DISQUS

Community Page on DISQUS

what is this?

Instigator Blog

Focused on startups, entrepreneurship and social media
Jump to original thread »
Author

Entrepreneurs Unite! Let’s Do Breakfast in Montreal

Started by Benjamin Yoskovitz · 3 months ago

My friend Julien Smith has one of the most popular podcasts around, and he’s an opinionated fellow when it comes to doing good and connecting.
Julien feels there’s not enough community-driven things going on in Montreal. He unleashed a hailstorm of comments from people wi ... Continue reading »

34 comments

  • julien

    1 year ago

    this is a great idea. if you're looking for a place, i like le comptoir, which is around Papineau and Laurier; it's comfortable and friendly and they'd love to have us.
    reply
  • Austin Hill

    1 year ago

    I'm also into the idea. Closer to St. Laurent is good for me. Perhaps Cafeteria?
    reply
  • Ben Yoskovitz

    1 year ago

    St. Laurent works for me as well. I know there's some amount of concentration there of entrepreneurs.

    Anyone else?
    reply
  • hugh

    1 year ago

    sure, i'm in. st-laurent is good.

    maybe you should specifically invite some people "who don't know each other."
    reply
  • Ben Yoskovitz

    1 year ago

    Hugh - I don't know who you know and don't know - but I hope we can bring in people who've never met, that would be a big point of all this.

    Thanks for tossing your hat in.
    reply
  • Marc Chriqui

    1 year ago

    I'm in. Anywhere is fine, as long as it doesn't take 10 minutes to find parking and the place serves fruit and whole wheat bread. There are way too many fat/sugar-filled breakfast menus out there...;)
    reply
  • Sylvain Carle

    1 year ago

    I'm in! I was planning to organize tech startups breakfast on my own, starting in a few weeks. Let's start small, but I already had a shortlist of 5-7 interested minds...once or twice per month would be good.

    I feel more than that is not possible for busy entrepreneurs, enven then, people might miss some, so let's be sure to have an online counterpart so people can "catch up" if the miss an event or two).

    Also, let's make sure we have a good muti-cultural representation there, I think St-Laurent is the perfect symbolic spot in Montreal for "diversity".
    reply
  • julien

    1 year ago

    Sylvain et al: Let's podcast it! I have the equipment and breakfast places are usually pretty dead on weekdays.
    reply
  • Ben Yoskovitz

    1 year ago

    Sylvain - I'll touch base soon via email directly, but do you want to send over those that were interested to this post and see if they "sign up."

    I'm thinking ONCE / MONTH - Tuesday morning? Maybe the 2nd Tuesday of every month?

    I don't want to interfere with YulBlog and YulBiz, although the group is a bit different, since we're focusing on entrepreneurs.

    Not sure what kind of online presence we need, but I'm open to ideas...I could put a forum up here, maybe setup an email list?
    reply
  • Ben Yoskovitz

    1 year ago

    Julien - I'm totally open to podcasting it. Maybe we can do some interviews and post them here. I'm planning a new podcast series here anyway, so it'd be a good start.
    reply
  • Marc Snyder

    1 year ago

    Ben,

    Set a place. Set a date. Set a time. Don't try to email-focus-group it (I know that's not a word; I just invented it), it won't work.

    Will the place/date/time be perfect? No. Does a perfect place/date/time exist? No.

    Bottom line, choose one. Get the ball rolling. Once a couple of meeting have happened, ask for feedback and go from there.

    MS
    reply
  • Warren Wilansky

    1 year ago

    Ben.

    I would be interested as well, if you guys would have me!

    :)

    Warren
    reply
  • Sylvain Carle

    1 year ago

    Tuesday morning is good, something from 8am to 10am would be good, long enough to catch early risers and late comers...

    I will send an email to my friends with a link here, comme ça ils pourront se manifester directement.

    Je pense qu'on devrait par contre se limiter un peu, 20 personnes pour la première fois, ça devrait être un maximum.
    reply
  • Ben Yoskovitz

    1 year ago

    Gack! Warren wants to come...run away! Run away! Warren, you'd be a great addition. I really do hope you'll come.

    Marc - I agree. We won't over plan whatsoever.

    Sylvain - I was thinking the same- 8am-10am.

    I'm not worried about a limit right now - I'd be surprised to get 20 off the bat, but let's see.
    reply
  • Mitch Joel

    1 year ago

    You don't have to ask me twice. Count me in, but please give me fair warning.

    I would also take this opportunity to let you know that Austin and I are involved in the YES Montreal Entrepreneurship Conference, which is taking place on Saturday, March 3rd - info here - www.yesmontreal.ca. Full disclosure: I am on the Board of Directors at YES Montreal.

    It's also a great resource for start-ups - they have mentors, money to give away and lots of resources. Sorry for the impromptu NPO commercial, but I'm not sure how many people know about this amazing resource in Montreal.

    We should try and hook something up with the Atwater Library project between the two orgs.

    Anyhoot, yes, count me in :)
    reply
  • Sebastien Provencher

    1 year ago

    I suspect I'm one of the people Sylvain is talking about. Count me in.
    reply
  • Patrick

    1 year ago

    If working on my own (for a lot of you guys) counts as entrepreneur, then I'm in.

    When reading "St-Laurent" I was thinking "La petite marche" but... it's on St-Denis just below Laurier, oups.

    On St-Laurent, I've never been but there's a place corner of St-Viateur I think that it's supposed to be good. Cafeteria has breakfasts, bit higher than Sherbrooke but I don't think that's the right kind of space.
    reply
  • David Dufresne

    1 year ago

    Sylvain Carle's blog pointed me to this post. If you guys, from time to time, want a young and impressionable venture capital dude to join the discussion and to throw things at (preferably ideas), I'm your man. And I LIVE on St-Laurent, so...

    (my usual breakfast hangout is Vieux St-Laurent, just south of Duluth, greasy spoon type place, cheap and good... "Bagel etc." near Marianne is also fantastic, but maybe not set-up for a group meeting).
    reply
  • julien

    1 year ago

    i like vieux st-laurent and cafeteria, they're both good. somebody's gonna need to choose, btw.
    reply
  • hugh

    1 year ago

    i'd vote for greasy spoon over fancy place.
    reply
  • Alex

    1 year ago

    I love the idea and I think the plateau is central enough for everyone.

    Now you just need to set a date/time/place and we'll let you know if we can make it or not.

    Great initiative!
    reply
  • Sebastien Provencher

    1 year ago

    Another interesting (and classic!) greasy spoon for breakfast on the Plateau is Ty-Coq, on Mont-Royal Est (between Papineau and Delorimier).
    reply
  • Sebastien Provencher

    1 year ago

    David,

    You're more than welcome! You'll bring the VC point of view to the whole Web entrepreneur discussion and it's sorely lacking in Montreal.
    reply
  • Ben Yoskovitz

    1 year ago

    I'm leaning towards doing something ONCE per MONTH - the 2nd or 3rd Tuesday of every month.

    If we do the 2nd Tuesday my only problem is I can't make it in February! So maybe we'll do February 20th, but then revert to the 2nd Tuesday of every month after that...

    I'm still taking suggestions for a place - I would like something more than a greasy spoon; somewhere that you can lounge a bit? Anyone?

    And everyone who has commented so far is certainly welcome!
    reply
  • Alex

    1 year ago

    There's a cafe called Java U in Old Montreal which is virtually empty during weekdays... that place is quite loungy and they don't mind people sitting there for hours (i.e: they don't focus on turnover).

    It's also pretty big and we can easily reserve the top floor.

    I think they even have WiFi for those who might need to "work" during the meeting/breaks.

    Also correct me if i'm wrong, but i'm pretty sure there's a Java U on the plateau, although it might not be as quiet during the daytime (thus impossible to reserve a section for the meeting, depending on how many peple are present).
    reply
  • Ben Yoskovitz

    1 year ago

    What do you guys think about the Java U on the Plateau? It's on St. Denis I believe. Casual but a bit nicer than a greasy spoon, so people can get something a bit healthier if they like, and it's got more of a lounge atmosphere.

    I'm leaning towards starting on February 13th (because this coming Tuesday is too soon) -- and either we'll stick with the 3rd Tuesday of every month or then switch to the 2nd Tuesday of every month.

    We can also change locations too if we're not happy with our first choice.

    So -- Java U? Votes?

    February 13th? Thoughts?
    reply
  • Mitch Joel

    1 year ago

    I liked the idea of Cafeteria on St. Laurent.

    I'm not sure I can make it on the 13th. Ironically, I am speaking to the entrepreneurship class for McGill's MBA.

    :(

    Maybe we can hold the breakfast in the class!
    reply
  • julien

    1 year ago

    actually, i think i like cafeteria better too. it's more restauranty. i'm kind of done with cafes. but wherever it is, i'll be there on the 13th.
    reply
  • hugh

    1 year ago

    my vote is:
    a) anywhere on st-laurent
    b) if cafeteria is a preference for others, I'll vote for that too to help get to agreement. decision.
    reply
  • Ben Yoskovitz

    1 year ago

    Guys - Cafeteria it is. 8am. Tuesday, Feb 13th.

    We'll see about a regular monthly schedule and location after that.

    I'll be posting an announcement on Instigator Blog momentarily.
    reply
  • Carl Mercier

    1 year ago

    I'm definitely in! The Montreal tech scene is rather boring and I'd like to see this change!
    reply
  • Ben Yoskovitz

    1 year ago

    Carl - I look forward to seeing you there.
    reply
  • ER SHEN

    1 year ago

    Hello! Ben & Everyone,

    My name is ER SHEN, a graduator from the major of media and communication in Concordian University and a native Chinese.

    I've beening staying in Montreal for long...time (around 4 years:-)) and struggling the French language with my big big Chinese accent. But, still, lovely city and lovely people. Even, here is less Entrepreneur-oriented.

    As a half-IT and half-media person, sometimes I'm even confused by myself. Shall I belonge to the group of tech people or the group of media ? (I mean the traditional media ones, TV, newspaper, radio....).

    So, Internet becomes my destiny. I started this one, www.media-5.net . Does it seem I'm not a very Web 2.0 person (or not yet)? I borrowed an old idea. But it's very popular in Asia (or China) and they make huge money. They use this simple technology to publish multimedia magazines online and digitalize catalogues. Readers are counted by millions. Because of this project, maybe I should call myself an entrepreneur: young (still), educated, experienced, passionated and ...not achieved yet.

    Luckly, I found this community. I've beening seaching for a while to look for a young IT entrepreneurs' community, where we meet and share our passion and ideas. And the most important is that we help each other and make things done. For myself, I need partners. Not just for the current online publication project, but also for other possibilities. Don't foreget I'm from China, a place full of the chances and ventures.Montreal is such a creative city, having an incredible amount of talents. We should do something to bring the energy together. Meanwhile, if you need any advice about IT business in China, or simply travelling to China. I can be a very good consultant.

    I'll go to the Entrepreneur Breakfast on the 10th of July. Please counte me in. Also, I'm trying to registe to the DemoCamp on the 26th of July. Hope to see you there!

    And thank you, Ben. You are really the person who brings people together. Hope to know you soon.
    reply
  • This is Levyskiew

    5 months ago

    Well David, my friend and partner....I am happy...... There is a moment where someone needs to move-up, to further explore life, to undertake real and intense challenges. That is what you are doing buddy! I was awaiting for the day you will be doing it. I am so proud of you! To me, you are special, very bright, curious and the younger of all us. You never been distracted by the management...you have been doing what you loved the most:-keeping yourself in the crowd of new tehnologies that will change the way we live and do things.You have been a source of fresh water for me, I will be missing you big time! But I know how fast you will bring value and succes to your new environment! You are special David! Miss you already........Good luck!
    reply

Add New Comment

Returning? Login