A Frog in the Valley

Patrick Tanguay has a good wrap up of a discussion emerging on some local blogs about the local web/tech scene in Montreal. It’s a subject I have been thinking about since my return from Silicon Valley (where my nickname got christened for those not aware of the fact).

Here is the comment I made on his blog, because I think I will not have enough time to write anymore about it in the next few days…

My short take on the subject of Montreal being under represented is a bit more sociological : generation gap.

I have a gut feeling that there is a much stronger discontinuity between generations here than elsewhere, brought by several historical/local patterns : profound change in demography, the �??french entrepreneur complex�?� (old stuff from several generations ago) and the language barrier (but towards ourselves). The “creative” factor and the strong immigration in Montreal are two great trends for a better perspective on international/global markets. I think that these factors can provoke slower but stronger growth.

What I found real hard a few years ago with my first real startup (Messagia, where I was CTO) was that the �??founders cocktails�?� organized by our VC firm to �??network�?� with other CXO was completely out of my league, in a weird �??you�??re too young and not wearing a suit�?� kind of way. And maybe more because of my own perspective than from others.

So my answer to this discussion is to make it happen. Small steps. More face to face time with local and international entrepreneurs. More places to meet. More �??cocktails�?� where I think I might be out of place but still, find the people that I can relate with. And yes, money. Work to get the money-flow from the previous generations of entrepreneurs to this one. Should take a few years, then it will be time to start working with the following generation!

Tags: barcamp, generation, montreal, quebec, vc, web2