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Comment by derefr | Hacker News Reader

Here's a question for the thread: I'm a Canadian citizen, and still in university (two years to go.) Which means that, as far as I'm aware in how US immigration works, I can't just bound on down to SV and start a company right this moment, no matter how hot the market is. So--should I be planning my next five years around chasing this thing, or will it pop before I get there? ;)

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Don't base your plans on the funding market. Good startups can raise money in bad times (Airbnb raised its first round at the low point of the stock market in 2009) and bad startups can't raise money even in good times. So start a good company when you're ready to, and treat fundraising as a matter of secondary importance.

"Good startups can raise money in bad times (Airbnb raised its first round at the low point of the stock market in 2009) and bad startups can't raise money even in good times."

There is a wide area in between "good" and "bad". And those startups would no question have an easier time in a frothy market and a harder pitch in bad times.

This isn't an observation on how startups get funded. It is an observation based on years of selling things to people and the ease of doing so when things are on the way up as opposed to the way down.

(As an example, right now, domain name valuations are up and I"m closing as many deals (on behalf of clients and others) that I can knowing it can change.)

You're allowed to start a company in Canada, you know. ;-)

You did bootstrap Tarsnap, though, yes? Would you have considered the same Canadian-corporation route if your idea had required investment funding to get off the ground?

Yes, Tarsnap is bootstrapped. Yes, I would have considered staying in Vancouver even if I needed to take funding; obviously I can't offer a subjunctive forecast for how that would have gone, but I've had no shortage of angel investors and seed-round VCs emailing to ask if I'm looking for funding.

Can you tell us if it's easier to find employees in Canada (particularly Toronto and Vancouver) vs the bay area?

I'm also curious to know if a startup's burn rate would be lower in Canada than in the bay area.

I've never hired anyone, so I can't offer much insight here. It sounds like Canada has less immigration issues than the US, but I imagine most startups aren't going to be paying for employees to relocate internationally so that's probably a moot point.

Here in Vancouver it's not very easy to find talent these days, but I think that it's easier to retain talent.

Compared to SV your burn rate could be lower because salaries are lower and you can get significant government funding (sometimes you get back most of the salary paid to some employees, see SR&ED and IRAP).

When it comes to the ecosystem, especially mentors and angels / VCs, SV wins big time.

Do you have experience with IRAP? I've been aware of it from my student days but now I'm looking at it from the opposite side -- I'd love to hear from someone in our industry who has hired via IRAP.

Yep I'm happy to discuss, email me: motti {at} wincode dot net

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