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I actually want to set up a startup. But undecided on location, my current location will not do. I really want to go to valley, ideally get into YC itself, but
by Achshar 13y ago
I actually want to set up a startup. But undecided on location, my current location will not do. I really want to go to valley, ideally get into YC itself, but the barrier to entry is high. How would you say is the startup culture over there in canada? How does it stack up against places like valley, london or NYC? Other and more accessible option for me is Banglore, no visa required (I am from India).
- scott_karana 13y agoAsk yourself this: if you've never heard of startup culture in Canada, what is that indicative of? :) (Saying this sadly, as I'm a Canadian)
- randomdata 13y agoThe nearly 500 tech startups in Waterloo was pretty big news a year or two ago, even on HN. Startup success seems to be the problem in Canada. I'm not sure I could name a single one of those companies, even after considerable time has passed since that media exposure. It will be interesting to see if bringing in new cultural perspectives can change that.
- aren55555 13y agoHow about: Vidyard (http://www.vidyard.com/ http://www.vidyard.com/), Pebble (http://getpebble.com/ http://getpebble.com/), BufferBox (https://www.bufferbox.com/ https://www.bufferbox.com/), Couple (formerly Pair) (http://couple.me/ http://couple.me/), or Thalmic Labs (https://www.thalmic.com/myo/ https://www.thalmic.com/myo/) All the above are also YC alumni.
- randomdata 13y agoPebble is the only one I've heard of on the list and their website claims they are in Silicon Valley, so I guess that reenforces my point? Additionally, I think it is quite reasonable to argue that Kickstarter is the source of their success, but Kickstarter is still not yet available to Canadians. Not until later this summer.
- aren55555 13y agoI was just trying to point out some of the big name startups that came from the Waterloo area (Disclosure: I am part of BufferBox and live in KW).
- randomdata 13y agoI live out in the country, but KW is nearby, which is why I find it so interesting that I cannot really name a single startup operating within. I feel like I have a closer connection to Silicon Valley, even though I've never been there. Is there something like HN for local startups?
- jrn 13y agotechvibes.com for canadian startup news.
- randomdata 13y agoThanks!
- potatolicious 13y ago- Pebble is in the Valley, after going through YC. - Couple is in San Francisco. - Vidyard is based in KW. - BufferBox is based in KW, and got acquired by Google. - Thalmic is in KW. So two out of five have Canadian founders who left for the Bay Area. Three out of the five stayed, one of which has succesfully exited. Vidyard's first round of financing came from exclusively American sources. Canadian investors did not join until they were well underway. Thalmic's first round of funding came from angels that I can't find any info on, their series A came from exclusively American sources. I'm not sure if these companies really support the notion that Canadian VC firms are ready to create success and nurture extremely early-stage startups.
- karamdeep 13y agoWe (iNovia) funded Vidyard and Bufferbox as part of their seed round.
- jonny_eh 13y agoShopify, which is headquartered in Ottawa with an extra office in Toronto, is doing really really well. There's also Freshbooks in Toronto.
- usmanbashir 13y agoIt's not that Canada lacks a startup culture, it's just a smaller playground then SF or NYC. But besides all this, there are popular and noteworthy startups based in Canada, like HootSuite, Shopify, 500px, UrtheCast and Freshbooks.
- jrn 13y agoJobber, is doing fairly well out of edmonton.
- bwertz 13y agoAgreed. Other very successful start-ups include: Wattpad, Frank & Oak, Indochino, Clio, Unbounce, Top Hat.
- scott_karana 13y agoI wonder if that's proportional per capita. I get the impression that it is not, though I have a small sample size.
- speeder 13y agoYou people forgot the games industry in Canada... Beside canadians participating in some large game jams and having cool events there, Quebec state is the second largest games producer in the world (behind US, and above the entire Japan)
- bdamm 13y agoEver heard of Flickr? They did quite well.
- oulous 13y agoShopify
- reledi 13y agoStartup ecosystems are thriving everywhere in the world IMO, but Canada is doing especially well. Here are some world rankings from 2012 [1]. #8 - Toronto #9 - Vancouver #16 - Waterloo/Kitchener Also worth a mention are Montreal, Ottawa, and Hamilton. [1] http://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/startup-ecosystem-ranking-2012.jpg http://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/startup-...
- anovikov 13y agoMy guess is that trying Amsterdam, or Berlin is a safer bet. Apart from mature startup culture, for you as an Indian, these places also have an advantage of being relatively close, timezone-wise, to both U.S. (at least East Coast) which will be most probably your main market, and India where you will probably hire people.
- MisterWebz 13y agoHow's the startup culture in Amsterdam and Berlin?
- anovikov 13y agoIn Amsterdam there is a famously strong one, best in Europe (while nothing compared to the Valley). Berlin is also a nice place in this respect, i know a few guys in Eastern Europe who worked in startups there. Berlin is a very unusual city because while being a capital of one of topmost tech countries in the world, it enjoys cheap rent and cost of living/doing business (because it's not overcrowded yet, legacy of the separation era, quite opposite to say, London).
- mjn 13y agoI don't have a large sample size, but my small set of second-hand reports suggests that trying to live-and-work in Berlin can be problematic if you don't speak at least passable German. Not for the startup scene itself, where everyone speaks English, but for practicalities like interacting with the civil service, health-care system, housing, and banks, where German is expected. (This is a difference from Copenhagen, where everything can be done in English if you prefer. And Danes often prefer it, too, because they don't understand foreigners who try to speak Danish.)
- anovikov 13y agoTrue. There are very few places in the world where you can go without local language. It is a pleasure to see how this improves over years, pace of the change is dramatic, but we are far from there as far as Central and Eastern Europe is concerned.