Vancouver's startup scene has been getting a lot of press as of late:
A Betakit podcast,
A Globe and Mail story on NYC VC firms looking at Vancouver ventures,
A HuffPo story on CommandWear,
Shoes.ca as one of Canada's five startups to watch in 2016,
1QBit's "quantum computers" (you can only do classical computations with them) in BC Business, tech hubs in
Mount Pleasant (Hootsuite funded) and the
DTES, plus the $100 million VC fund. (Christy Clark is willing to spend billion on LNG and mining, but only $150 million on tech? I digress...) I was talking to one of my professors at school today and when I mentioned the BC Tech Fund, she said she heard on the radio that General Fusion (nuclear fusion reactors) has receiving funding through that fund.
I think startups are Vancouver's strength. The startup ecosystem is much more intimate than in Seattle, although it can't beat the Bay. With the loonie remaining low for the foreseeable future (offering incentives to both US firms expanding in Canada as well as US venture capitalists to fund Canadian ventures), a glut of office space downtown, tech hubs popping up all over the place, possible IPOs thanks to the weak loonie, and (finally!) daily YVR-SJC flights, I would say that the startup tech scene in Vancouver is nothing but promising. Especially as rents in SF and Seattle skyrocket (and I could talk at length about the political dysfunction at the local/county/state level in California and Washington that have led to this mess) but rents in Vancouver stay comparatively rock-bottom. Entry-level and new grad positions will increase in salary, definitely. Zenefits has an office here, Tableau Software is hiring, Zillow will soon open an office in Vancouver.
It's the heavy hitters, like Google and Facebook, and attracting senior management, that could be a problem. Vancouver doesn't have the critical mass of tech companies like US tech hubs do. If someone relocates to Vancouver, perhaps with his family, but the startup that recruited him folds, there aren't many blue chip tech companies around for him to go to. The startups are hot, but for blue chips that aren't Amazon or Microsoft, all we have are MDA, EA, CA Technologies (I think), Salesforce, Fortinet, then the union shops (e.g. BC Hydro, TELUS, etc.) However, for executives with families, the overheated residential property market in Vancouver could make relocation expensive. I've even heard that because property values are going up so fast, MNCs can't relocate foreign talent and as such can't commit to the amount of office space they bought, leading to 10% vacancies (an 11 year low).
Justin Trudeau and the Liberals promised to do something about Vancouver's real estate market. From remarks he made
two weeks ago, I'm not so sure. Sky-high property values indirectly hamper industry and commerce. The weird thing is, some LPC MPs in Metro have pointed out that high property prices make it difficult to attract workers.
LeftCoaster if you want to prove me wrong, I'm all ears. I admit this isn't my area of expertise.