

Ask HN: Waterloo/Toronto tech scene? - apaitch

Hello,<p>I&#x27;m a developer in Silicon Valley but I&#x27;m strongly considering moving back to the Waterloo area within the next half-year. Despite studying in Waterloo, I&#x27;ve done all my internships&#x2F;work experience in the Valley so I have no idea about the Canadian tech scene. Does anyone here have experience with that kind of move? Obviously the number of startups and the number of big companies won&#x27;t be the same, but what&#x27;s been your experience regarding startup culture and opportunities? Was it much of a step down?
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kitcar
Yes, it will be a step down - but then again, SV has the strongest tech scene
in the world, so pretty much anywhere would be a step down!

That being said, these will likely be of interest to you / get you familiar
with who the players are in the startup scene in Canada:

[http://www.techvibes.com/toronto/category/start-up-
index](http://www.techvibes.com/toronto/category/start-up-index)

[http://startupnorth.ca/index/index/](http://startupnorth.ca/index/index/)

[http://www.canadianinnovationexchange.com/](http://www.canadianinnovationexchange.com/)

[https://uwaterloo.ca/jobmine/employers](https://uwaterloo.ca/jobmine/employers)

[https://uwaterloo.ca/hire/](https://uwaterloo.ca/hire/)

[http://waterlootechjobs.com/en/](http://waterlootechjobs.com/en/)

[http://www.techjobswaterloo.com/](http://www.techjobswaterloo.com/)

[http://www.communitech.ca/](http://www.communitech.ca/)

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apaitch
Thanks a lot! I'll definitely check some of these out!

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tostitos1979
I'm similar to you (studied in the Toronto area, ex-SV, currently NYC) and
planning to move back soon. I'm curious if you are looking for a job or do
your own startup when you come back to Canada?

I've been trying to figure out the angel investment scene in Toronto/Waterloo
and it is a bit disappointing. In terms of tech heavy jobs, the best I've seen
are Amazon's Toronto office and Google's Waterloo office.

In terms of meetups, there do seem to be a lot of these springing up in the
area close to universities. Content-wise, I doubt you will get SV quality. I
can say that confidently because even the NYC area meetups don't compare to
the SV meetups.

From my research, salaries are a let down in the Toronto/Waterloo area. While
getting 120-150K in SV/NYC is a given for intermediate software professionals,
it seems the payscales are more like 60-80K.

Best of luck to you (and to me! )

