I am a UofA graduate. Back when oilpatch was throwing big money at companies, me and my manager identified a solid start-up opportunity. I contacted two UofA comp sci guys, and they were not willing to come onboard because they were going to US. Right out of the gate, we could afford five six figure salaries, but we had to abide by some restrictions. I tried a lot to build that startup, but we just could not. As the comment above mentioned, get to them before Google, MS or Intel does; and cultivate a relationship.