Canada’s vanishing tech sector • Hacker News Board

Re: Canada’s vanishing tech sector

#51

Post by redthrowaway » Sat, Jul 07, 2012, 10:18 PM UTC

blindhippo wrote: post #33

erohead wrote: post #10

It's amazing how most of these articles just talk about the difficulties of raising money. As if that's the only important thing missing in Canada for startups. What about the difficulty of finding out what users want (when your customers are all in the US), the lack of a concentrated talent pool of people in your sector (hard to network let alone hire), lack of sector-specific mentors. All much harder to do in Canad…

I can attest to the lack of talent in my area (Alberta). Our company spent over a year looking for a junior PHP developer. Literally couldn't find one anywhere (the few bites we did get had no clue how to actually program in any language). And on a personal level - I've never been able to find a decent mentor anywhere. Local user groups are anemic and tend to be filled with nothing but MBA's and "idea guys" looking f…

My uncle started a serious games company in Edmonton, and that's what I hear from him all the time: no talent. He's thinking of relocating here to Vancouver just so he can hire competent C++ devs. Pretty depressing, really.

Re: Canada’s vanishing tech sector

#52

Post by snowwindwaves » Sat, Jul 07, 2012, 10:25 PM UTC

unfocused wrote: post #20

I've been recently asking my Engineer friends about this very topic. I've always known that it's not the same as it was. I wish I was wrong. Quite a few have left the field, and others have left the country. I've been working in the high tech sector in Ottawa for 10 years now. I started out working for (big surprise) a start up telecom company as a co-op student. I loved it. Then tried the government. I wanted to kil…

i was a co-op student at nortel through high school, those keg parties were great! kegs are cheap, but it probably didn't do much for productivity on friday afternoons.

Re: Canada’s vanishing tech sector

#53

Post by unfocused » Sat, Jul 07, 2012, 10:31 PM UTC

xal wrote: post #38

unfocused wrote: post #20

I've been recently asking my Engineer friends about this very topic. I've always known that it's not the same as it was. I wish I was wrong. Quite a few have left the field, and others have left the country. I've been working in the high tech sector in Ottawa for 10 years now. I started out working for (big surprise) a start up telecom company as a co-op student. I loved it. Then tried the government. I wanted to kil…

Well, you are right but you are looking in the wrong areas of the City. I'm clearly biased, being the founder of Shopify, but we are here to change everything you mentioned above and we have succeeded so far when everyone told us we couldn't. Feel like going for a coffee?

Hi xal. Thank you for the invite for coffee.

I think redthrowaway kind of summed it up. It's not you, it's me. In my current situation, I'm probably the last person that you'll see trying to work for a start up. Not right now at least. There's a time and place for everything.

While going for coffee would be fun, I don't want to waste your time seeing as you're doing what our city needs to be done. We need more people like you, and more companies like Shopify.

Re: Canada’s vanishing tech sector

#54

Post by nickler » Sat, Jul 07, 2012, 10:42 PM UTC

Many say it best, risk averse. Early stage, tech savvy angels are as rare as sunny weather here in Vancouver. There are about 3 in total, all working out of Growlab.

That being said, complaining about it won't get it fixed. Growlab is doing yeoman's work to get the SV money pipe flowing north, they just need help. They need better companies with bigger ideas, more aggressive founders, and one decent exit. All it will take to lure some money out of the mining and oil sector is a couple big returns, and I see a few that aren't far off.

Tough as hell trying to raise out here, but it only makes you stronger.

Re: Canada’s vanishing tech sector

#55

Post by camlinke » Sat, Jul 07, 2012, 10:53 PM UTC

redthrowaway wrote: post #51

blindhippo wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can attest to the lack of talent in my area (Alberta). Our company spent over a year looking for a junior PHP developer. Literally couldn't find one anywhere (the few bites we did get had no clue how to actually program in any language). And on a personal level - I've never been able to find a decent mentor anywhere. Local user groups are anemic and tend to be filled with nothing but MBA's and "idea guys" looking f…

My uncle started a serious games company in Edmonton, and that's what I hear from him all the time: no talent. He's thinking of relocating here to Vancouver just so he can hire competent C++ devs. Pretty depressing, really.

What is the name of your Uncle's company? Tell him to fire me an email, I'd be happy to do what I can to help him find someone. There are quite a few good devs in Edmonton and specific to gaming BioWare attracts a large number of talented people to town, and leaks out some very good people at times depending on their development cycle. cam.linke@gmail.com

Re: Canada’s vanishing tech sector

#56

Post by camlinke » Sat, Jul 07, 2012, 10:58 PM UTC

blindhippo wrote: post #33

erohead wrote: post #10

It's amazing how most of these articles just talk about the difficulties of raising money. As if that's the only important thing missing in Canada for startups. What about the difficulty of finding out what users want (when your customers are all in the US), the lack of a concentrated talent pool of people in your sector (hard to network let alone hire), lack of sector-specific mentors. All much harder to do in Canad…

I can attest to the lack of talent in my area (Alberta). Our company spent over a year looking for a junior PHP developer. Literally couldn't find one anywhere (the few bites we did get had no clue how to actually program in any language). And on a personal level - I've never been able to find a decent mentor anywhere. Local user groups are anemic and tend to be filled with nothing but MBA's and "idea guys" looking f…

Are you in Edmonton or Calgary? What is the name of your company?

Re: Canada’s vanishing tech sector

#57

Post by brady8 » Sat, Jul 07, 2012, 11:24 PM UTC

blindhippo wrote: post #33

erohead wrote: post #10

It's amazing how most of these articles just talk about the difficulties of raising money. As if that's the only important thing missing in Canada for startups. What about the difficulty of finding out what users want (when your customers are all in the US), the lack of a concentrated talent pool of people in your sector (hard to network let alone hire), lack of sector-specific mentors. All much harder to do in Canad…

I can attest to the lack of talent in my area (Alberta). Our company spent over a year looking for a junior PHP developer. Literally couldn't find one anywhere (the few bites we did get had no clue how to actually program in any language). And on a personal level - I've never been able to find a decent mentor anywhere. Local user groups are anemic and tend to be filled with nothing but MBA's and "idea guys" looking f…

I'll throw my support behind this point as well. I'm just finishing up a medical degree after working as a software developer for years, and I still have contact with a company I founded in Alberta years ago. We've been trying to find developer talent (Ruby) for literally years, and there is consistently no one available - we've taken to grabbing folks out of uni and training them up instead.

One of many reasons I'm not seriously considering coming back to Alberta (even though I loved living there) - in my experience, even most of Australia, where I'm living currently, has a much deeper talent pool and access to gov't VC funding.

Re: Canada’s vanishing tech sector

#58

Post by redthrowaway » Sat, Jul 07, 2012, 11:46 PM UTC

camlinke wrote: post #55

redthrowaway wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My uncle started a serious games company in Edmonton, and that's what I hear from him all the time: no talent. He's thinking of relocating here to Vancouver just so he can hire competent C++ devs. Pretty depressing, really.

What is the name of your Uncle's company? Tell him to fire me an email, I'd be happy to do what I can to help him find someone. There are quite a few good devs in Edmonton and specific to gaming BioWare attracts a large number of talented people to town, and leaks out some very good people at times depending on their development cycle. cam.linke@gmail.com

http://cooleimmersive.com/

They make FPS-style training programs for service rigs, among other things. Thanks for the offer, I'll pass it on.

Re: Canada’s vanishing tech sector

#59

Post by gigantor » Sat, Jul 07, 2012, 11:47 PM UTC

blindhippo wrote: post #33

erohead wrote: post #10

It's amazing how most of these articles just talk about the difficulties of raising money. As if that's the only important thing missing in Canada for startups. What about the difficulty of finding out what users want (when your customers are all in the US), the lack of a concentrated talent pool of people in your sector (hard to network let alone hire), lack of sector-specific mentors. All much harder to do in Canad…

I can attest to the lack of talent in my area (Alberta). Our company spent over a year looking for a junior PHP developer. Literally couldn't find one anywhere (the few bites we did get had no clue how to actually program in any language). And on a personal level - I've never been able to find a decent mentor anywhere. Local user groups are anemic and tend to be filled with nothing but MBA's and "idea guys" looking f…

The lack of PHP/Rails developers in Alberta is unfortunate, but the cause is that enterprise development dominates the industry, with .net and Java projects taking up nearly all the market share and the rest existing in very niche markets. Software development exists here primarily to facilitate stuff being pulled from the ground.

Have you considered using .net for your startup? There is the obvious drawback of having to license the Microsoft stack, but ASP MVC is now mature enough to being a solid backend platform for a startup, and your odds at finding a talented .net developer in Alberta are magnitudes greater than the platforms hyped in Silicon Valley. The BizSpark program also gives you a 3 year free run at MS licensing.

As an experienced contractor in the Calgary area, I'd go as far as saying the Oil & Gas has created a large surplus of .net developers especially in the last 3 years, which explains the booming IT headhunting sector here, and hiring capable developers seems to take only a handful of days from start to finish.

Re: Canada’s vanishing tech sector

#60

Post by myth_drannon » Sat, Jul 07, 2012, 11:47 PM UTC

realo wrote: post #49

There is a lot of high-tech stuff happening in Canada. Montreal is very attractive to gaming companies, for example. Quebec City is a hub for high-tech optics companies. The Enhanced Full Rate codec for GSM was developed in Universite de Sherbrooke (Quebec): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_full_rate . There is a startup festival next week in Montreal: http://startupfestival.com/ The problem is that all this occ…

Gaming companies in Montreal are a sad joke and represent everything that is wrong with Canadian tech. 37 % of game developer salary is paid by provincial government. Our tax money is given to France's business elites.