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

How the Canadian Tech Scene Encourages Finite Gameplay

alexdanco.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 165 posts

Re: How the Canadian Tech Scene Encourages Finite Gameplay

#71

Post by jariel »

MartianSquirrel wrote: post #35

Disclaimer: Clearly biased, I am from Montreal. > That’s part of why I think that if any city in Canada has the potential to actually develop a Bay Area grade startup scene (smaller, sure, but actually the real thing), it’s clearly Montreal I would have to agree with the conclusion of this article, Montreal has: (i) 5 universities very close to each other(i.e. 10 to 20 minutes walk from each other) + Great public tra…

Those are all inputs, which are nice, but the outputs which we care about, are negligible.

Where are the exceptional companies employing a lot of people, doing 'important' or 'impactfull' things? Or the exits? Or even externalized value creation?

Edit: I will give an interesting answer to my own equation and that is Element AI. A ridiculous concept from a startup perspective, but very rational regional investment argument: round up the AI talent and give them something to do. In the end, they couldn't make money - but - they didn't lose money and they may have secured at least a foundational location for AI researchers to be employed in montreal, which is not nothing. It remains to be seen if it can be expanded, and if all those AI researchers will just end up moving to the US for more money.

It's a little bit like the 'Boston Dynamics' of Montreal - clearly something going on, but difficult to commercialize so it needs a massive company to see the strategic benefit. I feel the staff of Boston Dynamics will stay put though - they're not moving to Korea (i.e. new Hyundai owners) .

Re: How the Canadian Tech Scene Encourages Finite Gameplay

#72

Post by ramraj07 »

MartianSquirrel wrote: post #35

Disclaimer: Clearly biased, I am from Montreal. > That’s part of why I think that if any city in Canada has the potential to actually develop a Bay Area grade startup scene (smaller, sure, but actually the real thing), it’s clearly Montreal I would have to agree with the conclusion of this article, Montreal has: (i) 5 universities very close to each other(i.e. 10 to 20 minutes walk from each other) + Great public tra…

Is there any bias against non french speaking people though? Spent a year doing my masters and that's what I came away from there with. If experiences of non-francophile immigrants in spinning startups and getting funding is good then that'll be good to know.

Re: How the Canadian Tech Scene Encourages Finite Gameplay

#73

Post by ramraj07 »

__turbobrew__ wrote: post #56
chongli wrote: post #36

It's a difference of cultures. Canadian culture traditionally focuses less on making a lot of noise, standing out from the crowd, etc. Canadians are almost infamous for politeness, especially compared to Americans. Now, couple this with the ease at which Canadian engineers can get jobs in the US and the picture emerges, bright and clear. Any Canadian with a lot of ambition may be alienated by the relaxed culture in C…

You didn’t go over the possibility that Canadians may prefer to live in Canada compared to the United States. Last time I checked there wasn’t a race war and a group of belligerents storming the capitol in Canada.

The primary difference between Canada and the US was that Canada was small/smart/lucky enough to enact some social nets before the world became too easy to manipulate by media and the internet.

Re: How the Canadian Tech Scene Encourages Finite Gameplay

#74

Post by sokoloff »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #62
pm90 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interestingly, I haven’t ever seen actual candidate data used to determine compensation. Ie companies almost never use a candidate demanding more to actually change anything. It’s all based on these “professional comp surveyors” as the parent has described.

Unrelated: I'm sure we have our own fantasies of potential employers (or past-employers) begging us to work for them with them increasing their offers or offering other benefits - but I'm curious if that's ever actually happened to anyone.

Negotiations for big, non-standard benefits (custom health plan, greater retirement match) are practically impossible.

Negotiations for a custom salary are entirely normal IME.

Re: How the Canadian Tech Scene Encourages Finite Gameplay

#75

Post by freeone3000 »

usrusr wrote: post #48
DanHulton wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literally just left a really enjoyable job with a Toronto company for a California company that pays 50% more. This is completely correct.

You consider "66% of California pay" low?

Wouldn't you, comparatively? It's not like your quality of work changed, it's solely location-based.

Re: How the Canadian Tech Scene Encourages Finite Gameplay

#76

Post by freeone3000 »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #62
pm90 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interestingly, I haven’t ever seen actual candidate data used to determine compensation. Ie companies almost never use a candidate demanding more to actually change anything. It’s all based on these “professional comp surveyors” as the parent has described.

Unrelated: I'm sure we have our own fantasies of potential employers (or past-employers) begging us to work for them with them increasing their offers or offering other benefits - but I'm curious if that's ever actually happened to anyone.

You should absolutely negotiate salary. Saving a few ten thousands a year on salary for a department doesn't really mean that much to your manager or to the company, compared to filling that slot in the org chart.

Re: How the Canadian Tech Scene Encourages Finite Gameplay

#77

Post by freeone3000 »

ramraj07 wrote: post #72
MartianSquirrel wrote: post #35

Disclaimer: Clearly biased, I am from Montreal. > That’s part of why I think that if any city in Canada has the potential to actually develop a Bay Area grade startup scene (smaller, sure, but actually the real thing), it’s clearly Montreal I would have to agree with the conclusion of this article, Montreal has: (i) 5 universities very close to each other(i.e. 10 to 20 minutes walk from each other) + Great public tra…

Is there any bias against non french speaking people though? Spent a year doing my masters and that's what I came away from there with. If experiences of non-francophile immigrants in spinning startups and getting funding is good then that'll be good to know.

If you're not able to speak French, personal bias is a secondary concern. Speaking French in the workplace is legally required. Non-French-speaking immigrants will likely be able to get by in their personal lives with English in Montreal, depending on what you want to do, but if you're selling a product, the product must be available in French. Not complying with these regulations will incur fines from the OQLF.

Re: How the Canadian Tech Scene Encourages Finite Gameplay

#78

Post by chrisdinn »

deepspace wrote: post #13

As someone who has worked in the Canadian tech scene for 25 years, and rode two startups all the way to exit (i.e. acquisition by US companies), in my opinion the problem has nothing to do with exit mindset, good angels, bad angels or SRED. It is all about talent retention. Up until early 2000, Canadian tech salaries at least somewhat kept pace with US salaries, albeit 20-30% lower. After the dot com crash, however,…

I agree 100%. It’s all about talent. The existence of the TN visa ensures this will continue to be a problem until founders/investors learn this lesson. Any Canadian university graduate can go work as a “computer system analyst” (but not a programmer wink wink) in the US at anytime. That means we are constantly competing with US startups for talent, any salary advantage you think you have is because your best team members haven’t realized that yet.

Re: How the Canadian Tech Scene Encourages Finite Gameplay

#79

Post by novok »

AzzieElbab wrote: post #59
deepspace wrote: post #13

As someone who has worked in the Canadian tech scene for 25 years, and rode two startups all the way to exit (i.e. acquisition by US companies), in my opinion the problem has nothing to do with exit mindset, good angels, bad angels or SRED. It is all about talent retention. Up until early 2000, Canadian tech salaries at least somewhat kept pace with US salaries, albeit 20-30% lower. After the dot com crash, however,…

Doesn’t Canadian tax system make higher salaries kind of pointless? Same with bonuses

Tax in BC is about the same as California. And you don't have to pay for people's healthcare, so it might be cheaper from a 'total cost' perspective.

Sales tax is a few % points more, property tax is actually less in general for new buyers unless you've owned a place for +15 years in CA.

You don't get a mortgage interest tax deduction, but you have an UNLIMITED cap gains exemption on the house you live in that you sell in Canada, while the USA has a limit.

The tax system is overall more straightforward and not a pile of fade outs and patches like the US tax system is. Compare Canadian RRSPs & TFSAs to the entire 401k, IRA, Roth IRA, mega backdoor roth 401k, etc mess that they have in the US. There isn't a penalty to withdrawing from your RRSP so there really isn't much of a loan concept for them either. I don't think something like AMT exists in Canada.

Cost of goods in Canada are overall more expensive than the USA.

Re: How the Canadian Tech Scene Encourages Finite Gameplay

#80

Post by danlugo92 »

jariel wrote: post #70
deepspace wrote: post #13

As someone who has worked in the Canadian tech scene for 25 years, and rode two startups all the way to exit (i.e. acquisition by US companies), in my opinion the problem has nothing to do with exit mindset, good angels, bad angels or SRED. It is all about talent retention. Up until early 2000, Canadian tech salaries at least somewhat kept pace with US salaries, albeit 20-30% lower. After the dot com crash, however,…

It's not Canadian companies that are 'keeping salaries' low, it's Valley Companies (and to some extent, American companies) that are paying a lot. Also - the USD varies at 1 to 1.5 CDN that has tremendous comparable effects. The 'reason' is that a vastly disproportionate amount of the surpluses go to the winners. '2cnd place is for chumps' - at least in the context of 'winner takes all' games. Everywhere outside of t…

>Who can blame anyone with 'no ties' to Canada moving on for 2x salary?

Does that salary increase make up for the lost gov benefits (free healthcate etc?)

Post reply on HN