Ask YC: Where to startup? (If not the US, then Canada or UK?)

If you want a economically more active country, you might consider Chile too, but I don't know anything about visas there.

On that note, I wouldn't mind meeting up with smart folks to talk shop - any suggestions? Are the Barcamps good?

Pros: We're in Canada for one, low cost of living (compared to anywhere in North America), great people, central time zone (only a couple hours off either coast), and a growing startup scene (www.manitobanewmedia.com)

Cons: Pretty cold in the winter (not that much worse than elsewhere in Canada though, I'm from Windsor, Ontario and at least it's a dry cold here!). Not many startup-minded people. The scene here is really small still, and it's tough to find coding talent here in general, and even harder to find ones who would work well in a startup.

Winnipeg is a great city for the arts as well, with some really cool stuff going on in music, film, etc. I find it a creatively inspiring city with a unique culture compared to the rest of Canada and the US. So I may not have the same volume of geek surrounding me ;), but Winnipeg provides creative influences of a different sort which I can see have definitely influenced some of my business ideas in a good way.

Go Canada! :)

;-)

There's a lot of copying of the American tech market, retargeted towards a German market. That makes some investors here a bit conservative since "the proven model" is so unambitious. But there are VCs and Angels here in town and quite a few startups. Living is freakishly cheap for a European metropolis and in general it's a very attractive place to live.

Here's a map of startups registered on Deutsche Startups:

http://www.deutsche-startups.de/2007/11/29/berlin-ist-die-st...

I personally received a handful of unsolicited phone calls from local VCs (including Growthworks and Ventures West - the one with Paul Kedrosky) asking for a meeting. All based on a couple of posts in high-profile blogs.

It does drizzle in a winter, but (a) that's actually helpful if you need to work :) (b) Whistler is just an hour away. There's also Okanagan Valley 400 km to the east, which is our smaller version of Napa Valley.

What's completely out of whack here is a real estate market. 500 sqft condo in downtown may easily cost 700k and CAD:USD is now 1:1. The correction of the market has already started, sales are slumping, inventory is spiking, but it would probably take at least a year for prices to start really falling. I'm mentioning this because this causes certain problem with rentals availability and this problem may actually worsen. Especially in Downtown. Make sure to research this subject prior to making a decision.

Another note is regarding the labor laws. BC actually has a funny law saying that if an employee owns a company share or is on an stock purchase plan - they are considered co-owners of the company and therefore are not eligible for an overtime pay. Allegedly this law was passed specifically to stimulate high-tech industry.

Lastly, if you haven't visited Vancouver before, I would strongly recommend a surveying visit. This is not a megapolis, it's not fast paced nor is it expansive. This may require adapting to.

Way to enforce the stereo type, bro

To elaborate on SRED and IRAP: These are programs that will either offset tax on revenue, or provide direct grants for original research and development. Talking with one of the local CTOs up here, he said use of these two programs basically cut his development costs by 70 to 80% versus Silicon Valley. Basically, there's a fair amount of free government money to be had to get you going, or stretch your funding further.

I actually just returned here from Silicon Valley (lived in Mountain View for four years). There's a couple reasons I did, mostly because Silicon Valley is an echo chamber that confuses motion with progress, but also because Vancouver has a lot to offer:

1) Diverse population ethnicity: if you're thinking about going into China, India, or Europe, it helps to have a lot of local knowledge of those cultures.

2) Lots of local talent: For one, the largest Electronics Arts development center in the world. For a second, a number of "Silicon Valley" companies and thought leaders - Tim Bray (creator of XML), Flock (has a team of 20 devs on Vancouver Island), Lloyd Budd (Automattic), many others.

3) Healthy life: I lost 15 pounds in two months when I returned to Vancouver, without really changing much. The city is a walking city, so we have only used a single tank of gas in th past four months. There's lots of cheap transit.

4) Close to Silicon Valley: YVR is actually the largest airport on the west coast (not LAX). You can be in Silicon Valley in two hours. I often joked with my valley friends that I could fly to Vancouver and drive to Whistler faster than they could get to Lake Tahoe. ;-)

As for living expense - overall, it's about the same as Silicon Valley. Some stuff costs more, some stuff less. The stuff that does cost more, you usually get a lot more bang for your buck. $800K will get you a shack in Mountain View, or a brand new modern apartment in downtown Vancouver in the heart of the action.

I can't imagine throwing everything for my startup, I already left behind my friend, familly and my ex-girlfriend, I won't kill my way of living standard too. I suppose it is legitimate for other people to seek a place on other criteria like where I find VCs or other people like me or mountain, or night clubs etc. and do their venture for a living.

I think you can get your permanent resident status in both countries in < 2 years, whereas in the US it could take anywhere from 2-8 years depending on where you're from (really bad if you're Indian/Chinese) and what phase the moon is in :)