You guys are getting confused with the "rent" word. We paid Statuslys out of pocket expenses (i.e. their apartment and food) because they had no money.
There aren't a lot of hardware startups in Vancouver. I would argue that there are many less hardware startups in general.
TechShop has actually come up to Vancouver and given a presentation to the VanTec angels. Working on expanding an existing business might be a lot easier.
The Bootup Entrepreneurial Society (http://bootup.ca) of which I am on the board, would likely be interested in supporting this. If your dad wants to buy us a building, we'll run it :P