I would guess Vancouver or London.
* The tax breaks for software/web/tech-type startups is huge, not only the federal SR&ED tax for tech & biotech research startups, but KPMG also rated Vancouver #1 for "tax competitiveness" because of all the breaks the city (and province) provides to businesses, particularly startups.
* The mix of Hollywood, Video Games, and little tech businesses gives the tech atmosphere a really eclectic mix to draw strengths and pluck skilled people. The energy is "west coast" paced (meaning fairly swift but casual).
* Along with the "young" startuppy atmosphere and skillset is the commensurate payscale. It's cheaper than other cities and provinces to hire people, especially programmers. From everything I've read so far about the city, I think starting out is around 45k, then sr. positions is 60, and tops right out at around 70k for level IV guru coders. So, it's definitely not the Valley in terms of developer salaries.
* The climate is 7 months of never seeing the sun ever + 5 months of the most gorgeous weather you'll ever see. That gives you a space of 7 months to hunker down and _seriously_ work on your startup and hacking and 5 months to play as if you're a kid outside in the forest, mountains, AND ocean. It's a one-of-a-kind place for outdoor recreation, unmatchable really.
* The cultural mix is one I've never experienced before. The racial breakdown is ~50% Caucasian, 30% Chinese, then a 20% mix of mostly South Asian (Indian, Indonesian, Pakistani, etc.), Filipino, SE Asian (Vietnamese mostly), African, and Caribbean.
* You will _never_ blank on exotic cuisine restaurants, and most of them are inexpensive (well, aside from 12% "harmonized" sales tax that was recently implemented). In fact, Vancouver was named by Conde Nast Traveler magazine as having the greatest Chinese food in the world (yes, better than China and Hong Kong). And, it seems every immigrant to the city has opened up a restaurant to hawk their native cuisine.
Hey, I vividly remember going outside on the day after Christmas in a short-sleeve shirt and sunglasses. Like many West Coast locations, the weather can be very random. Although it's dominated by drizzle and mist most of the year.
> The energy is "west coast" paced (meaning fairly swift but casual).
Have to disagree with you there. If you're from the east coast or the Bay Area you are going to feel like you're wading in molasses. People from Vancouver usually don't have that sense of urgency, perhaps because the lifestyle is so good. The startups I know that had real ass-kickers on staff tended to import them. ;) I'm not saying you couldn't build a team that moved quickly, but you'll have to spend time inculcating that as a value.
You're absolutely right about the weather, though I consider the winter to be playtime as well. At least when the slopes are open.
Vancouver is on the shortlist and will get further investigation.
The corollary is that the great programmers in Vancouver all move to the USA so that they can get paid effectively double what they would make in Vancouver. If you're good, it's also very easy on a TN-1. (I've worked with a couple dozen programmers from BC (Vancouver, Victoria) throughout my career)
(Currently I work remotely for a US company because I haven't found a decent job opportunity here)
Is Vancouver really second best? Vancouver feels like it's got one twentieth the hacker/startup scene that the Bay Area has. If that's second best I'm not sure what third best would be. Or is that just a testament to how much of an outlier the Bay Area is?
Edit: Actually, now that I think about it, while there are home-grown VCs, a lot of investors were from the West Coast of the USA. So in a sense Vancouver, for startups, is just a really distant suburb of the Bay Area that has more liberal immigration and visa policies. And snowboarding.
If you care for frequent flights to US/Asia, but don't mind the language barrier, Amsterdam or Berlin would be good choices as well. (Living cost in Berlin is relatively cheap yet it's attractive enough to live in for people - Amsterdam is expensive but small enough to commute if you want to live someplace cheaper).
Amsterdam would be a very nice choice in many ways, and living in the country to save on costs would be a reasonable compromise.
Their residency permit requirements are reasonable as well.
I didn't think of Berlin as being cheap. Will have to look into that. Berlin is very appealing for a number of reasons as well.
Berlin is cheap, but hiring people is expensive, but there are loads of start ups there. German Tax laws account for 2/3rd of all tax laws in the world. Somewhere there are tax incentives for R&D investment.
For corporate structure you should look at using a Irish company, as this is far simpler than starting a company in the Netherlands or Germany.
That said, it's a lot easier to maintain an exercise routine in Vancouver.
There are other factors at play: you can bike regularly because it's much more prevalent and safer in Vancouver. In Toronto, you need to have a car or at least a TTC pass ($121.00 vs $81 in Vancouver, $70 in Montreal).