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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.

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

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.

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