Reasons to Start a Startup In Canada

I'm certainly not a top graduate - I eked out of university with a 72% average. Neither are the other Canadian expats I know who are pulling this kind of cash - all are smart and hard-working, but none were among the top of their classes.

$110K 3 years out of college, at least in the current climate, is not at all uncommon in either NYC or SF/SV. It is not universal, but it's not rare either. If you look at the major investment banks, the institutional tech companies (see: Google), and the startups in NYC, this is the going rate for a mid-level engineer (i.e., $100-140K base). Hell, I have trouble finding fresh undergrads starting below $90K in these areas.

The point is, someone who is skilled at programming right now and has a few years of experience under their belt can very well pull at least $120K base, and even adjusting for cost of living differences, that's a hell of a lot more money than you can get in Canada.

In any case, this somewhat distracts from the point - it's not just about money. Myself and many other Canadian expats do not feel we can go back to Canada without working for the likes of SAP, IBM, TD, Royal, or any of the vast number of institutional enterprise companies that pound out rote, uninteresting code. There are some companies in Canada doing interesting work, but they are few and far between, demand for these jobs is intense, and job security sucks (after all, what incentive is there to treat you well when the employer knows they're the only interesting game in town?).

Compare with the SF/SV/NYC/SEA, where you can't throw a rock without hitting a row of innovative, interesting tech companies doing interesting things. We are hacking on interesting, immensely impactful things here, and we enjoy tremendous respect and security - after all, if management starts screwing around you hop down the street and go do something else that's interesting. The Canadian landscape looks incredibly bleak in comparison - a small handful of elite shops that everyone's clamoring to work for, and a vast tundra of code sweatshops where the problems are as uninteresting as the salary.

I just finished a large contract and am starting to look for positions at promising startups in Vancouver. Compared to SF, there really isn't many options. Most are video game companies.

The cost of living is high in Vancouver. While the salaries offered are higher than Toronto, they are no where near SF.

I wonder if it would be worth it traveling to San Fran to test the employment market?

> This 'all for money' thing is just shortsighted and naive.

Money matters and Money is everything are two very different mindsets, and I doubt the GP is advocating the latter.

My view is that "institutional" companies are starting to do innovative things with modern technology (NoSQL, Cloud, Mobility, etc.), but it requires younger people to seek out the opportunity to change these companies from within. There's a big wave of IT retirement coming over the next 5 to 7 years as the old guard dies out and the open source generation comes of age. Given the absolutely astronomical amounts of money these companies are used to paying for the equivalent of "three programmers , 2 weeks, and a case of beer" work, there's a lot of money to be made.

The challenge of course is politics, but that exists everywhere - Google has its own flavor (good luck using anything but Python, C, or Java, for example). Startups certainly have less politics, but just tend to be intensely personal affairs that revolve tremendously around the founder's personality and value system. Plus they tend to require commitments above and beyond what people that want families are able to provide. Large companies provide a much higher probability that you can have huge impact on people's day to day lives within a 5 year period, in my opinion - if you land the right project, with good management.

No question that people in their 20's should try a startup gig -- I moved to SF and NYC myself at ages 20 and 22, respectively (I dropped out to do it), and don't regret it. I even made a run back to SF at age 30 to try a startup again, this time as an executive (it failed). But I'm making more money now in IT because startups taught me how to get things done, which is an insight in very short supply in most large companies.

On the other hand, I haven't seen too many high-end SAP technical jobs that were "rote"... soul-sucking, sure, as you're working for the man, but still requiring a lot of brain power. I refuse to do it because I find more pleasure in torturing SAP consultants than joining them.

If you're willing to move to Toronto, you can apply at Top Hat Monocle (my company).