3 reasons why I loved moving to Canada and my guess why it's beating the Bay Area in high tech jobs creation

The secret is finally out. I am not sure if I should be happy for Canada or afraid that my best kept secret, my new home, is now attracting the eyes of the whole world.

Canada's tech scene is on fire, job, startups and capital are flowing towards the rest of the country according to Pitchbook data. Toronto alone created 28,900 new tech jobs in 2017, more than the number of industry jobs created in San Francisco, Seattle and Washington D.C. combined, according to a study from CBRE. As an entrepreneur who moved from San Francisco a decade ago, and started my own startup in Canada's capital (shameless hint we're hiring and sponsoring visas) 3 years ago, I have witnessed the growth and strength of the ecosystems.

This article is not a result of extensive research but my personal observation during my process to arrive, discover and establish myself more or less successfully in Canada. Let's get started:

1. The winter is actually a great thing. How can we not talk about the Canadian winters? I know, everyone starts thinking that Canadians live in igloos fighting polar bears in the morning but that couldn't be further away from reality. In fact, it's probably one of the best season full of outdoor activities. People even kite surf in the fields and I have come to enjoy it more than at sea (rather have white snow than white sharks).

Personally, I enjoyed the view from my old 5 bedrooms 4 bathroom house bordering a national park bought for less than USD 350K. You read that right, see how gorgeous in the morning, the area in the back is a bike path that took me to my job in downtown in less than 20min. Also, when it's super cold outside, usually that means you have more incentive to stay together in the office with your coworkers long hours or hang out after on one of the many cool pubs for drinks, which leads me to the #2.

2. The Canadian attitude. While the winter is cold, it has shaped some of the warmest, most amazing traits of character in its people that have been key in starting my own startup. Resiliency, humility, and helping each other. The most emblematic Canadian Hero that reflected this is the story of Terry Fox you need to hear this out.

A kid basketball player that gets diagnosed with a disease requiring to get amputated and instead of being down, decides to run to raise awareness for 3,339 miles before cancer took his life. He started without making a big fuzz to run from one of the coasts with the goal to raise $24M, one dollar from each Canadian as he used to say. To date, over $750M CAD has been raised to his name. Talk about perseverance and strength of character.

I have to say that sometimes I struggled with humble side and the Canadian "tall poppy syndrome", as an extra extrovert, loud speaking, laughing all the time, French born Brazilian (hey, double the chances to win the soccer World Cup). The other thing is that they are super pragmatic, after going through successfully an H1-B in the Bay Area which seemed like torture at times, their immigration process was upfront in plain English and simple. They literally show you a simple form with questions that you can understand without a lawyer to evaluate if you can get in or not. And online. In 2008 this was totally at the opposite of the US immigration process. Oh and they don't mess around with feedback, one of my toughest and most reliable co-founder one day tired of me blasting out proudly about something we had achieved taught me an iconic movie line from Robert de Niro and asked me to get back to work. I find this is something that is not talked about enough, this are a unique combination of traits that is very useful in business and translates across the whole society... Which is really key to the last but not the least factor.

3. A supportive, business-friendly society and government. I must admit this one took me absolutely by surprise. Having been brainwashed that the US is the greatest place on earth for business and that France is the most supportive government with generous social packages and tax reduction for business creation, I didn't think one country could beat both twice. But it is. Let me put it in simple investor calculations. $1 USD invested in the Canadian ecosystem creates $2 USD of value before any sales happened in the company due to the currency devaluation and government grants for high tech. This has been maybe a key reason why companies Amazon has offices both in Toronto and Ottawa.

Whether it's conservative governments or liberals, they are always business-friendly. How many countries have their leaders literally regularly walking by the incubators and local economic agencies of each city to show support? How often? Often enough that Justin Trudeau was shaking the hands of my partner and me wishing us to "make Canada proud". How cool is that?

In addition, Canadians want others to succeed. Unlike some of the jealousy towards success in Europe, they have a far more American attitude to business: good business creates income for families. So what are you waiting for?

See www.mindbridge.ai/careers for our latest jobs openings and www.workinottawa.ca for close to 200 jobs openings in Canada's capital!