Z-incubator

01 / 04 · The spark

It starts with an empty desk.

Every product business begins here. Usually in a garage. This floor is for the next step.

  • Westmount, Edmonton
  • Day pass $35
  • Desks from $175 a month

02 / 04 · The upgrade

Then a desk that is yours.

By the hour or by the month, on a floor built for people who ship boxes, not just code.

  • 14 dedicated desks
  • From $395 a month
  • Heated underground parking

03 / 04 · The dedicated space

A door that closes.

Six private offices and a team room, each with a door. Lock in, take the call, leave home at home.

  • Offices from $950
  • Inventory storage
  • Westmount, on a corner

04 / 04 · The scale

A room that takes your buyer seriously.

A ring table for twenty-two, a microphone at every seat, two screens, three cameras. Half-days come with the doors.

  • Seats 22
  • Mic at every seat
  • Three cameras

Third floor · Edmonton

A coworking floor in Edmonton built for physical products.

Most desk space assumes your product is software.

If you move physical goods, the things that matter are different and mostly boring: somewhere to put a pallet, a front desk that signs for your parcels, a stall you can park in, a door that closes when the buyer calls, a room where that buyer takes you seriously. That is what this floor is set up for.

Members
41
Doors let
3/ 6
Board room seats
22
Parking stalls
35

Stories · illustrative

What ten months on the third floor does to a business.

All the stories
“I stopped taking buyer calls from the car. Office 3-1 has a door, and the door was the whole reason I moved in.”
Marcus · Kettle Ridge, outdoor hardware
“The hides used to live under the dining table. Now they live in a closet on the third floor and the table is a table again.”
Tom · Brindle & Oak leather goods
“The invoice has the desk and the GST on it and nothing else. After the last place I was in, that alone would have been enough.”
Renée · Northline Candle Co.

The programme

The masterclass seats eighteen. The knowledge is not rationed.

One masterclass a month in the board room, taught by practising lawyers, accountants, manufacturers and our sister brokerage. Not recorded, so people can ask the question they would not ask on camera; written up the week after and published free. Season one filled fifty-three of fifty-four seats.

  1. 01

    How to write a business plan a lender will read

    A plan a lender, a landlord and your future self will all take seriously.

  2. 02

    Legal filing and entity structuring

    Sole proprietor, partnership, Alberta or federal corporation. Taught by practising Alberta lawyers.

  3. 03

    Setting up business finances

    Accounts, bookkeeping, GST, payroll and inventory accounting. Taught by practising accountants.

  4. 04

    Real estate: knowing when to move to a storefront

    When a physical location pays for itself, and how to read the lease when it does.

  5. 05

    Supply chain: from prototyping to securing a supplier

    Prototype, pilot run, MOQ negotiation, quality control, and the supplier relationship.

Coming up

Three things a month. Nobody pitches.

Every event, past and future
Sep 176:00 p.m.

Masterclass · The board room

Masterclass: Supply chain, from prototype to supplier

Season two opens with the session members asked for most: finding, vetting and negotiating with a manufacturer, and what it really costs to land a pallet in Edmonton.

Oct 18:00 a.m.

Pastries & products · The kitchen

Pastries & products: October

The monthly one. A bakery brings the pastries, everybody brings one thing they make, and nobody gives a talk.

Oct 156:00 p.m.

Masterclass · The board room

Masterclass: When to move to a storefront

Half deciding whether a storefront is a good idea for you at all, half reading the lease line by line if it is. Taught by Zenith Commercial.

Come and stand in it.

Twenty minutes on the floor, no pitch, and you already know the price. If it fits what you are building, you will know by lunch.