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Comment by pkkkzip | Hacker News Reader

hmmm another "unicorn" from vancouver that bites the dust, i remember one with an owl as mascot logo can't recall what they did or their names but many ppl from vancouver mentioned it while ago.

I wonder why that place can't compete with American cities, i think even Toronto /Montreal is more successful than Vancouver.

for one the low salary must be demoralizing on top of being one of the most expensive cities in the world.

have there been notable canadian startup unicorn that turned IPO or major acquisition (100x ROI and up?) other than Shopify?

seems like nobody can really compete with America when it comes to creating IPOs and billionaires.

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US companies pay more and obviosuly it’s a bigger market. It means the pool of good engineers and leaders is constantly leaking across the border. I’ve made Vancouver work for me for 20 years but there are significant headwinds and for young people with no ties there is very little incentive to stay. There is a lot more happening on the East coast though.

> seems like nobody can really compete with America when it comes to creating IPOs and billionaires.

This is another way of saying American tech VCs throw a lot of money around, often into poor investments, in the hope of cornering the market on $nextBigThing. In a world where any Tom, Dick and Harry can run up massive losses and still IPO through an SPAC, how is that an indicator of anything good?

>In a world where any Tom, Dick and Harry can run up massive losses and still IPO through an SPAC, how is that an indicator of anything good?

Anyone can IPO, but few earn money doing it. In the last 10 years, how many owners made any significant money IPO-ing through an SPAC? The market has mostly rewarded good businesses with cash flow and profits and growth, and others have lagged behind a relatively risk-less SP500 investment.

This very thread is an example of yet another business shutting down because the business couldn’t achieve the desired profit margins. If the owners could have IPO’d and made money, they would have.

> Anyone can IPO, but few earn money doing it. In the last 10 years, how many owners made any significant money IPO-ing through an SPAC?

If owners are holding stock (instead of say, options), then the only reason to IPO would be if they can sell the stock on the secondary market at a profit. They wouldn't need to IPO to raise capital, the VCs can offer that. So what would be event where such a SPAC IPO wouldn't make money for the founder?

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