Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Canada designs new visa for immigrant entrepreneurs

theglobeandmail.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 45 posts

Re: Canada designs new visa for immigrant entrepreneurs

#11

Post by otoburb »

refurb wrote: post #2

"...and intends to initiate a visa that would be issued to people identified by venture capital funds as candidates to create startup firms in Canada." Anyone else find this to be an odd way to go about it? VC firms have distinctly different goals when funding companies than the people actually running the company. I guess it raises some questions for me: (1) Is there a floor to how much funding is required? For lack…

For this crowd it may be an odd way of going about identifying entrepreneurs to give visas to. However, this is the (Canadian) government, and like most governments they typically wouldn't have the in-house expertise to identify this talent themselves. So they need to rely on high-status signals; the next best thing they can see are early-stage VC firms who are active in the space.

(1) Given the abysmal failure of the previous 'entrepreneur' visa category, I believe that they would probably go with at least a 12mo runway, although the VC firms and startup team would probably have to justify (via paper projection - ha!) a reasonable 2yr runway.

(2) The example in the article provided was the case of Summify, which was acquired by Twitter[1]. That seems to be the spark (among others) to bring more attention to the issue of a lack of strong Canadian anchor companies[2]. Again, using the previous 'entrepreneur' visa category which supposedly was being used as a loophole, the government is trying to respond by focusing on previous examples and a growing chorus of media and startup community attention around keeping and growing Canadian startup talent.

(3) Assuming that an "entire" startup team might consist of 2-5 people (I wish I had a statistic to back this up somehow other than anecdotal reading), that's not a far stretch. If the founder(s) want to hire foreign workers, then that may be more difficult because Canada would sure want to encourage them to try attracting and keeping Canadian technical talent first.

[1]http://startupvisa.ca/summify-inspiration-by-startup-visa-ca...

[2]http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/ca...

Re: Canada designs new visa for immigrant entrepreneurs

#12

Post by otoburb »

DaniFong wrote: post #6

As a Canadian now living in Silicon Valley I think this is a perilous idea. The main problem is that Canada doesn't have near enough active VC investors. Hardly anywhere does, even Silicon Valley. Having them be the sole gatekeepers will fall far short of what's possible.

The government is grasping for straws. It seems they were pretty desperate to close the previous e-visa loophole that was being clearly exploited and come up with a new idea.

Given it's only 2750 visas/yr, I like to think this is the Canadian government's version of an MVP that VCs and Canadian startup communities have lobbied hard for.

Maybe they'll find ways to expand or relax the qualifying restrictions in the future.

Re: Canada designs new visa for immigrant entrepreneurs

#13

Post by napierzaza »

doublerebel wrote: post #7
refurb wrote: post #2

"...and intends to initiate a visa that would be issued to people identified by venture capital funds as candidates to create startup firms in Canada." Anyone else find this to be an odd way to go about it? VC firms have distinctly different goals when funding companies than the people actually running the company. I guess it raises some questions for me: (1) Is there a floor to how much funding is required? For lack…

Last I looked a few months ago, the minimum investment was $750K CAD. Now it is $800K, with a $1.6MM CAD net worth. Citzenship and Immigration Canada "will return your C$800,000 investment, without interest, about five years and two months after payment." [1] I think it is important to note that their foreign-invested business programs have become backlogged in processing, and have been holding onto the life savings…

Well it's nice that these Chinese citizens who have saved 800,000$ CAN cash are allowed to buy Canadian citizenship with the interest from their money. But it doesn't sound like it's so bad a deal for them if they want to live here so bad to take it.

Re: Canada designs new visa for immigrant entrepreneurs

#14

Post by otoburb »

brightsize wrote: post #3

From what I can tell, this wouldn't help me one bit. I'm an American who would love the opportunity to found a startup in Canada. That means being there from conception to MVP. But it sounds like this plan will only allow a pretty advanced company, one that has gained the interest of VCs, to move there. If a company was founded elsewhere and was that far along, why would the team move it to Canada? Furthermore, what…

I guess it depends on how much capital is required to qualify, but perhaps if startup teams were allowed to pitch at accelerators (plane tickets, no visas) and receive a funding option, then this would be a way in for them to start gathering later-stage investment interest. I'm not sure if "VC" referred to in the article means "any accelerator/incubator/super-angel program" or "proper VC firms".

For those startups that don't require VC money, I just think that the government has no clue how to deal with that without it being exploited like the last visa, so they figured they'd throw something out there that they could pull off with their majority government.

Re: Canada designs new visa for immigrant entrepreneurs

#15

Post by bbaker »

grannyg00se wrote: post #5
brightsize wrote: post #3

From what I can tell, this wouldn't help me one bit. I'm an American who would love the opportunity to found a startup in Canada. That means being there from conception to MVP. But it sounds like this plan will only allow a pretty advanced company, one that has gained the interest of VCs, to move there. If a company was founded elsewhere and was that far along, why would the team move it to Canada? Furthermore, what…

"If a company was founded elsewhere and was that far along, why would the team move it to Canada? " Good question. But I'd also ask why, as an American, would you love to found a startup in Canada? What advantage over starting it in the US?

Lower cost of talent (than large tech ecosystems in US), rebates on R&D talent, delinking of health care and employment, etc.

There are also advantages to living in the US of course, where this Canadian is currently working.

Re: Canada designs new visa for immigrant entrepreneurs

#16

Post by otoburb »

grannyg00se wrote: post #5
brightsize wrote: post #3

From what I can tell, this wouldn't help me one bit. I'm an American who would love the opportunity to found a startup in Canada. That means being there from conception to MVP. But it sounds like this plan will only allow a pretty advanced company, one that has gained the interest of VCs, to move there. If a company was founded elsewhere and was that far along, why would the team move it to Canada? Furthermore, what…

"If a company was founded elsewhere and was that far along, why would the team move it to Canada? " Good question. But I'd also ask why, as an American, would you love to found a startup in Canada? What advantage over starting it in the US?

Probably none. But perhaps as a foreigner finding it difficult to relocate to the US you may find Canada a possible second choice, whereas right now it's just not even a possibility.

>> An initial source of candidates could be frustrated foreigners in the high-tech sector in the United States who have not been able to land resident status there.

Re: Canada designs new visa for immigrant entrepreneurs

#17

Post by freshhawk »

grannyg00se wrote: post #5
brightsize wrote: post #3

From what I can tell, this wouldn't help me one bit. I'm an American who would love the opportunity to found a startup in Canada. That means being there from conception to MVP. But it sounds like this plan will only allow a pretty advanced company, one that has gained the interest of VCs, to move there. If a company was founded elsewhere and was that far along, why would the team move it to Canada? Furthermore, what…

"If a company was founded elsewhere and was that far along, why would the team move it to Canada? " Good question. But I'd also ask why, as an American, would you love to found a startup in Canada? What advantage over starting it in the US?

I assume it would be the obvious one: getting to live in Canada :)

Re: Canada designs new visa for immigrant entrepreneurs

#18

Post by justinhj »

refurb wrote: post #2

"...and intends to initiate a visa that would be issued to people identified by venture capital funds as candidates to create startup firms in Canada." Anyone else find this to be an odd way to go about it? VC firms have distinctly different goals when funding companies than the people actually running the company. I guess it raises some questions for me: (1) Is there a floor to how much funding is required? For lack…

This is similar to Canada's provincial nominee program. Skilled workers, usually already working in Canada under a temporary visa, are put forward by companies for permanent residence and cut the line.

Re: Canada designs new visa for immigrant entrepreneurs

#19

Post by jayfuerstenberg »

supersaiyan wrote: post #10

As a recent Waterloo grad, 95% of my friends have moved to US (California, Seattle, NY); the problem isn't trying to attract more talent, rather building infrastructure to retain it. Honestly, I love living in Canada, but there are fewer high paying jobs and its much more difficult to get funding for startups.

True, most successful Canadian startups get bought out by American investors anyway and moved to the States.

Re: Canada designs new visa for immigrant entrepreneurs

#20

Post by 4clicknet »

qdpb wrote: post #4

A better summary of the article would be "Canada planning to make it harder for entrepreneurs to immigrate". Otherwise one could think that progress is being made. Whereas it looks like Canada doesn't even want entrepreneurs; instead it wants "hot" companies to move to Canada (see VC requirement and just 2750 visas/year).

I had an hour-long chat with a guy from Canada's Federal Economic Development Agency who I met at a startup event and still keep in touch with. I suggested to him that they should copy the Startup Chile program to get entrepreneurs into Canada and create some buzz. He politely insisted that Canada's current programs are innovative and adequate. I know this is just one anecdotal data point, but it fits the cliche of the don't-rock-the-boat/cover-your-ass government employee and I wasn't too surprised. I wonder how Chile was able to overcome government inertia and get their program off the ground?
Post reply on HN