There's Just Something Special About Montreal...

The brilliant blend of cirque, music, and IPAs on Rue St. Denis during the ‘Montreal Completement Cirque’ festival. A downright rockin’ 4-piece band covering an eclectic mix of pop and rock.  The lead singer making jokes in French and English, walking around, dancing with the crowd, and strumming his guitar. A young kid tried his hand at breakdancing before a seasoned twenty-something joined in, showed him some moves, and extoled his efforts with a friendly high five.

The shaggy, bohemian duo at the Bar a JoJo, a Montreal blues institution since 1975, that looked and felt like it was still 1975, belted out everything from Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues to the Door’s Roll Baby Roll with a guttural sound, hippy overtones. The person sitting next to me said he was ‘too stoned to order a beer’ and so asked his friend to do it for him. 

So what makes Montreal so special? It’s the joie de vivre. The sense of grungy style. The friendly panhandlers holding the door, wishing you well in both official languages, and being polite to all passersby. It’s the smell of marijuana around every other corner, a smell my American friends used to point out 20 years ago with amazement when I first visited the city!

Montreal has a way of bringing strangers together, putting them at ease, and blending their cultures into something truly unique. It’s European. It’s North American. It’s sophisticated. It’s down to earth. It’s stylish. It’s friendly. It’s hip. It’s artistic. It’s capitalistic. It’s bilingual. It’s young. It’s full of history. It’s a celebration of Francophonie. And Startup Fest was naturally infused with this culture, making it a pure joy to experience. 

Plus, the people! I shared two gin and tonics with an Italian-British entrepreneur who married a French woman and together they are building their life in Montreal simply because they visited previously and fell in love not just with the city, but with the country. He is the founder of a fintech startup and she is a senior leader at a Swiss Bank. They epitomize the Montreal experience.  

 I met a Bostonian-turned-Montrealer who’s now a VC at Pender and led their most recent investment in YEG startup and Summit I winner Drugbank.

I met a Summit Alumna and Platform Junction graduate, who has since sold her business and now runs her own syndicates on Angel List.  She invested in the $100k Women Entrepreneur Award at the festival and is now the Director of Startups at MaRS Discovery District in Toronto (and she’s looking to build stronger ties to the Prairie Startup Community)

I met our own TNT portfolio company and Summit V Side Deal fidu, who was a Top 5 finalist for the Best of Fest $100k Award, and is a representation of Montreal’s internationalism in their own right:  the founding duo consists of a software developer and designer from Saskatoon and fiery brand strategy and IP lawyer from Atlanta.  

I met the Calgarian that runs BDC’s $200M Women in tech fund who wowed the entire audience by announcing she would match each of the $100k investments made at Startup Fest!

There’s just something about Montreal that makes these experiences both expected and magical at the same time.  Can’t wait to go back.