Excellent idea! You might even add something to the effect of Tech Announcements into the heading. 
kay:
kay:
Toronto - Waterloo Tech Corridor
We've seen a steady stream of significant tech announcements over the last few years. The latest was the winning bid by Google's Sidewalk Labs to develop a smart city from the ground up in Quayside.
Rather than create a new thread every time perhaps we could put them all in one thread. If people agree we could merge the Sidewalk Toronto thread and Amazon HQ2 bid thread into this one. I'll start this one off with a new initiative to partner the Toronto region with New York in tech. The idea is to build a credible rival to Silicon Valley but one that's tailored to our strengths.
Link: https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/20...new-york-to-talk-tech-with-startup-execs.html
Rather than create a new thread every time perhaps we could put them all in one thread. If people agree we could merge the Sidewalk Toronto thread and Amazon HQ2 bid thread into this one. I'll start this one off with a new initiative to partner the Toronto region with New York in tech. The idea is to build a credible rival to Silicon Valley but one that's tailored to our strengths.
Tory heads to New York to talk tech with startup execs
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Silicon Valley comes to mind when most people think about tech companies, but a group of East Coast startups in Toronto and New York City is trying to change that.
Mayor John Tory is on board with the mission to create an “East Coast alliance” between the two cities, and will visit New York City on Tuesday to meet with startup executives at Grand Central Tech, an innovation hub in the Big Apple, in collaboration with Toronto’s MaRS Discovery District.
“With Toronto being the banking capital of Canada and New York being the banking capital of the U.S., there’s a huge opportunity for us in the fintech space. I’m not a big believer in ‘we want to be the Silicon Valley of the North,’ he said. It’s really about leveraging our own strengths and building our own tech community."
With Ontario’s low corporate tax rate, a diverse population and less hostility to immigration than the United States, Toronto presents a compelling opportunity to American tech companies. Simpson said universities with top tech talent also make Toronto appealing to American tech firms. “Mark Zuckerberg is on the record saying that Facebook wouldn’t be what it is without graduates from (the University of Waterloo),” he said.
Link: https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/20...new-york-to-talk-tech-with-startup-execs.html
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Courtesy of the Globe & Mail
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/rep...and-relationship-with-canada/article37020456/
Awesome news!! I edited one in, but don't forget to provide a direct link to the article, please!
As far as I know, just provide the URL to the page where you found it... we should always give a source link on articles!
Profile on Waterloo
Canada's Top 10 Tech Cities
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https://techvibes.com/2017/11/23/ki...anadas-fastest-growing-market-for-tech-talent
https://techvibes.com/2017/11/23/ki...anadas-fastest-growing-market-for-tech-talent
Canada's weakness has never been innovation, it's been lack of capital and the ability to scale companies into global players. For over a century the pattern has been for our best companies/people to re-locate to the US or simply to sell the best companies, technology, or new ideas to American firms.
Canada had a firm (ATI) that was an equal to Nvidia but it was taken out by AMD. Avigilon was just taken out by Motorola. University of Toronto AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton now works for Google. 77% of Canadian tech startups are planning an exit strategy which basically means to sell to a US company when they reach a certain stage. It's a familiar and depressing pattern.
The cycle has enriched share holders but done nothing to build large Canadian companies. We may have great schools, produce quality talent, and lots of great start ups but we end up at square one each time and have to start all over again. Finally this last cog, the most important one, is getting filled. Late stage financing to scale up.
https://www.cantechletter.com/2018/...k-pichette-has-high-praise-for-canadian-tech/
Canada had a firm (ATI) that was an equal to Nvidia but it was taken out by AMD. Avigilon was just taken out by Motorola. University of Toronto AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton now works for Google. 77% of Canadian tech startups are planning an exit strategy which basically means to sell to a US company when they reach a certain stage. It's a familiar and depressing pattern.
The cycle has enriched share holders but done nothing to build large Canadian companies. We may have great schools, produce quality talent, and lots of great start ups but we end up at square one each time and have to start all over again. Finally this last cog, the most important one, is getting filled. Late stage financing to scale up.
Former Google CFO Patrick Pichette has high praise for Canadian tech
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Former Google CFO Patrick Pichette says his new role as general partner in the Montreal-based venture capital firm iNovia Capital is all about Canada’s huge potential in the high tech space, where decades of investment in the field of artificial intelligence is now starting to bear fruit. VC firm iNovia, which also made recent news by hiring another former CFO, Dennis Kavelman, formerly of BlackBerry, aims to lead larger funding rounds for Canadian startups looking to scale up through the injection of growth capital, often in the tens and hundreds of millions of dollars.
“At Google, we took out so many companies from Canada because, the minute they finished raising their [early-stage financings], they looked really good, and … the minute you have a win, an American company comes and takes them out,” says Pichette to the Globe and Mail. “iNovia did not have the capacity to [lead larger financings]. Now it will with us. That’s going to make a fundamental difference to the ecosystem of Canada.”
Companies in iNovia’s portfolio include Lightspeed POS, Clearpath Robotics, AppDirect and Top Hat.
https://www.cantechletter.com/2018/...k-pichette-has-high-praise-for-canadian-tech/
Great news!
Speaking of them, my condolences to the victims, their families and the citizens of Toronto.
Please do not let hate prevail, these attacks must be stopped and prevented by the government.
Speaking of them, my condolences to the victims, their families and the citizens of Toronto.
Please do not let hate prevail, these attacks must be stopped and prevented by the government.
It is a very sad day..
New logo for 'The Corridor'.
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so this is the corridor?![]()
I'm extremely disappointed, I don't think that tech companies should be so far away from the city, forcing employees to go there by car or be very far from the city centre.
In SF this was forced due to the landscape of the bay area but in Toronto there is no point in that.
I'm used to work in the city, walking to the office or taking public transportation for few stops and also be able to easily go to relax or have fun downtown after work.
I suppose most skilled people that may want to relocate to Toronto to work would want the same.
It wasn't designed to be 112km apart. Waterloo is home to the University of Waterloo, the Perimeter Institute, the Institute for Quantum Computing, and the highest concentration of start ups in the country. UW is a highly regarded school in Silicon Valley and they recruit heavily from there. Waterloo is home to Blackberry, Kik, Open Text, Vidyard, and lots of very smart people. It's achilles' heel has been that it's a small city with a small airport and a small financial services sector. In many ways it was our San Jose (Silicon Valley). They have the same problem.
Toronto has a huge talent pool, the University of Toronto, MaRS, Freshbooks, wealthsimple, Wattpad, operations for big US tech firms, a big international airport, is a global financial centre, and offers the urban delights of a big metropolis. One can't just move a tech eco-system from one city to another nor would a city want to abandon what took decades to build. It became clear early on that Toronto and Waterloo were stronger working together. A similar thing occurred between Silicon Valley and San Francisco, London and Cambridge, Tel Aviv and Haifa.
For those that wanted big city life they could base their startup close to big finance companies/capital in Toronto. For those that wanted to tap the rich concentration of talent in Waterloo they could base their start up there. The big problem, which you alluded to, is how do you integrate the 2 into a cohesive region.
We still don't have HSR but that's in the works: Toronto - Waterloo - London. An airport shuttle is getting off the ground that will fly people from Waterloo to Billy Bishop in about 25 minutes. Finally, GO is investing billions to make the Toronto - Waterloo line all day, every day, and frequent.
The Corridor isn't about having to commute every day from one end to the other. It's branding that describes the high concentration of top schools, top talent, VCs, mentors, startups, etc. to be found in it. Together they have all the pieces of the puzzle. Apart they didn't.
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