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There are several reasons why you generally have a huge disadvantage when doing a startup in Canada, and it's not just about taxes and laws. Want to use that c

There are several reasons why you generally have a huge disadvantage when doing a startup in Canada, and it's not just about taxes and laws. Want to use that cool new service (e.g., Stripe)? Sorry, not available in Canada. Want to start a service that ships anything in the mail? Prohibitively expensive. Want funds? Banks won't lend you anything and investors are very few and risk averse. $20-50K investments in web startups are rare and big news when they happen. I love Canada and I'm not moving from it. But Canadian entrepreneurs have much lower chances of succeeding than American ones. Can you make millions in Canada? Sure, but it's a much less likely occurrence. And if you do, it will generally be still less than what American startups can make. This is why it makes no sense to start a company like Twitter in Canada. You can't sustain it. The best approach for Canadian startups is to bootstrap by charging money from day one. So you can get a lot of nice "Italian restaurants on the web" doing SaaS and making good money, but don't expect groundbreaking innovation a la Google from Canada. With that said, those who are already in Canada, like me, have no free pass. If you don't succeed, you can only blame yourself. "In Silicon Valley they hand out money like candy" is not a good excuse for never achieving your dreams in Canada.

alphamale3000 15y ago
Ever heard of Delaware LLC? No need to live there, and you'll be able to use Stripe. All that will cost you less than private healthcare in the US. You'll find investors. But they all sleep together, and don't compete. What about the success stories? Radian6, BeyondTheRack, etc. There won't be as much, our economy is 1/10 of the size. I agree Canadian entrepreneurs have lower chances of getting multi-million VC rounds, but that doesn't necessarily mean lesser chances overall. You need to change your mindset. It's all the naysayers that push Canadian startups to sell lower.
volandovengo 15y ago
I agree with a lot of what you're saying but I think if your focus is to create an italien restaurent on the net, which you entirely own, I think your chances for success are actually better in Canada than the us.
nkassis 15y ago
I sorta agree with you about the hurdles but there has a been a bunch of very sucessful startups in Canada. I can't name you a google but Softimage, Ubisoft, Bioware, RIM, ATI, Desire2Learn... and on the non tech side Cirque Du Soleil(Founder just went to space last year) All pretty big successes. For 1/10 the population as the US you can't expect the same level of output. On the talent side, Montreal and the Toronto area are pretty big recruiting grounds for Microsoft Google and other tech companies. Tons of Game companies have established themselves in Montreal to draw on that pool. There is a lot of talent here and a lot of people would want to stay here instead of working in the US.Montreal's 2 english universities and a lot of French ones around help keep replenishing the supplies. Toronto has some very good schools too (Waterloo being one of the best Comp Sci program in the world). There are a bunch of ways to get government money but it does involve some major red tape. It be cool to find someone who's gone through it and could make a writeup on it. EDIT: I should also mention that there are other good cities in Cananda ;p I did not mention Vancouver
- ramchip 15y ago
  For the record, though, Ubisoft is a French company, not a Canadian start-up.
  - nkassis 15y ago
    Ah man you are right, sorry for the error (they've had offices here forever but I should have know that).
    - ramchip 15y ago
      No problem - a lot of Montrealers have this impression, probably because the Montreal offices are by far the largest.
iamelgringo 15y ago
"In Silicon Valley they hand out money like candy" I beg to disagree with you. It's still really hard to raise money. On average, it takes 6 to 9 months to raise a decent round.

alphamale3000 15y ago

Ever heard of Delaware LLC? No need to live there, and you'll be able to use Stripe. All that will cost you less than private healthcare in the US. You'll find investors. But they all sleep together, and don't compete. What about the success stories? Radian6, BeyondTheRack, etc. There won't be as much, our economy is 1/10 of the size. I agree Canadian entrepreneurs have lower chances of getting multi-million VC rounds, but that doesn't necessarily mean lesser chances overall. You need to change your mindset. It's all the naysayers that push Canadian startups to sell lower.

volandovengo 15y ago

I agree with a lot of what you're saying but I think if your focus is to create an italien restaurent on the net, which you entirely own, I think your chances for success are actually better in Canada than the us.

nkassis 15y ago

I sorta agree with you about the hurdles but there has a been a bunch of very sucessful startups in Canada. I can't name you a google but Softimage, Ubisoft, Bioware, RIM, ATI, Desire2Learn... and on the non tech side Cirque Du Soleil(Founder just went to space last year) All pretty big successes. For 1/10 the population as the US you can't expect the same level of output. On the talent side, Montreal and the Toronto area are pretty big recruiting grounds for Microsoft Google and other tech companies. Tons of Game companies have established themselves in Montreal to draw on that pool. There is a lot of talent here and a lot of people would want to stay here instead of working in the US.Montreal's 2 english universities and a lot of French ones around help keep replenishing the supplies. Toronto has some very good schools too (Waterloo being one of the best Comp Sci program in the world). There are a bunch of ways to get government money but it does involve some major red tape. It be cool to find someone who's gone through it and could make a writeup on it. EDIT: I should also mention that there are other good cities in Cananda ;p I did not mention Vancouver

ramchip 15y ago
For the record, though, Ubisoft is a French company, not a Canadian start-up.
- nkassis 15y ago
  Ah man you are right, sorry for the error (they've had offices here forever but I should have know that).
  - ramchip 15y ago
    No problem - a lot of Montrealers have this impression, probably because the Montreal offices are by far the largest.

iamelgringo 15y ago

"In Silicon Valley they hand out money like candy" I beg to disagree with you. It's still really hard to raise money. On average, it takes 6 to 9 months to raise a decent round.