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Expa's founder is from BC so I think them opening up an office there is mostly due to an excess of cash they have from Uber's success, not that it necessarily m

by vecinu 10y ago

Expa's founder is from BC so I think them opening up an office there is mostly due to an excess of cash they have from Uber's success, not that it necessarily makes sense from a VC perspective. I hope I'm wrong since I would love to see Vancouver / Toronto have the same earning power as SV.

neptunespear 10y ago
> Expa's founder is from BC so I think them opening up an office there is mostly due to an excess of cash they have from Uber's success, not that it necessarily makes sense from a VC perspective. The founder of Slack grew up on Vancouver Island and went to UVic, the co-founders of Tableau is an SFU comp sci alumnus; so is the founder of Buddybuild[1] (the first genuine mobile-first CI provider, raised a series A round from KPCB (!) for $7.6M which is unheard of for a Van company, let alone they managed to find an SV VC firm which was okay with the company keeping the company local). The way I see it, it matters less why they came (whether it makes sense from a VC perspective, the founders are homesick, or as a response to shifting political tides in the United States) and matters more that they're here. [1] Further reading: https://www.sfu.ca/computing/newsandevents/archives/2007/sfu-computing-science-in-windows-vista.html https://www.sfu.ca/computing/newsandevents/archives/2007/sfu... https://www.sfu.ca/sfunews/stories/2016/sfu-in-the-news-january-12-2016.html https://www.sfu.ca/sfunews/stories/2016/sfu-in-the-news-janu...
milunt 10y ago
We're opening up Vancouver because there's a massive untapped potential of talent in the area that we can help bridge with SF. I've met and seen many amazing entrepreneurs, developers, designers and all other roles of a startup in this city who are very capable and talented. Our goal is to give them a platform and a opportunity to realize success without having to move south.
- neptunespear 10y ago
  Protip: Listen to this guy. He's Milun Tesovic, the Expa Labs co-founder and SFU Beedie alumuns. While I have your ear, Milun, I was curious why Expa didn't open in K-W or Montreal first. They're much closer to east coast tech hubs.
- vecinu 10y ago
  Thanks for the response. I agree that on the Canuck side we have a lot of untapped potential and people working very hard for very little money. I figured Garret was homesick :)

by vecinu 10y ago

neptunespear 10y ago

> Expa's founder is from BC so I think them opening up an office there is mostly due to an excess of cash they have from Uber's success, not that it necessarily makes sense from a VC perspective. The founder of Slack grew up on Vancouver Island and went to UVic, the co-founders of Tableau is an SFU comp sci alumnus; so is the founder of Buddybuild[1] (the first genuine mobile-first CI provider, raised a series A round from KPCB (!) for $7.6M which is unheard of for a Van company, let alone they managed to find an SV VC firm which was okay with the company keeping the company local). The way I see it, it matters less why they came (whether it makes sense from a VC perspective, the founders are homesick, or as a response to shifting political tides in the United States) and matters more that they're here. [1] Further reading: https://www.sfu.ca/computing/newsandevents/archives/2007/sfu-computing-science-in-windows-vista.html https://www.sfu.ca/computing/newsandevents/archives/2007/sfu... https://www.sfu.ca/sfunews/stories/2016/sfu-in-the-news-january-12-2016.html https://www.sfu.ca/sfunews/stories/2016/sfu-in-the-news-janu...

milunt 10y ago

We're opening up Vancouver because there's a massive untapped potential of talent in the area that we can help bridge with SF. I've met and seen many amazing entrepreneurs, developers, designers and all other roles of a startup in this city who are very capable and talented. Our goal is to give them a platform and a opportunity to realize success without having to move south.

neptunespear 10y ago
Protip: Listen to this guy. He's Milun Tesovic, the Expa Labs co-founder and SFU Beedie alumuns. While I have your ear, Milun, I was curious why Expa didn't open in K-W or Montreal first. They're much closer to east coast tech hubs.
vecinu 10y ago
Thanks for the response. I agree that on the Canuck side we have a lot of untapped potential and people working very hard for very little money. I figured Garret was homesick :)