas vs. technical execution) Is that what the BarCamps and DemoCamps have been like?