Startup Visas..?
After much research I have concluded that the situation in the US is too grim.
For eg. It takes upto 8 years for certain nationals to get a residential visa. And in that time you are not supposed to change the big company job you are holding. If you do, the clock starts again. If you want a better idea follow this link: http://immigrationvoice.org/index.php?option=com_content&...
Anyway, the point of this post is that I wanted to point out that Canada is so much more welcoming. You get a residential visa without even having to hold a job in 1.5 years, and the process is deterministic. And once in Canada you can immediately incorporate. 3 years of staying in Canada will earn you a Canadian passport again by a deterministic process. Apart from nice health care, with the Canadian passport you can enter and exit US without having to apply for a visa.(This is important for me, since many of my friends are here.)
This recent post here about Vancouver is very encouraging. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40054
Silicon valley is the best as pg has pointed out in many of his essays. But it is hard for aliens to maintain visa status in the US.
I might not be seeing potential problems with Canada. If you understand things better, please leave a comment here.
Thanks, bluishgreen.
22 comments
[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 67.1 ms ] threadWhen the value of the US dollar keeps falling, it becomes more and more difficult for foreign companies to keep their prices low for the US customers.
If you're outside of the USA, it's much easier to keep your money in a foreign currency. You just go to the ATM and deposit the money instead of having to go out of your way to maintain a portfolio hedged against the collapse of the USD.
I think the peak of US civilization was the first bubble era. After that, George W Bush and his horrendous economic and imperialist policies combined with the worst Congress ever have further hastened the decline of America.
Our currency is worth half as much as it was in 1999! It's hard to notice for the rich, but for young people without money, life is getting harder. If you don't have an engineering degree or a CS degree+portfolio, there aren't any jobs without graduate education in something relevant. And good luck paying for graduate school when your net worth is already -$100,000.
Inflation is creeping up but it's hard to tell because the government doesn't publish M3 numbers anymore. I just don't see anything that can reverse this trend and I'd like to get out while I can. If I don't make a good amount of money soon, I'm afraid of being trapped in America instead of being able to move overseas and cheaply rebuy America later.
But the way you talk about the reality of the US economy sure paints a grim picture. I can only hope the country finds its place again in the new world order.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200507/fallows This is a really good piece of speculative fiction about the election of 2016... obviously it won't all come true, but American travel infrastructure assumes that every family owns one or more cars. At this point, it's clear that personal transportation is just unsustainable. $6/gallon gasoline is going to hit the average (poor) American very hard. Mobility is going to be severely reduced, especially as public transportation starts getting cut.
Let's take a look at this list for just one example...
#22: Merrill Lynch
it's ahead Pepsi and Sony and Nike. Huh?! That MAKES NO SENSE WHATSOEVER! Just safely ignore this list... their methodology is CRAP.
As far as RIM goes, I can only ask if it isn't more of a single product than a brand worth billions? I can't comment much as Blackberries aren't used in this corner of the world if they're even available. The local alternative (ie what people in the management want) must be the Nokia Communicator line of devices.
Merrill Lynch takes money and turns it into more money and is rather well known for doing so. It makes sense to me that there is more money in the financial business than in the shoe business.
Well, just my two cents as a Canadian citizen:
- the major cities have a fair share of high-tech companies and workforce. Finding good talent is hard everywhere, but it should be easier in Canada than in SF - a lot of good people are probably dying of boredom at a financial institution or just finished university and are looking south for interesting jobs, rather than starting their own.
- cost of living is lower than in SF, but in the major cities it's not MUCH lower
- there is a start-up scene, you might just have to look a bit harder
- from what I'm told, investors are more cautious, money doesn't get thrown at you
- health care!
- you don't get to enjoy the perfect temperatures in the Bay Area
- all cities are different. Vancouver != Toronto != Montreal, just like San Francisco != Boston != New York. Do your research.
But can you give an "equal to" map between US and Canada. Like SF=Vancouver. New York=Toronto etc. I will find such a map very useful.
Toronto is the largest, and the financial center, but you can't really draw a parallel to New York, it's a lot slower-paced - San Francisco actually reminded me a lot of downtown Toronto. You can easily find graduates from the top two computer science/computer engineering schools in Canada.
Ottawa had a very active tech industry before the dotcom bust, but not much after. I'm not sure today. Terribly boring city to live in, though.
Montreal would be a good choice for French speakers. There are a number of large video game studios in Montreal, I can't tell you much about start-ups there (beyond, say, http://montrealtechwatch.com/2007/07/22/poll-of-the-week-4-m... ). Culturally, a very strong city, there's always something fun going on.
Vancouver is probably the closest to San Francisco in geography and climate, I didn't know it had a strong start-up scene before I read the article on montrealtechwatch.com. It's relatively small though, not sure how easy it is to find talent (on the other hand, it's close to Seattle).
Calgary and Edmonton are booming and have a lot of oil money floating around, but skilled workers are at a premium.
Canada is welcoming as a direct result of limited demand.
The good news is that US is changing the requirements.
May be in 10 years or maybe not. Thats fast for a government! But I didn't want to wait for 8 years - remember.
I have a potential co-founder just across the border in Vancouver, but I was under the impression that you need a whole heap of money to get in as an entrepreneur. Or would you go in under the skilled worker program (er, programme)?