This is a perfect opportunity for students wishing to gain some real life experience or seasoned designers who have some time to kill.

If you’re interested, please email me at denis@quebecvalley.com and don’t forget to mention about your expertise (graphics, flash or both)

Thanks!

The problem is how to form a team when most people have a day job and are very busy? It’s not easy.

Programmers are good at programming but might lack marketing or business skills. True programmers like to code. They often code after work. They contribute to open source projects.

Business guys are good at business but they are rarely good coders or designers. Business guys always think about ideas. They come up with a new idea every time nature calls, whenever they see someone frustrated at something and so on.

Designers are awesome at creating something neat and fun to use but might not be able to code a large application or find out if a market is profitable or not. Designers can transform any ordinary web page in a work of art.

It’s very hard to find a multi-disciplinary individual (ex: someone who’s both a great coder and a great business man). I always believed in working as a group instead of working for yourself. Being in a team, it’s much easier to talk about a project, to do research, to design and code it. The reason is you have access to other excellent resources. When you do it on your own, you must be very focused and dedicated otherwise you will quit or fail. Being solo doesn’t work very well.

So you might be wondering where all this is heading? Well I had this idea where people contribute to startups in various ways. I call it “coop entrepreneurship”. People join startups like they join open source projects. They contribute what they can: they code, they design, they write business plans, they do marketing, they invest money, etc. Basically, they contribute their skills (or money if they are investors). Their participation is evaluated and shares are given depending on their participation. Once the project is completed, they look for funding and launch.

I’d really like to “test run” this idea with a few people before brining the concept further. So if you’re a programmer, a designer/user interface expert, a business man, a network engineer, a sysadmin, an investor, a mentor, a coach, a lawyer, an accountant, a secretary, an idea guy or if you think you could be part of a startup then please let me know.

I would really like to hear your thoughts about the model itself. On my side, I think the model is viable as the coop model has been around for ages. It is just being applied in a different way and actually, I know that Cambrian House is doing something similar. In the medium term, the goal would be to create a hub where people could meet, find partners and start a business. Some sort of business catalyst or perhaps a very informal incubator.

So… who’s in? Just email me.

Hello! I am conducted a survey on virtual communities as part of my Masters Thesis in marketing. I would appreciate anyone who would be willing to answer it!

Go to this link (it’s Survey Monkey, and it’s SSL so perfectly safe and anonymous):
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=TkV1pJzuq7rF284wHcYmDg_3d_3d

Aussi disponible en français:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=_2f338o38n6VCGoHVsjoM5KA_3d_3d

Please help her! :)