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Comment by pg | Hacker News Reader

Canadian cities have the same problem most cities in the US have: lack of angels.

That's part of the story. There are also no "anchor" companies. The massive companies that go for a big sale in the Tech Industry are very rare in these Canadian Cities.

There is money, but there are relatively little opportunities for companies to source these funds.

I suppose but I mean... I feel like Canada is a near perfect location for the start up.... furthermore, it's not as if Anchor companies are far away (like the US for example).

As a Canadian now in the US... I really wish that Canada would step its game up and get a group of angels together or a proper incubator program. My family friends have started a pseudo incubator at http://www.thenext36.ca/

I don't think an incubator program would be enough. There's something to be said to living in close proximity to hundreds of different angel groups and investors, which is why most of the successful start ups come out of Silicon Valley and why SV is the best place to be. There are start ups that can become successful despite the distance from SV, but it's just going to be another hurtle to overcome in a fragile start up's early life.

There are notable exceptions though, GroupOn from Chicago, and for a Canadian example - Shopify from Ottawa, Ontario.

Canadian cities have the same problem most cities in the US have: lack of angels.

I agree, but how do you account for it? Why do these places lack angels?

Angels (mostly) come from startups. Each really successful startup yields a new batch of them. So by default a city's status as startup hub, or not, is self-perpetuating.

New York may be somewhat of an exception. There may be enough investors in NYC who are comfortable with risk that they're willing to invest in startups even though they don't come from the startup world themselves.

New York is also an attractive enough city that there may be a decent amount of successful startup founders moving there out of preference for the city.

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