This morning
Rick Segal was here for the
Victoria VC Roundtable . One of the things that I really like about Rick is that he is
passionate about the companies he invests in, but the thing I like
most is that he is unabashedly pro-Canadian. Rick, like me, is American–I took the leap and became a citizen, but his passion and belief in Canada is probably second to none. So in honour of Rick, and thoroughly borrowing from him, here are the top ten reasons your tech startup should be in Canada:
- Canadians are innovative. One word: RIM.
- Canadians are well educated. Not only do we have some of the best post-secondary education in tech in the world (PHP was invented by a Finn–I think–who went to Western), our populace is generally well educated (we can find Canada and the US on a map).
- Canadians are wired and connected. Until recently Canada had the highest per capita adoption of high-speed Internet in the world. Places like Vancouver, Victoria, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa dialup is nearly a thing of the past.
- Canadians adopt and adapt to new technologies quickly. The debit card (up here called by its brand name Interac) is overwhelmingly popular, in the States debit cards are still trying to gain traction.
- Tech savvy VCs. Okay maybe not all VCs are tech savvy, but folks like JLA, Brightspark, Growthworks are and that’s who you’d be talking to.
- Rick Segal. Yeah I’m biased, but if you listen to him talk about Canada and don’t think we’re the best place to start a tech company, well you must have skipped your morning coffee.
- The tight-knit tech community. We might be spread out over the second largest country by land mass in the world, but we try to connect and support each other.
- Cost-effective. You might not think so, but it doesn’t cost as much to run a company here. We have some great tax and other benefits to help you along.
- Passion and drive. Canadians might seem all polite and mild-mannered, but don’t let that fool you. We’re passionate about what we do and we work damn hard to make it work. Come on have you watched Canadians at a hockey game?
- Great beer. Our beer tastes great and has alcohol in it–and that’s the cheap stuff.
Okay, this might be more than a little tongue-in-cheek, but in all seriousness Canada has probably one of the most underrated tech scenes in the world. Gotta change that.
These are my reasons … your turn. Add to the list.
Tags:
Entrepreneurs,
investment,
Rick Segal,
startups,
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