I'm a Canadian in the US. I'm exploring moving back to Canada . Specifically, I'm looking at the Toronto area. I'm not impressed by all the process around incubators and raising small amounts of funds. It is a bit discouraging.
1) The govt seems to be putting money into encouraging startups, which is great. The way they are doing it seems to be broken. The programs all require gatekeepers with silly processes (e.g. applying months before, talking about IP protection from the get go[this makes me think lawyers run the show]).
2) The govt programs mostly have lots of strings attached to how you can use the money.
3) Some accelerators charge people for "program delivery". WTF!
4) I make over 6 figures in the US. Toronto jobs seem to be paying around half my salary (60-70K). So if I screw up, I don't want my fallback option to be move back to the states.
Here's an idea: any student who finishes a PhD or Masters from a Canadian school .. invest 30-50K in their company. Ask them for matching funds. Stipulate you can only use the funds for hiring employees.
Anyways ... sorry for the random rant. I'm just really frustrated. I guess this is good training for when I'm in the trough of sorrow :-p
It amazes me how much time startups in Canada devote to getting grants. But, when you lack private investors like SV, and the government is a willing partner (with lots of strings attached), this is what happens.
Comments
I'm a Canadian in the US. I'm exploring moving back to Canada . Specifically, I'm looking at the Toronto area. I'm not impressed by all the process around incubators and raising small amounts of funds. It is a bit discouraging.
1) The govt seems to be putting money into encouraging startups, which is great. The way they are doing it seems to be broken. The programs all require gatekeepers with silly processes (e.g. applying months before, talking about IP protection from the get go[this makes me think lawyers run the show]).
2) The govt programs mostly have lots of strings attached to how you can use the money.
3) Some accelerators charge people for "program delivery". WTF!
4) I make over 6 figures in the US. Toronto jobs seem to be paying around half my salary (60-70K). So if I screw up, I don't want my fallback option to be move back to the states.
Here's an idea: any student who finishes a PhD or Masters from a Canadian school .. invest 30-50K in their company. Ask them for matching funds. Stipulate you can only use the funds for hiring employees.
Anyways ... sorry for the random rant. I'm just really frustrated. I guess this is good training for when I'm in the trough of sorrow :-p
No, I agree with you quite a lot.
It amazes me how much time startups in Canada devote to getting grants. But, when you lack private investors like SV, and the government is a willing partner (with lots of strings attached), this is what happens.