Does Canada need more hacker houses?

Yes – and Toboggan Flats can do it. 

The secret to building the next unicorn is not a better pitch deck or a shinier accelerator. It’s having the right people living down the hall to build it fast.

That’s the idea behind hacker houses. Ever heard of Google, Facebook, or Andy Warhol? Proximity enables the conditions for trust, rapid creativity and feedback, and a shared identity. That accelerates output.

Canada needs to accelerate output! 

The term “hacker” here doesn’t mean someone in a hoodie breaking into bank accounts. It comes from the original Silicon Valley meaning: a creator. Someone who makes things. A hacker house is simply a shared living space where founders, engineers, designers, artists and tinkerers live together under one roof while working on their projects.

The hacker format has been around for centuries but, took off in San Francisco and the Bay Area, where sky-high rents made coliving practical, and proximity to like-minded people made it electrifying. A group of people wake up in the same house, make coffee, argue about product decisions at the kitchen table, stay up until 2am shipping code, and wake up and do it again. The feedback loops are tight. The energy is contagious.

We talk about this a lot at Toboggan Flats: energized coliving. 

The challenge for young people today isn’t that they don’t have good ideas. They have plenty. The problem is that they’re exhausted. Rent is unpredictable. Commutes are long. Roommate situations are chaotic. The mental load of just keeping life together — paying bills, figuring out groceries, navigating a lease — eats into the creative energy that young builders need to actually execute on their ideas.

At Toboggan Flats we’re not just building rooms. We’re building the conditions where young people can actually do what they came here to do: create.

It’s Happening in Barcelona — and Beyond

This isn’t just a Silicon Valley fad anymore.

La Fabrica & Co in Barcelona’s Poblenou district is proof. Coliving, coworking, and community under one roof — designed for entrepreneurs, researchers, and digital professionals who want their housing and their hustle in the same building. It’s a few minutes from the beach, sits inside the city’s main innovation district, and is connected to the local business school and angel network. It built exactly the kind of environment where things get launched. Founders become co-founders and get funded.

The model travels. You don’t need a San Francisco zip code. You just need the right space, the right people and a living environment that says yes, build that.

Closer to Home: Calgary and Ottawa may be next

Canada needs entrepreneurship more than ever. Two cities we’ve been spending a lot of time in lately are leading the way.

Calgary has Platform Calgary, anchored in the East Village — part coworking space, part startup ecosystem, part proof that you don’t need to be in Silicon Valley to build real innovation. Ottawa has Invest Ottawa and Bayview Yards, which converted an old municipal garage into a startup hub. Both cities have built communities that are deliberate, not accidental, and both are punching well above their weight.

What they share with the hacker house model is a simple belief: put ambitious people in the right environment, reduce the friction between idea and execution, and something good happens. 

They have the hackers…now they need the house.

We’ve been hanging out in both cities for a reason. The innovation communities are there. The builders are there. What’s often missing is housing that actually works for them — affordable, community-oriented, and close to where everything is happening. That’s the gap Toboggan Flats is built to fill. 

Let’s get hacking.

— The Toboggan Flats Team

P.S This newsletter has inspired us to go and rewatch HBO’s series Silicon Valley. Check it out if you haven’t already!