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Canada's Pitch to Tech Entrepreneur: We'll Pay 80% of Your Salaries

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Re: Canada's Pitch to Tech Entrepreneur: We'll Pay 80% of Your Salaries

#61

Post by sirdogealot »

CoolGuySteve wrote: post #7

One of the worst things about tech in Canada is that the salaries are ridiculously low compared to the US. I made 2-3x as much by moving to California and then another integer coefficient greater than one when I moved to New York. But really, I want to say this: as a Canadian, I find that image of poutine extremely offensive. What is that yellow stuff on top, Curry? Are those even proper cheese curds? They're not mel…

Hah, you're telling me.

Poutine is just fries, gravy and cheese curds where I'm from!

Re: Canada's Pitch to Tech Entrepreneur: We'll Pay 80% of Your Salaries

#62

Post by erichate »

dataminer wrote: post #43
erichate wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

interesting site, plugged in Victoria Canada (city my company is in) and numbers seemed a little off for rent currently listed in craigslist. +170% on website more like +300% from quick look in craigslist. also doesn't factor in time commuting, quality of life, avg hrs worked per day, etc... would love to see a pay breakdown $$ / hr worked (at office).

The data is crowd sourced so it may deviate, you can contribute your data to keep it aligned. Also the quality of life and commuting comparisons can be done from the pull down menu in the header.

interesting, would imagine that could deviate quite a bit then. for things like cost of coffee / meals i could see crowd sourcing but aggregating from an online source for rentals / housing sales would lead to much more accurate estimate as they are the bigger ticket items.

Re: Canada's Pitch to Tech Entrepreneur: We'll Pay 80% of Your Salaries

#63

Post by Plasmoid »

pugsawakening wrote: post #15

I'm currently a beneficiary of SRED in a startup context in Canada. The first thing to note is that it doesn't solve many major problems. The lack of development talent is the biggest one; trying to get someone to move from California to Canada isn't something that's solved as simply as offering more money. And in my experience (as a recent graduate), the talent that would have studied computer science or has an inte…

I'm a Canadian who moved to SV.

I, personally, would have preferred to stay in Canada but finding a job is a right pain in the ass. American companies will fly you in on their dime, while Canadian firms won't even give you a phone call. It would even help if these companies were even offering competitive wages.

Re: Canada's Pitch to Tech Entrepreneur: We'll Pay 80% of Your Salaries

#64

Post by _jb »

brennanm wrote: post #23

A lot of the talk is on SRED credits. SRED is a large part of the credit program for startups in Canada. Though it's not as simple as "Canada pays 80% of your salaries" You can get up to (off the top of my head) 75% of salaries paid back on hours worked "advancing technology". That means it's only for true R&D. That means UI, business logic, API, App anything, expenses, costs, etc... don't count. It's only for when y…

It's actually 80% of the salary for any work that has been done in R&D, but like you said, most of the work isn't.

A few years ago a lot of stuff could be considered as work "between two uncertainties", including non-engineering work such as graphic design, but the rules are much more strict nowadays. I think they still give credits for things that are way too simple to be R&D (ie: normal problem solving), but we've been doing [small] claims for the past 3 years and the rules have been tightened a lot.

Also, doing a claim requires you to provide evidences that you were following a certain R&D methodology. It's definitely worth it, but it's a pain.

Re: Canada's Pitch to Tech Entrepreneur: We'll Pay 80% of Your Salaries

#65

Post by serge2k »

mcpherrinm wrote: post #30
jgh wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can vouch for the 2x from Canada->California, I'm making more than 2x what I did in Canada (Toronto) now. I don't know about the 3x or 4x, maybe sillysaurus was making like $30k in Canada before, or maybe he's just some kind of superstar that gets paid $250k/year.

60k/yr to 180k/yr are not unbelievable salaries for a junior Canadian moving to a now more senior position at a big silicon valley tech company.

I got a 1.7 times increase (+ better tax situation) by moving from BC to Seattle. Positions at the same level.

Re: Canada's Pitch to Tech Entrepreneur: We'll Pay 80% of Your Salaries

#66

Post by canistr »

rubiquity wrote: post #33
beltex wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2-3x factoring in cost of living in places like SF and NY? Isn't that the evening out factor, at least for new grads, for a job in say Toronto or Waterloo vs the valley?

Don't underestimate how expensive Canada is. I recently moved from San Diego to Calgary and everything here is more expensive (groceries being the most extreme at 40-60% more) and unlike San Diego, Calgary doesn't have an ocean.

And keep in mind that oil-rich Alberta has it cheaper for a lot of stuff (taxes) compared to Ontario/BC/Quebec.

Re: Canada's Pitch to Tech Entrepreneur: We'll Pay 80% of Your Salaries

#67

Post by _jb »

alanpca wrote: post #46
pugsawakening wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is work, and about as arcane as you would expect a government form to be. You need to track your eligible hours for SRED on a weekly basis or throughout the week (as an employee). As an owner you need to deal with capital expenditures as well.

Are you filing yourself, or do you use one of the organizations that take a cut?

Both are viable. We use a contractor that takes a cut (~25% for < 25k claims, 20% for bigger claims IIRC), but I know of companies that do it themselves and hire a SRED specialist to review their application on an hourly contract.

Re: Canada's Pitch to Tech Entrepreneur: We'll Pay 80% of Your Salaries

#68

Post by zizee »

serge2k wrote: post #65
mcpherrinm wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

60k/yr to 180k/yr are not unbelievable salaries for a junior Canadian moving to a now more senior position at a big silicon valley tech company.

I got a 1.7 times increase (+ better tax situation) by moving from BC to Seattle. Positions at the same level.

Is cost of living comparable?

Re: Canada's Pitch to Tech Entrepreneur: We'll Pay 80% of Your Salaries

#69

Post by activepeanut »

zizee wrote: post #68
serge2k wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got a 1.7 times increase (+ better tax situation) by moving from BC to Seattle. Positions at the same level.

Is cost of living comparable?

Vancouver is more expensive than Seattle.

Re: Canada's Pitch to Tech Entrepreneur: We'll Pay 80% of Your Salaries

#70

Post by untog »

erichate wrote: post #31
dataminer wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You will still come out ahead in SF vs Toronto http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?coun...

interesting site, plugged in Victoria Canada (city my company is in) and numbers seemed a little off for rent currently listed in craigslist. +170% on website more like +300% from quick look in craigslist. also doesn't factor in time commuting, quality of life, avg hrs worked per day, etc... would love to see a pay breakdown $$ / hr worked (at office).

OT, but how is Victoria as a city to run a tech company in? I lived there nearly a decade ago and enjoyed my time - I still think about returning some day.
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