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Layoffs at Canadian tech startups

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Re: Layoffs at Canadian tech startups

#161

Post by joshlemer »

jeromegv wrote: post #117
joshlemer wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly fuck Canadian tech companies. The pay is literally half or even a third of what we can earn in the states. The rise of remote work has been such an amazing development for Canadian software developer. Really there isn’t much point in living in a Canadian tech city like Vancouver or Toronto since it makes no sense to work for a Canadian company anymore. Even taking a remote job at any run of the mill non flas…

Some of us enjoy the culture, food and network of living in a large city. There’s a whole world in what your day to day is between living in the 3rd biggest city in US-Canada and living in Winnipeg. Both are fine, but they are different, not interchangeable

Sure, if you like it for its own sake but I’m just saying that there is no career advantage to living in Toronto rather than Winnipeg now, since I’ll probably never again work for any Canadian company.

Re: Layoffs at Canadian tech startups

#162

Post by nlittlepoole »

RC_ITR wrote: post #124
xal wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I write my own posts, not PR. Don’t be so jaded.

Yeah the point of this entire thread is that your (not unique to you, but you are certainly one of the CEOs that are easiest to vilify when discussing this phenomenon) incentives are so skewed that a given employee should be very cautious about joining your company. You made a bet on e-commerce penetration. The reason it was so easy for you to make that bet is because if you were correct, you’d be even more fabulousl…

I agree an employee should be cautious for the exact risks you outlined but I don't know if I'd say this is a function of any power dynamic. Employees should be saving such that they have 3 months of expenses saved away for this exact scenario. Between that, unemployment benefits, and any severance most people should be able to find a new job without "havoc" on their lives.

Re: Layoffs at Canadian tech startups

#163

Post by theflyinghorse »

throwawaysleep wrote: post #74
MonkeyMalarky wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SR&ED is just a nice-to-have break on taxes, no?

I’m not sure of the details, but I worked for a company where SR&ED reporting and grant collecting determined product features.

That's most of the companies here, sadly. SRED is definitely a big part of decision making at the level of team leads and above

Re: Layoffs at Canadian tech startups

#164

Post by rchaud »

dehrmann wrote: post #81
unity1001 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Shopify is publicly traded and is an e-commerce platform. It isn't dependent on VC money to run But it still floats on the inflated stock values like a majority of the big tech companies.

The stock price is somewhat independent of the underlying business. The stock price is based on what investors think other investors will pay for it sometime in the future, weighted against other investments.

> The stock price is based on what investors think other investors will pay for it sometime in the future,

And sometimes that 'investor' can be the company itself, doing a stock buyback. Or prices rising because of a corporate tax cut. Often times these swings in share price have nothing to do with the underlying business.

Re: Layoffs at Canadian tech startups

#165

Post by rchaud »

joshlemer wrote: post #161
jeromegv wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of us enjoy the culture, food and network of living in a large city. There’s a whole world in what your day to day is between living in the 3rd biggest city in US-Canada and living in Winnipeg. Both are fine, but they are different, not interchangeable

Sure, if you like it for its own sake but I’m just saying that there is no career advantage to living in Toronto rather than Winnipeg now, since I’ll probably never again work for any Canadian company.

An ironic comment in a story about long-term bets going bad.

Re: Layoffs at Canadian tech startups

#166

Post by bmc7505 »

TMWNN wrote: post #130
mardifoufs wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only $50k grants? You must have missed the AI startup wave here in Montreal. They didn't end up producing much, if anything, of value. But they sure knew how to scale those grants/"government investments" to a completely new level.

>Only $50k grants? You must have missed the AI startup wave here in Montreal. Indeed, I certainly remember the days when Montreal was said to be the next "AI superpower". How much of that was driven by the media predicting after Trump's election in 2016 that hordes of tech companies and employees would flee north of the border? (And how much of that reporting, in turn, was driven by smug Trudeau government bureaucrat…

Montreal still is a AI powerhouse. Most of the same people who were here ten years ago still are, and still working on the same research topics, just with less flashy PR.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=LVXkISpbq2k

Re: Layoffs at Canadian tech startups

#167

Post by cmrdporcupine »

ghaff wrote: post #155
negamax wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There you go. I have done something similar. And place was puffing up with out of college new hires. Everyone getting pat on the back. I stand by my assertion, companies will have to get the old people back unless they are happy to have years of over investment with little returns, increased uncertainty around release cycles

The “old” people who did well with stock are done. Maybe you can get them to consult for a bit.

I'm "somewhat old" and not done, just done with BigCorp. I did well with stock, but it turns out it takes a lot of $$ to live well when you have kids in school and all that still.

I'm doing the startup game for a bit to try to re-ignite the spark. A few weeks away from Google and I was excited to write code again. Google sucked the motivation out of me.

Re: Layoffs at Canadian tech startups

#168

Post by cmrdporcupine »

osigurdson wrote: post #111
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most Canadian companies don't want to pay the salaries to have the "old guard." I suspect a lot of people left during COVID not just because they were burnt out but because they could get better pay working remotely for US companies. They better hope we end up in a deep recession, because they're not fit to compete for talent when there's employers out there hiring remote at competitive rates.

The typical Canadian company is probably not worried about it as they believe they will be able to find offshore workers, use Fiverr to fill the gap, etc.

And the quality will show, naturally.

Re: Layoffs at Canadian tech startups

#169

Post by RC_ITR »

nlittlepoole wrote: post #162
RC_ITR wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah the point of this entire thread is that your (not unique to you, but you are certainly one of the CEOs that are easiest to vilify when discussing this phenomenon) incentives are so skewed that a given employee should be very cautious about joining your company. You made a bet on e-commerce penetration. The reason it was so easy for you to make that bet is because if you were correct, you’d be even more fabulousl…

I agree an employee should be cautious for the exact risks you outlined but I don't know if I'd say this is a function of any power dynamic. Employees should be saving such that they have 3 months of expenses saved away for this exact scenario. Between that, unemployment benefits, and any severance most people should be able to find a new job without "havoc" on their lives.

Well, if it’s not a power dynamic thing then why is Tobi still CEO when it was his mistake and not the employees that he hired?

Re: Layoffs at Canadian tech startups

#170

Post by redml »

walrus01 wrote: post #95

Canadian tech startups are hilarious . The domestic media likes to play up Hootsuite in Vancouver like it's a big deal. Maybe in the context of Vancouver's size of tech job market... But it's absolutely nothing compared to what exists in Seattle or anywhere in California or places in NY, Texas, etc. The unfortunate lesson that every Canadian working in the tech field will learn is that if you're really talented and e…

It's sad but true. I took a remote job from the states when the pandemic hit and I'm never going back to domestic jobs.
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