Our Story

What's in a Name?

Inuit people in Canada's far north traditionally built igloos (in the Inuit language iglu means house) for many reasons. They provided shelter or a meeting place to discuss and collaborate on vital community issues. Igloos remain an enduring symbol of community, cooperation and resourcefulness.

Simple in design, yet complex in architecture, the igloo is an iconic part of the Canadian identity and instantly recognizable around the world. Igloos ranged in size from small, one-person overnight shelters to large community structures linked by smaller igloos, connecting communities of people together to feast, sing, dance, play games and perform various rituals.

We chose IGLOO to represent our company for several reasons. Our unique background as a not-for-profit means our simple-to-use social software suite was designed to help globally diverse organizations solve complex problems. But finding better ways to collaborate and share is a challenge faced by all organizations in our increasingly mobile world. Our founding goals remain the same - making it easy for teams of people to work together to solve business problems regardless of the size of the organization.

Building a Strong Foundation - Brick by Brick

Like the symbol of our technology, IGLOO's history is uniquely Canadian. Its humble beginnings started with a not-for-profit research centre called the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) founded by Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO of Research In Motion (RIM).

In 2003, CIGI, wanted to create a free online research network. Based on the belief that the Internet and other technologies offer tremendous potential for supporting and facilitating change, this global network connects researchers, educators and practitioners around the world. A diverse group of technology organizations came together to build IGLOO.org, which is headed up by our current CEO, Dan Latendre. These organizations include CIGI, Open Text, the University of Waterloo, and the Government of Ontario (the Ministry of Research and Innovation) .

Putting the Web To Work

In 2008, with a strong heritage of solving global issues behind it, IGLOO Inc. has evolved into a for-profit software company. Based on its Web 2.0 and social software experience (blogs, forums, wikis, content and content management), IGLOO is ideally placed to offer a turnkey solutions with a defining mission-to provide the tools to help people change the way we do business today.

IGLOO is supported by a strong management team with decades of experience in both technology and management. Jim Balsillie, co-CEO of RIM, a Waterloo-based company that succeeded in changing the way the world communicates, chair's IGLOO's board with RBC Venture Partners providing venture capital funding.