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Here’s some pics of the new power cables we have in - might have more pictures of the transformer coming in soon as well.

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Here’s a look at the lights in the rear space.

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Here’s some pics of the rear space we’re working on renovating. All we need now is to put down some carpet and we’re good to go!

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Here's a look at the new steel doors for the datacentre. AtlasCloud is going to be making a lot of upgrades to security like this, many of which will also apply to The Cranium.

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Here's a shot of our new boardroom setup in the rear, including the new table.

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For all those interested, a new space is opening up in the Cranium in the rear area - when refurbished it will be a perfect place for a larger team.

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Here's some more pics - of construction on the outside, and the inside with more of the paint work done.

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Some more pictures of the back - but this time with paint.

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Here are some pictures from Monday of the latest work on the Atlas Cloud space. These include a picture of the generator, and the fibre being put in.

-Stewart

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Some more looks at AtlasCloud's construction. Here are some shots of the piping for the server racks, and of the new light fixtures we have.

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Uploading More Photos as AtlasCloud is constructed. Here are the walls.

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Construction at AtlasCloud is progressing along at an impressive pace and I’d like to share the results with anyone interested in AtlasCloud or Cranium Coworking. Previously, the AtlasCloud space was a wide, open space. Currently, walls are being set up to divide the space into a room for the servers, a space for the generator and a corridor that will connect to Cranium space. Access to this area will mainly be from the rear of the space.

The data racks are already set up in the Atlas designated area, with room for more to be put in. Even better, the coolant system has been set up and fiber has been brought into the building. Soon the centre will be ready to accept racks and tenants – the launch date should be swift approaching. At the same time, there are even more upgrades planned for the AtlasCloud space, including an upgrade on security on the rear and the front. This will quite likely affect Cranium tenants with an upgrade to an easier, more reliable keycard system for security.

The Cranium will be affected in other ways too. Most notably, the new shape that AtlasCloud will give the rear space, along with new acquisitions, will give new areas to the Cranium, rentable for larger teams or many smaller teams. With the growth into this area will come the addition of new and more Cranium facilities.

When AtlasCloud does go live, it will offer premium data storage services with prime protection and backup. I will try to keep everyone posted with new developments on the space, with work resuming next week. Until then, here are some posted pictures of the worked on space.

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Stewart Hemingson

Writer @TheCraniumHQ

http://www.thecranium.co

About The Cranium Office

The Cranium is a co-working office for technology growth companies based in Vancouver, Canada. Building a start-up is a marathon, with a series of climbs and descents on the path to a vision. Surrounding your team with the right entrepreneurs, advisers and partners is the difference between scaling the next peak or losing traction on descent. The people and their experience is what makes The Cranium great.

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VANTUG at Cranium

  As a special write up, I’d like to take the time to draw attention to one of the Cranium’s associates and the work and events they do. Specifically, the Vancouver Technology User’s Group (VANTUG) has held meetings at the Cranium and AtlasCloud space in previous months – and they have another meeting coming up on November 12th, which will be held at the Cranium.

VANTUG began originally as the Vancouver NT Users Group back in 1996. The idea of VANTUG has always been the sharing of information and hosting tutorials for Information Technology Professionals, by Information Technology Professionals.

So what exactly is it that VANTUG does? What is the information that it shares and runs tutorials on? In short, VANTUG is for PC Informational Technology professionals, and its creation was spurred by Microsoft’s ubiquity and rapid growth throughout the world. As well, as time goes on, older Microsoft products are rendered obsolete, and newer products are subject to different issues. At the same time, there arises opportunities for expanded uses of products that might not be apparent to those who could benefit greatly from them. Befitting their collaborative nature, VANTUG membership is free and open to anyone who feels that they could benefit from it. In order to bring those interested in this education together, VANTUG holds meetings for all those interested, with these meetings now taking place at The Cranium. Their next event is going to occour on November 12th, in the evening from 6:30 to 8:30. For this event, VANTUG is having Yaroslav Pentarskyy speak on Azure, specifically on Azure Machine Learning and Azure websites. Yaroslav Pentarskyy himself is an author of four SharePoint books, a group manager at Avanade and Microsoft MVP since 2009.

    You can find out more information about VANTUG and buy tickets here:

http://www.vantug.com/Home.aspx

 Yaroslav's Blog can be found here:

www.sharemuch.com

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Stewart Hemingson

Writer @TheCraniumHQ

http://www.thecranium.co

About The Cranium Office

The Cranium is a co-working office for technology growth companies based in Vancouver, Canada. Building a start-up is a marathon, with a series of climbs and descents on the path to a vision. Surrounding your team with the right entrepreneurs, advisers and partners is the difference between scaling the next peak or losing traction on descent. The people and their experience is what makes The Cranium great.

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Tangoo at the Cranium

One of the newest companies at The Cranium, Tangoo is a fresh Vancouver company offering an app that’s a little different – and designed to help you find something a little different. The best way to describe Tangoo is in their own words- as a “pocket concierge” – an app designed to help facilitate your evenings out.

When we think of concierges, or personal assistants, we’re usually envisioning an actual person. From secretaries who plan meetings, to travel agents who plan trip, to a personal trainer who sets up a fitness regime, there has always been a market for the personal assistant – a person who manages certain parts of our lives so that we don’t have to worry about them. For many these are luxury services, even with cheaper, more mundane versions (for those of us not of the gentry). However, in the age of the application, it’s possible that this corner of the service industry might be seeing a scaling down and a move towards an electronic presence. It seems like an odd concept, a person-less personal assistant, but Tangoo is a perfect example of how such services could function.

Tangoo is remarkably simple for the user – first you enter the type of occasion, such as “Corporate Outing”, “Date Night” or “Out With Friends”. From there, you select from a variety of moods, like “Impress Client”, “Romantic” or “Trendy”. Tangoo has these moods linked to a recommended selection of local restaurants and bars, which it presents to you – specific moods are also connected to voting trackers used by Tangoo users. With your selections finished, a map of your evening is provided to you, directly on your smartphone. From beginning to end you have a planned out night.

This service is remarkable for it’s ease of use, but also for its innovation. And strangely, the app is so successful because it exists as a reinvention of an older version of the service industry. A good app makes something easier – in general, the acceptance has been that an individual wants a task they are doing themselves to be easier, or that an individual wants to perform a task that they can’t normally do. The idea, however, is that the app is a tool – indeed, the very term “application” suggests direct usage. However, new applications like Tangoo are very reminiscent of a service rather than a product – the application that you are using is simply a conduit for that service.

This angle is what makes applications like Tangoo so exciting. In the past you might have simply downloaded an app (or, more likely, multiple apps) that would have let you find restaurants, look up reviews, check times or make a schedule. However, applications have now advanced to the point that they can “multitask” – instead of being a tool it’s closer to a toolkit. And in the case of Tangoo, it’s closer to having an actual person to use that toolkit for you. Applications like this are bringing service to software as a service and are breaking new ground for future application technology. It’s certainly a fascinating new trend to follow and you can keep up with it by watching Tangoo at The Cranium.        

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Stewart Hemingson

Writer @TheCraniumHQ

http://www.thecranium.co

About The Cranium Office

The Cranium is a co-working office for technology growth companies based in Vancouver, Canada. Building a start-up is a marathon, with a series of climbs and descents on the path to a vision. Surrounding your team with the right entrepreneurs, advisers and partners is the difference between scaling the next peak or losing traction on descent. The people and their experience is what makes The Cranium great.

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To Incubate, or Not to Incubate...

Startup Companies are all the rage right now, with the online age opening a variety of new ways for companies to sell their wares and get established. The products themselves are increasingly tied to the online world, with the booming Applications market starting to mature into a general demand for “software as a service”. In such an environment, the time to get a business going seems ripe. However, starting an entire company, at any scale, is usually not a totally painless process. There’s a lot to take care of and one of the biggest questions is where your company is going to work from. While you can go for the traditional garage (or parents basement), the concept of scaling up is a more difficult one these days, especially in a weaker economy and especially in cities with high rent costs. It would seem to many that the gap to cross is difficult. Working from home saves you money, of course. But for many, it’s not an ideal workspace and can leave them feeling isolated from the business community. As well, as independent and hip as one wants to feel, working from home does carry a bit of tarnish; there is a sense of unprofessionalism. However, simply deciding to purchase a full office space isn’t always the most practical option – or, more importantly, the cheapest one.

There are a few options that startup companies can make use of, two of the best known being a Business Incubator and a Coworking Space. For many these are rather interchangeable – most Business Incubators offer a space to work anyways. So, many assume that an Incubator is the way to go, especially considering the benefits involved, which can be many. And how does a Business Incubator stand up against a “plain” coworking space? Well, each Incubator is different, but there’s some. The perks vary from incubator to incubator and are usually tailored to the space in question. Common to all, however, is the incubation aspect itself – a team of mentors and a series of events to help you develop your business and show you the ropes of managing a startup. Often the incubators have a staff larger than the mentors that you are attached to as well – company lawyers and accountants, all forming a large safety net for starting businesses.

However, while these are all benefits to a business incubator, they can end up being a drawback as well. This depends heavily on the company in question and their policies, of course. But the fact of the matter is, for some startups, all this support is going to be a blessing – but for others, it’s going to feel like its smothering their business management. Getting a support structure like an incubator provides can be a stabilizing factor, but it can also be restrictive or, worse, intrusive. Indeed, from discussions amongst start up companies moving towards coworking spaces, many have mentioned a dislike of the structure of Incubators, wanting to have more room to make their own choices. This will of course depend on the incubator – but “helicopter mentors” are a distinct possibility  I’ve heard many coworking tenants who have experimented with incubation complain about the levels of control, direct and indirect, that a mentor can have on their startups. Beyond the regular annoyances of having to play tug-of-war with someone else, there’s also the psychological aspect – it can be disheartening to have your “special project” be affected by the whims and opinions of someone else, even if it is only their intention to help.

The point being, an incubator can quickly start to feel like a double-edge sword. So does this mean that it’s not worth the investment? The answer is the same as that to many of life’s great questions – a firm “maybe”. What’s important to realize is that an incubator isn’t the only option – nor does it need to be a permanent option. A mental trap that overeager start-ups often find themselves in is disregarding notions of scaling – it’s a nice thought to imagine that you’ll get everything together in an incubator and then burst onto the scene as a resounding success. In reality, the path to where you want your company to go is usually longer and less steep. coworking can exist not as the only option, but as a place to head once you start to feel that you’ve outgrown the Incubation – with the economy and rent pricing of today, it’s definitely a welcoming destination. Starting off in a coworking space isn’t an unreasonable beginning either – it will likely cost the same or cheaper as an incubator, after all and it’s up to you to make the call as to how comfortable you feel with the business world. Perhaps starting at an incubator and moving to Coworking then finally a home of your own is your best bet. Coworking itself can be more flexible and allow more personalization of space and the team, especially with your own space - hot desking can get old fast. In the end, managing a business often comes down to adaptation – so don’t be afraid to set up shop somewhere you can be your most flexible.

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Stewart Hemingson

@TheCraniumHQ

http://www.thecranium.co

About The Cranium Office

The Cranium is a co-working office for technology growth companies based in Vancouver, Canada. Building a start-up is a marathon, with a series of climbs and descents on the path to a vision. Surrounding your team with the right entrepreneurs, advisers and partners is the difference between scaling the next peak or losing traction on descent. The people and their experience is what makes The Cranium great.

[thecraniumoffice]

Atlas Cloud and Cranium

The Cranium Coworking Space has undergone a lot of changes in the last few months – and there’s a plenty more changes on the horizon. With the Cranium space now managed by Atlas Cloud Enterprises, development and expansion are both on the horizon.

  The company landscape of the Cranium is currently something familiar, but fresh. There’s still a heavy Hockey vibe with sports app companies Shnarped and Hockey Community. As detailed in previous blogs, Shnarped is the App that puts hockey fans in contact with NHL players, letting them follow and interact with their favourites. Hockey Community is an app designed for those who want to go out and play games in their community – the app helps you get in contact with others in your area who want to play some hockey, and manages the normal hassle of trying to organize enough people to get a game together.

  However, it’s not all games at the Cranium – general tech companies are also important here as well. Web design company Kerplunc Media provides solutions for web design, BC Ferry schedules and in-game advertising in Minecraft. A new company is Sense Tecnic, who aims to provide an “Internet of Things”. To put it in their words - “the core to our approach is a web centric sensing platform (WoTkit) that makes it easy to connect real-world objects to the Internet…”. So far, they have developed the Web of Things Toolkit (a sensor data aggregator, dashboard, remote control and data processing system that allows users to develop their own Apps) and ST-Impact, an application framework that allows the rapid deployment of mobile sensing applications.

  Even more recently arrived at the Cranium is the new and unique social technology company Tangoo, which provides the service of a “pocket concierge” – with Tangoo, you can have a social outing set up for you, by finding restaurants through filters including mood. Selecting a type of outing and mood will give results for restaurants and a map overview of your potential outing – thus cutting the time you might have spent planning, while letting you interact with your city in ways that you might not have considered before. These are the companies we just have attendant at the moment – as the space available increases, even more people might be joining the Cranium community.

  One last thing to mention when looking at the future of the Cranium is Atlas Cloud itself. Atlas is a new company that will be entering the data centre business, with the servers located on Cranium property. This will mean a refurbishment of the rear space available to the Cranium – not only for the servers, but also for extra offices and boardrooms, expanding the possibilities at The Cranium. Acquisition of extra building space in the future could mean addition of more office space or even give room for additional amenities. Current and prospective Cranium members should stay tuned for future developments.  

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Stewart Hemingson

Writer @TheCraniumHQ

http://www.thecranium.co

About The Cranium Office

The Cranium is a co-working office for technology growth companies based in Vancouver, Canada. Building a start-up is a marathon, with a series of climbs and descents on the path to a vision. Surrounding your team with the right entrepreneurs, advisers and partners is the difference between scaling the next peak or losing traction on descent. The people and their experience is what makes The Cranium great.

[thecraniumoffice]

Vancouver Startup Update

If you look up anything on Canadian Startups, there’s a big debate over whether there’s any such thing as a “Silicon Valley North”, and if so, where such a mythical location might be found. A good many people argue, or want to argue, that Vancouver is going to be the next San Francisco, while others caution against trying to pigeonhole Vancouver into the place that San Francisco has made.  Regardless of if you think Vancouver has some sort of Tech Startup Manifest Destiny, the topic is certainly a hot one. So why is this?

           While there are a few reasons why people want Vancouver to become a Tech Mecca (and reasons why this might or might not happen), the question remains why it’s suddenly such a big issue currently – what’s driving the startup scene these days?

           The fact of the matter is that there have been some relatively new developments in the Vancouver startup scene over the past decade or so that are starting to catch people’s attention. The most obvious and well-known example of this is Hootsuite, which indeed has sent out ripples affecting nearly everything else. Simply put, Hootsuite was so successful that it has become a media darling in Vancouver and is starting to inspire others. The hunt for the “next Hootsuite” runs parallel for the quest to make Vancouver “Silicon Valley North”.

           So what has this search turned up? The name that’s getting everyone excited these days is “Trulioo”, the name for a company that makes software to help with website verification and spam management. They have been getting a lot of attention from Blumberg Capital, an American Investment Firm. Even if Trulioo isn’t a “next Hootsuite”, they may be a key to learning where such a startup might be found – the company is running “pitch nights” until the end of March, the best of which will be pitching their ideas to the head of the Blumberg firm in April.

    However, aside from Trulioo and the Hootsuite buzz, there are plenty of other businesses that are getting plenty of attention. Invoke Media, for example, has been showered with a multitude of awards. They are an “Interactive Agency”, which works to help companies develop an “interactive brand strategy”. Most recently, Invoke has started up Invoke Labs to serve as a business incubator. This is of particular interest due to the role Invoke had in creating Hootsuite.

    There’s plenty of other places that the “next Hootsuite” might come from that I’ll quickly review here - there’s BCIC, the BC Innovation Council, which is a crown agency that promotes tech startup growth and success. Similarly, there is the BCTIA, the British Columbia Technology Industry Association, a non-profit organization that supports the development of technology companies within BC. Beyond just British Columbia, Wavefront works to help wireless based companies across Canada, and was involved in the development of Hootsuite itself. In Vancouver specifically, Growlab advertises itself as, to quote “a Vancouver-based startup accelerator that helps entrepreneurs build great companies through seed funding, mentorship, collaborative workspace and 3 months of intensive programming.”

    As you can see, the idea of incubators and “launching areas” is very popular in Vancouver and the phenomenon can indeed be linked to the success of Hootsuite and other Vancouver businesses - if you want to watch the startup future of Vancouver happen, if it becomes another Silicon Valley or not, such collaborative work spaces are the places to look.

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Stewart Hemingson

Writer @TheCraniumHQ

http://www.thecranium.co

About The Cranium Office

The Cranium is a co-working office for technology growth companies based in Vancouver, Canada. Building a start-up is a marathon, with a series of climbs and descents on the path to a vision. Surrounding your team with the right entrepreneurs, advisers and partners is the difference between scaling the next peak or losing traction on descent. The people and their experience is what makes The Cranium great.