| By far the biggest problem in Toronto is that we do not have a deep startup tech talent pool. They all leave for the SFBay. Why? Startups here pay engineers 1/3 to half of what they'd make in the SFBay while only being ~25% less expensive. In real terms, I've heard that a "Sr. Engineer" is $75-85K CAD ($60K USD) where in at a typical SF startup (lower than FAANGs) you'd look at $130-140K+ USD. Startups that get excited about low wages are rarely $B rocket ships. This makes the equity story difficult as there aren't employees who got rich from joining an early stage company. AND, the startups that did succeed also gave out less equity as it wasn't valued. Thus, a self-fulfilling prophecy. Startups and large tech companies would get founded/move here if there's an overflow of top tier talent. There's talent but not overflowing. Good Solutions: * Startups should pay more. * Toronto should attract a FAANG or Uber/Lyft/Airbnb to build a serious office here. * Employees should hop around more. * Import talent through Canadian visas for foreign workers (which also takes advantage of more stringent US H1-B visas) Crazy Solution: End the TN visa forcing a FAANG to open an office in Toronto. Originally from Toronto, lived in SF and ran a VC-backed startup from 2011-2016 and moved home to Toronto in April to found a startup doing robotaxi ops software. Plug: we're hiring. |