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The pandemic has been devastating for so many businesses, but it has also provided opportunities for other entrepreneurs. Take the case of Montreal brothers Mark and Jordan Owen. Both saw their lives significantly altered by the COVID-19 crisis.
Mark, 28, was working for a local real-estate development firm and business had ground to a halt in the spring. Jordan, 26, was in a master’s program in real-estate development and city planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and had come back to Montreal in March because all in-person classes had been cancelled.
That’s when they had the idea of starting up a company to produce reusable masks. They founded Bien Aller, named in honour of the Quebec COVID catchphrase “Ça va bien aller.” They created the firm with a friend, Sean Tassé, who had been laid off from his job at a construction-management firm because of the pandemic.
Six months later, they’ve sold about 300,000 masks and they’re still producing them at facilities in Montreal and South Korea. Then the Owen brothers, Tassé and another friend, Benoit Thibeault, had a notion for a more unusual startup. The Owens’ background in Montreal real estate had them thinking that what developers and brokers could really use is a more reliable way to set prices for houses and condos that are going on the sales or rental markets.
