Québec Tech

Enterprise designTransformationService portfolio
The Startup Montréal logo, an arrow, then the Québec Tech logo
From Startup Montréal to Québec Tech: a manifesto, a new mission, a service portfolio and the metrics to steer it.
  • 8months of steady support
  • 50+services founders said they needed
  • 6categories of needs
  • 5priority services to start with
In 2023, Québec asked an existing organization to become the engine of its tech exports. Startup Montréal was going to transform. But into what?

The government's research and innovation strategy (SQRI² 2022–2027) set the goal. Richard Chénier, newly named at the head of Startup Montréal, had to build the ambition and a new service offer around it, while the old portfolio kept running. &friends was the strategic facilitator: helping the leadership team and the staff move forward, without doing the work for them.

Dream first. The starting point was a government strategy, technical and precise. We started instead with a short, committed manifesto that gave the vision a voice.
From manifesto to mission. The value proposition came out of it, then mission, vision and values, plus a plain list of what the organization would be, and what it wouldn't.
Ask the founders who made it. Interviews with entrepreneurs who succeeded abroad surfaced more than 50 services in six categories. A survey then ranked them to pick the first five.
Measure the right things. Two headline KPIs, then team metrics derived from them, OKR style, so everyone owns a piece of the whole.

One thread from inspiration to action

Each layer comes from the one above it, so a team's quarterly priority can be traced back to the manifesto.

  1. Québec innovation strategy (SQRI²)
  2. Manifesto
  3. Value proposition
  4. MissionVisionWho we areValues
  5. Services by teamMetrics dashboard
  6. Key indicators (KPIs)
  7. First-quarter priorities

What changed

AspectStartup MontréalQuébec Tech
MissionMake Montréal's startup ecosystem shineMake Québec's tech shine internationally, and turn startups into scaleups
ClientsThe Montréal ecosystemHigh-potential startups, the future scaleups
TerritoryFor Montréal, in MontréalFor Québec, internationally

A first in Québec: no one here had transformed an organization into an international accelerator for scaleups before. So there was no template to copy. We checked.

Examples of the maps used for the enterprise design: a synthesis of the mapped elements, a high-level ecosystem map and high-level journeys with a flagship product

Some of the maps behind the work: the mapped elements, the ecosystem and the high-level journeys.

Where Québec Tech is today

Public milestones from Québec Tech and the Québec government, once the new organization was running.

  1. May 2024$7M over three years from the Québec government to roll out the new service offer.
  2. July 2024The new name, Québec Tech, is unveiled at Startupfest.
  3. Nov. 2024First cohort of Stage V, the export track for startups aiming at $10M in recurring revenue.
  4. Dec. 2024$9M more from the Québec government for international missions, market intelligence and specialists.
  5. Oct. 2025First annual celebration: 15 companies in Stage V and more than 20 in Stage Vo.
  6. Jan. 2026Five companies join Stage V and six join Stage Vo.
  7. March 2026Nine companies are selected for Stage Vmax, a new track for firms with $2.5M to $15M in revenue.
  8. June 2026Québec Tech co-leads a delegation of nearly 100 Québec companies at VivaTech in Paris. The territory row in our table wasn't hypothetical.
A four-year vision, executed quarter by quarter, while the old portfolio kept running.

Credits

Strategic facilitation and enterprise design
Jean-Sébastien Daigle · &friends
Client
Québec Tech (formerly Startup Montréal)