About Us
How it started:
Back in the early summer of 2011, three of us met up at our local Starbucks, which acted as the common meeting place for us. We quickly found ourselves discussing the past events and conferences we had attended together. We had realized that although there is a high level of hype in the innovation and entrepreneurship community, there was something more meaningful behind the interactions between individuals within it. We had tried time and time again to take all the passion and momentum home with us. The problem: it could not sustain itself and we had to ask ourselves, why?
Why is it that as highly driven and engaged youth we have a difficult time sitting down and pumping out great work? Why do we find this sort of euphoric passion and excitement from surrounding ourselves with other entrepreneurial types and how can we recreate this on a regular basis? What does it take to keep our focus and solve big problems? Lastly, is there a philosophy we can adopt in order to answer these questions? Our answer to all of these questions became extremely simple: We work together and support each other. Now that sounds like a no-brainer, doesn't it? Here's the catch, we found that by working in a group we were far more focused, productive, and increased the quality of our work. Similar to a study group you would find in the world of academia, however; we are not all working on the same project or even the same goal at times. Each member of TBIP has his or her own skillset, traits, and goals. The one commonality that connects all of us is our ambition and enthusiasm for innovation and entrepreneurship. We see TBIP as a support network of friends that enjoy the company of others while working on a diversity of projects. We are not confined to one room, or even one building. We travel together, we connect virtually, and we share new ways to learn and understand the world around us. Most of all, we don't pay any organization to provide this environment for us. It is the free incubator; we use existing free resources and space to conduct our work. It has been a successful social experiment for us. It is strongly recommended that you try it out for yourself. The Story Behind the Name: "The Basement Incubator Project" received it's name from the initial idea that we would gather in a friends' basement to hold what we refer to as "work sessions". Our first work session occurred at a Starbucks in Unionville, Ontario with only four of us. In the past year, there have been over 200 work sessions and eight additional members. Written by Nick Francis
Back in the early summer of 2011, three of us met up at our local Starbucks, which acted as the common meeting place for us. We quickly found ourselves discussing the past events and conferences we had attended together. We had realized that although there is a high level of hype in the innovation and entrepreneurship community, there was something more meaningful behind the interactions between individuals within it. We had tried time and time again to take all the passion and momentum home with us. The problem: it could not sustain itself and we had to ask ourselves, why?
Why is it that as highly driven and engaged youth we have a difficult time sitting down and pumping out great work? Why do we find this sort of euphoric passion and excitement from surrounding ourselves with other entrepreneurial types and how can we recreate this on a regular basis? What does it take to keep our focus and solve big problems? Lastly, is there a philosophy we can adopt in order to answer these questions? Our answer to all of these questions became extremely simple: We work together and support each other. Now that sounds like a no-brainer, doesn't it? Here's the catch, we found that by working in a group we were far more focused, productive, and increased the quality of our work. Similar to a study group you would find in the world of academia, however; we are not all working on the same project or even the same goal at times. Each member of TBIP has his or her own skillset, traits, and goals. The one commonality that connects all of us is our ambition and enthusiasm for innovation and entrepreneurship. We see TBIP as a support network of friends that enjoy the company of others while working on a diversity of projects. We are not confined to one room, or even one building. We travel together, we connect virtually, and we share new ways to learn and understand the world around us. Most of all, we don't pay any organization to provide this environment for us. It is the free incubator; we use existing free resources and space to conduct our work. It has been a successful social experiment for us. It is strongly recommended that you try it out for yourself. The Story Behind the Name: "The Basement Incubator Project" received it's name from the initial idea that we would gather in a friends' basement to hold what we refer to as "work sessions". Our first work session occurred at a Starbucks in Unionville, Ontario with only four of us. In the past year, there have been over 200 work sessions and eight additional members. Written by Nick Francis