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A comment on Startup Visa Canada. Parent comment

Re:Startup Visa Canada by neilk on Tuesday January 18, 2011 @04:28AM (#2115230)
Canada has advantages for someone coming from the developing world. Better internet infrastructure than many countries, educated workforce, socialized health care, a culture very welcoming to immigrants, easy access to the US market, and proximity to Canadian and US investors (particularly Bay Area and Seattle).

It's also easier to get foreign workers, generally, into Canada, so you have your pick of the local workforce, as well as the rest of the world (even Americans!).

I've worked for a startup in Vancouver that took advantage of all the above. Vancouver is one of the best places to live in the world, period, and it's especially great for raising kids or if you're into outdoor sports. So it has its charms even if you already work in a startup hub like San Francisco. You could probably do something similar for Montreal or Toronto, although it would be a harder sell. And the startup would have to be pretty hot or pursuing a unique niche.

If opportunities were equal, there would be very little reason for a startup to choose Canada over the USA. However, since the USA seems determined to shut the door here, Canada can take advantage of that.

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Re:Startup Visa Canada by dotBen on Tuesday January 18, 2011 @06:15AM (#2115399)
You mention proximity to US investors in Bay Area - my experience is that investors in Bay Area tend to only want to fund Delaware C Corp companies with founders based locally. Anything outside of that is unlikely to get funded in many cases (Aside from the proximity issue, I'm guessing for local Canadian employment laws and to get this visa you would have to be running a Canadian registered company).

All of your comments about Vancouver are true, but none of them has anything to do with whether it makes a great place to do a startup.

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Re:Startup Visa Canada by fleitz on Tuesday January 18, 2011 @08:03AM (#2115609)
The biggest reasons to do a startup in Canada are SRED claims, , depressed wages (in Vancouver), and enforceable non-competes.

People say Vancouver is the best place to live, but I'd rather live elsewhere, Portland or SF come to mind.

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Re:Startup Visa Canada by halostatue on Tuesday January 18, 2011 @08:09AM (#2115627)
Enforceable non-competes may vary by province; I haven't had a reason to check it out, but they may be against labour law in Ontario.
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Re:Startup Visa Canada by dotBen on Tuesday January 18, 2011 @03:17PM (#2117199)
Enforceable probably only in Canada. I doubt there is little to no legal redress for anyone competing across the border, esp in California which bans non-competes.

I personally wouldn't put an employee under a non-compete - a) because they tend to be unenforceable and b) I wouldn't work under such a contract myself.

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Re:Startup Visa Canada by halostatue on Tuesday January 18, 2011 @03:50PM (#2117324)
After I got into work, I did a quick search and found that it's not under labour law as such, but Ontario courts (and presumably Canadian courts in general) frown on non-competes. This article from 1999 suggest that non-solicitation agreements are acceptable, but there's nine conditions that make a non-compete acceptable because it's an 'exceptional' situation.

http://www.zvulony.com/non_compete.html

This is upheld in other articles that I've read that are more recent:

http://www.toronto-employmentlawyer.com/law-advice/employmen... http://blogs.hrhero.com/northernexposure/2008/10/14/noncompe... http://www.brazeauseller.com/articles/29/12/2008/245.aspx

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Re:Startup Visa Canada by halostatue on Tuesday January 18, 2011 @03:49PM (#2117320)
After I got into work, I did a quick search and found that it's not under labour law as such, but Ontario courts (and presumably Canadian courts in general) frown on non-competes. This article from 1999 suggest that non-solicitation agreements are acceptable, but there's nine conditions that make a non-compete acceptable because it's an 'exceptional' situation.

http://www.zvulony.com/non_compete.html

This is upheld in other articles that I've read that are more recent:

http://www.toronto-employmentlawyer.com/law-advice/employmen... http://blogs.hrhero.com/northernexposure/2008/10/14/noncompe... http://www.brazeauseller.com/articles/29/12/2008/245.aspx

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