
More about startup contexts - DanielRibeiro
http://swombat.com/2011/9/3/entrepreneurial-contexts
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steve621
Interesting post. It's really impressive how smoothly everything ended up
going in Israel, especially since the government got out of the way

Now, here is the issue. I worked in public policy formation in Toronto -
specifically working with developing the startup environment in Canada. Based
on my experience, way too many of these programs in Canada focus on minority
groups. In fact, the majority of them do.

We analyzed literally hundreds of programs created to encourage
entrepreneurship in Canada and approx 75%+ of them were exclusively for
natives, africans, minority females, the disabled, people in ultra rural
areas, or people who plan on hiring a considerable number of these groups.

This is not to say that all programs are like this, but in my professional
experience, I haven't seen a program come out that rivals what happened in
Israel. The incubators that are made here are ultra conservative, typically
investing only in entrepreneurs that have considerable work experience (10-15+
years) and are running a biz post revenue (most times in the 7 figures..).

In terms of making these programs, the bureaucracy is just so overwhelming
(which is part of the reason that I left). It is incredibly difficult to set
something up that could be acquired by private VCs with all the red tape.

