As a Canadian, I'm actually a little appalled by this. Toronto and Vancouver are hotbeds for gaming, are fast becoming thriving startup communities, and need smart, motivated entrepreneurs more than ever... why can't Mr. Wong stick around and do some good for his country if he has already secured funding?
cal5k, Investors who invest money in your startup don't want to travel 3 hours (to Vancouver) 8-12 hours (to toronto) to manage their investment.
That is one important factor that makes startups in Toronto and Vancouver very unattractive. Most Silicon Valley investor invest money in your startup based on the fact that you are going to be within an hour distance away. It is easier for them to manage, especially when they have multiple investments. And that is why Brian can't easily just take the funding and move to Vancouver or Toronto and set up shop.
And I haven't even started talking about the difference between Canada - SFO/Mountain View with regards to talent pool and networking.
The point is, in general and this applies to 'most' companies (although not all), if you want your startup to be successful, you move to Silicon Valley. The difference is absolutely unbelievable.
This also says a lot about the Canadian VC industry - it's small and risk-averse. It's a real problem and one that I'm in the early stages of trying to tackle. I'm a big believer that Canada can become a hotbed of tech innovation and startups. With that said, we're nowhere near there yet.
Also, there are plenty of VCs much closer to Toronto - New York, for example. Toronto is starting to become an attractive place to invest for New York-based VCs.
We have some excellent talent in Canada, and some really great government programs around research & innovation.
And you don't "have" to move to Silicon Valley. It's a cool place and it certainly has the right conditions for success, but it sort of fucks our country when all of our most ambitious entrepreneurs feel like they need to go to Silicon Valley to succeed. That's just not true, and I'd like to see more entrepreneurs thinking bigger right here at home.
