As one of those "early tech exit" Canadian entrepreneurs, this article really hits home for me. When I first started out I talked to several successful entrepreneurs who were living in Vancouver at the time and got some rather interesting advice. Paraphrasing: Move to the valley. There are too many reasons to be there. Don't be a patriot - and don't be a martyr.
Lack of critical mass in any of these "tech hubs", overall aversion to risk, lower paying jobs, and ease of moving to the valley are all cards stacked against you before you even start.
Many smart people realize that and they leave - critical mass is incredibly difficult to achieve when you're still bleeding all that talent. This is why having anchor tenants - large companies that draw talent in is so important. We can just never seem to have more than one at at time, and then they're mis-managed into oblivion.
Why skip over Seattle, which is much closer to Vancouver than the bay, and has a pretty thriving tech scene (both startups and big players like Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft)?
On the other hand I do not see anything wrong with our Canadian talent drain. Canadian software engineers are not for want of jobs, I imagine we have the easiest time moving to the states of any nationality. Many of us are in the same time zone!
If it is not for lack of opportunities then why does Canada 'need' a tech sector? I think the truth is we want a tech sector.
Just because we want something does not mean we know how to manage it. Chances are we'd mismanage it. Take our submarine fleet. Up until a few years ago about half of our submarines were stationed in Edmonton, a land locked city. Then we bought used British ones that managed to catch on fire, in the middle of the ocean.
I've got the same advice from at least two Vancouver VCs. I also worked for a company that was forced by their VC to open second (and completely useless) office in Seattle, because the "presence in the US" was said to be essential.
Lack of critical mass in any of these "tech hubs", overall aversion to risk, lower paying jobs, and ease of moving to the valley are all cards stacked against you before you even start.
Many smart people realize that and they leave - critical mass is incredibly difficult to achieve when you're still bleeding all that talent. This is why having anchor tenants - large companies that draw talent in is so important. We can just never seem to have more than one at at time, and then they're mis-managed into oblivion.