Ask HN: Waterloo/Toronto tech scene?

[apaitch]

Hello,

I'm a developer in Silicon Valley but I'm strongly considering moving back to the Waterloo area within the next half-year. Despite studying in Waterloo, I've done all my internships/work experience in the Valley so I have no idea about the Canadian tech scene. Does anyone here have experience with that kind of move? Obviously the number of startups and the number of big companies won't be the same, but what's been your experience regarding startup culture and opportunities? Was it much of a step down?

[kitcar]

Yes, it will be a step down - but then again, SV has the strongest tech scene in the world, so pretty much anywhere would be a step down!

That being said, these will likely be of interest to you / get you familiar with who the players are in the startup scene in Canada:

http://www.techvibes.com/toronto/category/start-up-index

http://startupnorth.ca/index/index/

http://www.canadianinnovationexchange.com/

https://uwaterloo.ca/jobmine/employers

https://uwaterloo.ca/hire/

http://waterlootechjobs.com/en/

http://www.techjobswaterloo.com/

http://www.communitech.ca/

[apaitch]

Thanks a lot! I'll definitely check some of these out!

[tostitos1979]

I'm similar to you (studied in the Toronto area, ex-SV, currently NYC) and planning to move back soon. I'm curious if you are looking for a job or do your own startup when you come back to Canada?

I've been trying to figure out the angel investment scene in Toronto/Waterloo and it is a bit disappointing. In terms of tech heavy jobs, the best I've seen are Amazon's Toronto office and Google's Waterloo office.

In terms of meetups, there do seem to be a lot of these springing up in the area close to universities. Content-wise, I doubt you will get SV quality. I can say that confidently because even the NYC area meetups don't compare to the SV meetups.

From my research, salaries are a let down in the Toronto/Waterloo area. While getting 120-150K in SV/NYC is a given for intermediate software professionals, it seems the payscales are more like 60-80K.

Best of luck to you (and to me! )