
Canadian Tech Is Having a Moment - miraj
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-14/canadian-tech-is-having-a-moment-the-trick-is-not-to-mess-it-up
======
scj
"Silicon Valley venture firms are hustling to Toronto, Waterloo, Montreal and
Vancouver to invest in Canadian startups."

What is the Montreal tech scene like for an Anglophone?

~~~
RodericDay
Very very fun.

You don't get paid like an ultra rockstar that lives in a different strata of
society than other people, but it being Montreal where rent is affordable and
events like the International Jazz Fest, Tam Tams, or drinking wine in one of
the many parks is free, and you move all over the island with high quality
public transport, it's for the better.

However, it feels a little bit hollow sometimes and like not a lot of real
tech work is being done. Lots of stuff geared towards yuppies and going to
coffee shops and renting pads and shopping, not a lot of really groundbreaking
stuff.

There's gaming companies (eg: Ubisoft), old ex-startups (eg: Shopify), new
startups (eg: Transit), Google and Microsoft have offices here, big investment
into machine learning research in local universities, etc. It's a college
town... for 5 universities... in the downtown of a great city.

There's probably better places to go if you want a super prestige-track
career, but I doubt there's many places that are more fun or better balanced.

~~~
gregwtmtno
Though it should be noted that Quebec has much stricter immigration rules than
most of Canada.

To elaborate, Quebec has additional requirements to verify your ability to
integrate into society. Here's an article that explains some of the
differences:

[http://correresmidestino.com/immigrating-to-quebec-still-
wor...](http://correresmidestino.com/immigrating-to-quebec-still-worth-it/)

~~~
chollida1
Can you explain this?

I'm Canadian and unless I'm missing something, or just really don't understand
our immigration policies, once you are in Canada you can move where ever you
want.

I mean provinces, including Quebec, should have absolutely zero say as to if
you can live in them once you are in Canada.

~~~
mikekchar
It's been a long time since I looked at this, but IIRC under some visas the
federal system gives you extra points for selecting certain provinces. The
rationale is that otherwise every immigrant will choose Toronto or Vancouver.
Under those visas, you have to be resident in the province you picked for a
certain amount of time (again IIRC I think is was 1 year) as a condition of
your visa. Quebec is one of the provinces where you can get extra points to
get in, but only if you satisfy the Quebec requirements (which generally means
French language skill or agreeing to take French language classes, I think).

Disclaimer: when I say it's been a long time since I looked at this, I'm
talking 20 years or so. Things have probably changed (or I have
misremembered). But it gives you some idea anyway. In my recollection, if you
choose not to get extra points for selecting special regions to settle in,
then you can settle anywhere you like. Programmers, doctors, nurses etc almost
never need the extra points, so it's kind of moot in this discussion.

~~~
mistermann
I don't know but suspect this is no longer the case, Quebec still offers the
ability to more or less buy citizenship, even though the federal program was
shut down. All you have to do is say you "intend to" settle in Quebec (wink
wink) - they get the financial benefits, and the majority of the participants
immediately move to Toronto or Vancouver, typically buying a few houses upon
arrival as a store of cash. Of course, this is all "speculation", as the
Canadian government deems the statistics on this sort of thing to be none of
the business of citizens, who are the ones who experience the positive or
negative consequences.

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

------
dredmorbius
I'd really like to see some comparative historical coverage of the development
(and fall) of US technology hubs. There's been some recent discussion, but I
can think of a few:

* New England, 19th century. Early manufacturing and milltown works, first water-powered, later steam.

* Late 19th century industrialisation. Edison (New Jersey), Bethlehem and U.S. Steel (Bethlehem and Pittsburgh, PA)

* Early 20th century: Detroit

* Mid-20th century: Rochester & Buffalo, NY, Boston / Route 128, Research Triangle Park / NC, Kennedy Space Center, Johnson Space Center, Santa Monica (RAND).

* Late 20th / early 21st: Seattle, Boulder, CO, Austin, TX, and of course, Silicon Valley / SF-SJ corridor.

If anyone has some solid recommended reading, I'm all ears. Or eyes.

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uiri
Brain drain will continue until compensation in Canada rises to match
compensation in the US.

~~~
oneplusone
If you factor in health care costs, housing costs, maternity leave, etc.
Canada is a better deal. Our political climate isn't as toxic either.

~~~
vmarsy
A quick estimation [1] shows that a $130000 salary in the US is equivalent to
around $105k / 139k CAD. There are some of the top companies in the SV who
pays this as base salary, is is there 139k CAD companies in Montreal? What's
the highest base salary for the local Netflix/Google/... of Canada?

[1]
[https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=$130000+in+San+Francis...](https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=$130000+in+San+Francisco+in+Montreal+Canada)

~~~
alexc05
I've done those sorts of calculations before and that aligns with roughly what
I figured out at the time.

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blazespin
Maybe Trump will end the TN visa. Boy, then you'll see the canada tech scene -
especially Vancouver, blow up.

~~~
drpgq
Yeah sometimes I wonder if Canada anticipated the massive brain drain the TN
visa has ended up being. It would be ironic if Trump shut it down.

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ninjakeyboard
We are a small (2+ person) consulting company in the distributed and data
spaces. We've been at it for 8 months and understand the needs in enterprises
after working as principal consultants for the time. We have a good model, and
there is demand, so we're looking to go through our first round of hiring but
need a small investment to make the leap. If you're looking for somewhere fast
and low risk to turn some money around... :)

~~~
sumitgt
Can you add some more details?

~~~
ninjakeyboard
get at us through redelastic.com if you want to reach out.

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Descon
Calgary's a city to keep an eye on too. Companies like IStock photo and SMART
were built here. And now Benevity's a big up and comer.

~~~
mpalmes
Also RocketSpace will be opening their first Canadian office in Calgary. The
local government is starting to push for a bigger tech industry and add
diversity away from the oil/gas industry that has dominated the city. Also the
climate isn't so bad with plenty of sunshine and warm Chinook winds
occasionally during the winter.

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rubayeet
What is the tech scene at Halifax, Nova Scotia? I am landing there in a few
weeks and have been researching about it for a while. I could not get much
through the Ask HN[0] post I submitted a while ago.

[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14428966](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14428966)

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gregwtmtno
I'm always weary of "having a moment" stories. It often means the author is
going to try to string together unrelated events into a narrative.

~~~
acchow
Clickbait, vapid article.

Canada will "begin to have a moment" when a $20bn exit spawns a legion of
millionaires happy to become VCs.

Except they probably wouldn't want to become VCs since they don't see many
successful VCs around them, there aren't many big exits, and there isn't a
huge startup ecosystem.

Chicken and egg problem.

~~~
devoply
Canadian government should get involved with a billion dollars a year pumped
into the startup scene via seasoned VCs that only see a dime if there is an
exit or an IPO.

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nvk
Toronto is a major Bitcoin hub.

~~~
otoburb
Toronto also has a vibrant Etheruem presence as Vitalik grew up there and
started Ethereum while living in Toronto.

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ihsw2
The trick is to ensure leadership is strong and coherent, preventing implosion
from within, and maintain salary growth to keep the workforce healthy.

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thedangler
Really wish they would go to London Ont, cost of living is still relatively
cheap and it would be good for the city.

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DKnoll
CTRL+F "OpenText" 0 results CTRL+W

~~~
striking
I assume they mean the startup scene. OpenText are great, but they were
founded pre-dot-com...

~~~
DKnoll
Ok, then SOTI. They just cherry picked companies to support their point.

