Canada Creates New Class of Visa to Attract Tech Entrepreneurs | Hacker News Reader

Canada Creates New Class of Visa to Attract Tech Entrepreneurs

techvibes.com

52 pointstechvibes19 comments

Or maybe you could just... open a company in the US (or Canada), release your product. If you need funds, don't have enough and can't get it from people you already know, maybe it's time to reevaluate your model. Sorry, you will never get funded by any investment funds. And I don't understand what those investors expect they will find overseas. It's just a lot more of the same.

But my point is:

I don't understand why people are so obsessed about being in the US/CAN all time. Really, if you want to go there you can get a US B1 (business) visa, that does not requires much. I have a LLC in the US and I'm there every few months. But maybe that is not what we want, am I right? Maybe we want to live the life techcrunch is selling us. We tend to be pathetic sometimes.

Believe me, being there personally and trying to talk to those guys will just make you realize how insignificant we all are to them - no matter how cool you are on twitter, no matter how cool you product is. It will drain the very energy you need to succeed.

http://paulgraham.com/hubs.html

Location matters, that's why people want to be in the US/Canada.

Valid, but see:

"... I said something to a partner at a well known VC firm that gave him the (mistaken) impression I was considering starting another startup. He responded so eagerly that for about half a second I found myself considering doing it."

Those startups get founded, not yours, not mine. We do not have that kind of access. I never talked to a VC partner in my life and I couldn't if I wanted. They are just these mythical creatures you always hear about but never get to see. Maybe accelerators are a way of doing it right, but they do not mean a whole lot, those startups are special cases.

Startups that get funded are startups that have a high potential to make money, period. Be building the next Facebook, and nobody cares how old you are, or where you're from.

Connections are nice, but at the end of the day VCs don't invest money to lose it. This visa isn't for early stage entrepreneurs who are shooting in the dark. VC funding usually happens at a stage where risk is much more marginalized.

A war is coming :)

"There are never enough brains in a country," Version One Ventures founder Boris Wertz is quoted as saying. "Every country's going to compete for the best brains in the world."

Is this going to be a relative downgrade like the TN visa was compared to the old TC visa was for Canadians in the USA? I wasn't of working age when that happened, but from my brief reading, it sounds like it was.

Interesting that there is a link back to the HN thread from the post - I've seen it happen a lot on personal blogs, but this is the first time I've seen it done by a company.

This is great news for me. I am already moving there on international experience Canada program and wanted to work on my ideas and since Canada have similar market as us, I could test my idea if it holds and take it to next level. Location really matters, if you are living in small country with small population speaking unique language and the general population is conservative consumer then you will see why location matters.

Giving VC firms the power to dictate visa eligibility creates perverse incentives in the fundraising cycle. If you want to say if you raise $x from accredited investors you can get visa for one or more founders that's one thing...

As a side question what's VC success rate with entrepreneurs-in-residence?

This is great news. Of course the details will matter e.g. how will the investors choose the startups (and thus the founders). It has being a journey to get here though looking at http://startupvisa.ca/blog

Flip, I need to get into Canada. Unlike mylittlepony, I do have a family and want the best for them. From October, serious thinking to be done.

From an Australian perspective the E3 visa is probably still more attractive for getting a track record first.

They're not directly comparable, but still.

Awesome.

nice

If only there was a visa for IT experts, who speak english and french fluently, but don't have a degree/wife/999 years of comprobable work, mostly due to local problems (like hyperinflation, which makes working pointless)...

Whatever, I'm now moving to one of the most beautiful places on Earth. I will probably have to make a living with a crappy php job, but I won't care.

Canada offers a 2 year work visa which is quite easy to obtain. I've been living in Canada for s year now (from Australia)

Yes but it's not available anymore (it was 1 year when I read about it, though I wouldn't complain about that). And I don't want to be negative, but it's not the same to do that from a developed country like Australia. I'm from Argentina, and from what I see on TV, tourists, and the Internet, most people think only monkeys live here. Next time I send an application I will try not mentioning it (I will only say that I want to move to Canada or something) and see what happens.

Australia was on my list too, but I'm scared of all the crazy animals/insects that can kill me in my sleep. Canada is too cold, but still I wanna give it a try. Just curious: did you get a job before moving?

Canada is great and not too cold at all :). I moved to Canada with the intention of working here. Instead I worked on my startup full time for a year.

It was silly of me to assume that work visa is available for everybody. I think the visa I am on is a special one for Australians. It was pretty easy to get and lets me work in Canada in any profession for 2 years. I can understand your frustration though.

Australian is an awesome place but if you have your own startup (or are thinking of going down that path) then Canada is the way to go. It is close to the US so you can travel there quite easily if you need to.

Okay, thanks for sharing your experience. =)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com