Volta

We interviewed Ryan Grant, Operations Manager of Canada’s East Coast Innovation Hub, Volta. They provide personalized services and an environment that is flexible to every company to create quality startups. An interesting thing about Volta is that it runs more than 200 events each year – from pitch competitions to award ceremonies, workshops and more – for the enterprising industry. The hub’s physical space is his domain, and he shares with us Volta’s experience with Kisi so far.

What's Volta?

Volta is located in the heart of downtown Halifax, providing a central location for the more than 450 members currently working in our space. Our role is to help nurture and grow the regional startup ecosystem, and we do so by providing support to startups and solo entrepreneurs so they can thrive in Atlantic Canada and be competitive in the national and global marketplace.

How does Volta use Kisi?

Building strong client relationships is at the forefront of Volta’s operations. From an administration perspective, Kisi has simplified access control for our team, and has provided us with far more flexibility than a key or badge swipe system.

As an innovation hub that houses more than 40 companies, each with different schedules, needs and access preferences, Kisi allows us to better serve the diverse startups in our space. For example, some companies may want their doors open from 8am to 5pm, while for others, 9am to 9pm is preferred. With the Kisi admin dashboard, changing access times for all of the different startups is definitely easier and more convenient.

Kisi has the added bonus of giving Founders and companies the feeling of being in control of their open-to-close schedule, as it would be in any office outside of an innovation hub. Access control is a huge part of the build and, though they still need to make the request for our team to change the scheduling if and when they need to, it strengthens our offerings and puts our resident companies in the mindset of growth and management.

What is Volta's Favorite Part About Kisi?

Most people have a smartphone on them at all times; so to be able to take one less key or badge off the keychain, is fantastic. We have had very few issues with Kisi and it is great to carry just a phone to enter different spaces when required.