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Toronto or Vancouver: Which is better for startups?

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Re: Toronto or Vancouver: Which is better for startups?

#11
post #5

In BC, UBC and SFU are considered recruiting universities with UBC being slightly ahead of SFU, but behind Waterloo in Ontario. Vancouver is quite hot now for startups and tech in general. SAP alone has 1,000 employees in Vancouver, plus Microsoft which is doubling. IBM is decreasing its size though. Vancouver is often considered better for lifestyle except for the cost of housing. If you like the outdoors, Vancouver…

one reasons i'm seriously considering UBC is because the degree i'm offered can be completed in only 20 months, and i've also heard the weather in vancouver can be very nice. but there is an overwhelmingly larger number of articles and people saying toronto is the better place for startups and i can't help but feel that i might find better talent in UofT vs UBC. is cost of housing in vancouver really sky high? and i…

if you're planning to stay in Canada afterwards the difference is not that big, UBC should give you a benefit of getting a bachelor's degree in just 2 years.

But if you're planning to go somewhere else (U.S. etc.), go UofT by all means, nobody outside of Canada knows where the heck is UBC. Vancouver is a beautiful place, definitely wins in terms of landscape, but the tech job pool is also super small, you will find out that pretty much everyone has worked at the same couple of places.

Re: Toronto or Vancouver: Which is better for startups?

#12
Full disclosure: I live in Vancouver. Searching for "startup" on meetup.com returns 78 groups for Vancouver and only 31 groups for Toronto. While Toronto is said to be better for startups the difference is small enough that it comes down to a personal choice of schools and lifestyle.
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