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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

#11

Post by jgh »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #9
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…

I made 2-3x as much by moving to California and then another integer coefficient greater than one when I moved to New York. Another 2x? 3x? 4x? Why make us guess? It's valuable info that helps inform people's decisions for the future. Thank you for the datapoints.

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.

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

#12

Post by CoolGuySteve »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #9
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…

I made 2-3x as much by moving to California and then another integer coefficient greater than one when I moved to New York. Another 2x? 3x? 4x? Why make us guess? It's valuable info that helps inform people's decisions for the future. Thank you for the datapoints.

2x of silicon valley and then bonus on top, but that required moving into finance. It also helped that my previous employer was Apple, it opened many doors when it came time to interview.

The fact of the matter is that other industries are starved for talent. If you can keep up in silicon valley, where all anyone talks about is technology, you will be godly in a different marketplace with more capital flow.

Finance in particular has way too many people who think things like this are a good idea and The Right Thing To Do: https://github.com/goldmansachs/gs-collections

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

#13

Post by danielsiders »

stormbrew wrote: post #4
VonGuard wrote: post #2

Canada was already doing this for the games industry, though not at 80%. It worked. Look at all the studios in Montreal. Perhaps it could work again for the startup culture. It's cold enough up there in the winter that going outside is horrible, so why not stay inside and code!

The article is really light on details, but I'm pretty sure it's not describing anything new. It's just SR&ED (lovingly called shred colloquially) and related provincial programs, which have been around for a long time (in their modern form since at least 1994). In fact, it's probably fair to say that almost every tech employee (and many non-tech employees) in Canada has been under an SR&ED grant whether they knew it…

I believe the company also needs to be majority owned by resident Canadian citizens. There are a number of accounting firms that specialize in SRED claims, but most take a cut of your return in exchange for their services.

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

#15

Post by pugsawakening »

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 interest in programming moves onto "safer" education and career options (in the local context) - usually engineering or commerce/finance.

There's simply a lack of talent, or more realistically, a lack of talent with no better options.

The money here is being used to attempt to make up for the extreme economies of scale that places like Silicon Valley have. It's not enough to make Canada a competitive place to start a startup, really, but it may have some effect on the total amount of expatriation by talented individuals.

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

#17

Post by fidotron »

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 think if you're in computing this is true. The tax credit "successes" in Canada are groups like the hundreds of artists on videogames or mechanical engineers in aerospace. Software development that way does exist, but it doesn't account for a very high proportion of jobs in these programs.

As an outsider in Canada I've been told it's easier to get foreigners to join startups due to how risk averse Canadians are, and what I've seen would tend to back that up.

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

#18

Post by balls187 »

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…

Talent is one problem.

What about access to customers and financing?

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

#19

Post by xtrumanx »

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…

> 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.

Actually it would take a lot less money than you would think to get many people to move to Canada and take a job offer. There's a whole world of immigrants out there who would love to move to Canada. They're mostly not located in California however, but east and south of Europe.

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

#20

Post by beltex »

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…

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?

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