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  #241  
Old Posted Jun 14, 2017, 1:16 AM
Alpine Alpine is offline
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Some headlines from the past few months:

WeWork leased seven floors (80,000sf) in Bentall III in March

http://vancouversun.com/business/loc...ncers-to-share

WeWork gets lambasted as a daycare for trustafarian "entrepeneurs" (or those with more VC money than sense), but Pinterest Seattle opened in the SLU WeWork office so who knows. Pinterest Vancouver?!

Pricing is already on WeWork's site (and they're nice enough to quote in CAD):
  • "Hot Desk" (workspace in a common area, ShareDesk has a similar product: $450pp/mo
  • Dedicated desk: $600pp/mo
  • Private office: From $860/mo (1-seat) to $19,650/mo (50 seats)

One thing that confuses me is, is it five floors or seven floors? The media releases say seven, WeWork's site says five. And has it been revealed yet which particular floors have been leased?

Google buys AppBridge (also in March)

https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/09/go...loud-services/

http://www.newventuresbc.com/2017/03...tion-services/

This marks Alphabet's first permanent presence in Metro Vancouver. AppBridge is in the Flack Block building (163 West Hastings).

Expa Labs opens first Canadian office in Vancouver

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/repo...ticle34106554/

Expa Labs is the startup accelerator by Garrett Camp (founder of Uber). It has a US$100M bankroll from investors like Richard Branson and the author of The 4-Hour Workweek, Timothy Ferriss. Job postings have already popped up on angel.co and the posted salaries are higher than at most Vancouver startups on the site (except for maybe A Thinking Ape). Startups in the Expa batches do not have to be based in Vancouver, they can be based anywhere in Canada.

I think Expa Labs chose Vancouver as its first office outside the United States, rather than Waterloo or Montreal, because one of the executives is a local. Milun Tesovic is a partner at Expa, he's a Beedie grad (getting his BBA in 2008) who founded MetroLyrics.com when he was just 15. It was bought by CBS in 2011, netting him a nominal payday. He was named the Student Entrepeneur of the Year in the Faculty of Business Administration (now Beedie School of Business) in 2008 and made the BC Business 30 under 30 list in 2014.

Try as I might, I was unable to find the address of Expa's Vancouver offices. I couldn't even find Expa the CoV's open data catalogue (they have a list of business licenses). I did find one address, 375 Water Street (The Profile co-working space), it was in the Industry Canada registry (of federally incorporated companies under the Canada Corporations Act). I'm guessing that might be Expa's address because Milun's name shows up on the federal registry, but I'm not 100% sure.

This is the fourth global startup that I know of with a BC connection; three of the four are connected to SFU's School of Computing Science.
  • Mobify: Founded by Igor Faletski (BSc 2007) and John Boxall (BSc 2007)
  • BuddyBuild: Founded by Dennis Pilarinos (BSc 2002); was an AWS manager before raising a US$7.6M series A round from KPCB, which didn't not moving HQ to SV
  • Slack: Founded by Stewart Butterfield (BA in Philosophy from UVic in 1996 before getting his PhD at Stanford)
  • And now Expa Labs: Milun Tesovic (BBA '08)

I wonder why I don't hear more UBC grads being attached to world dominating startups, like SFU grads are.

Other headlines:

Quote:
Originally Posted by LeftCoaster View Post
Word is Google is touring the market looking for a decent chunk of space for a Vancouver office...
Are you confident that your source was reliable? Because I was under the impression that Alphabet was passing on opening a standalone engineering office in Vancouver, in favour of expanding their Kitchener, ON office. The new office is 185,000 sf in the redeveloped, now-LEED v4 Silver Breithaupt Block, and was opened by Justin Trudeau last January.

In fact, Sam Sebastian, the Alphabet VP who oversees Google Canada, told the Vancouver Board of Trade not too long ago that there were no plans to expand into Vancouver (the purchase of AppBridge notwithstanding, I guess). And if I were to guess why, I think the lack of affordable 2br/3br housing close to downtown may play a factor. It makes convincing executives to relocate themselves and their families a bit difficult when 2/3-bedroom housing targeted towards families in CoV besides SFHs is almost non-existent. I'm surprised Gregor and Vision have gotten a free pass on their archaic zoning policies (look at how New West/Surrey/Langley have mandated developers offer a certain proportion of 2/3br density), but that's a subject for another time.

Finally, does anyone know when A Thinking Ape moved from 322 Water to 1132 Alberni? Or when Mobify moved from 948 Homer to 725 Granville? There's been a flurry of big office moves in the last few years (AMZN: 555 Robson -> Telus Garden (Aviglion took the vacated space); MSFT: 840 Cambie -> 725 Granville (Animal Logic took the vacated space)).

Quote:
Originally Posted by SpongeG View Post
Global did a report last week or the week before and said Vancouver has the most supercars in North America per capita.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SpongeG View Post
yeah, there were quite a visible amount in the 80's. I remember driving past a party on SW marine drive at one of the big mansions there and it was having some party an dthe cheapest looking car was a porsche. It was all jags, bentleys, rolls, land rovers. It was quite the collection parked outside along the road. They even had a valet at the gate.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LeftCoaster View Post
Typically a Porsche costs more than a Jag or Land Rover. Especially back in the day before they diluted their brand with the Boxer, Cayman and Panamera.
I live in North Burnaby (near Hastings/Duthie) and I think I almost see more F85 X5Ms/F86 X6Ms, Mercedes-AMG G63s/GLE63s, Cayenne GTSs/Cayenne Turbos, Nissan GT-Rs, Jaguar F-Types and supercharged Range Rovers around here than I do Hondas or Toyotas. There's a stupidly large amount of baller Chinese here (the baller Koreans are to the east, in Burquitlam).

Last edited by Alpine; Jun 14, 2017 at 1:30 AM.
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  #242  
Old Posted Jun 14, 2017, 2:42 AM
cornholio cornholio is offline
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Canada just put the nail in the coffin of its tech industry ensuring it remains just a cheap labor / low talent outsourcing country.

http://globalnews.ca/news/3520010/st...le-as-2-weeks/

Don't say I didn't warn you. Incredible they are doing this to the country and especially to talented Canadian workers who are forced to relocate out of the country because of such destructive policies. Any company who needs someone specialized from elsewhere in the world can get them in a matter of hours and have them working right away remotely. This is about cheap labor and cheap outsourcing, not about building anything.
Quote:
Global Talent Occupations List for Category B of the Global Talent Stream
For Category B of the Global Talent Stream, employers must hire highly-skilled foreign workers to fill positions in occupations found on the following list:

Global Talent occupations list
National Occupations Classification (NOC) code Occupation Minimum wage requirement (annual salary) Minimum wage requirement (hourly rate)
0213 Computer and information systems managers not applicable not applicable
2147 Computer engineers (except software engineers and designers) not applicable not applicable
2171 Information systems analysts and consultants not applicable not applicable
2172 Database analysts and data administrators not applicable not applicable
2173 Software engineers and designers not applicable not applicable
2174 Computer programmers and interactive media developers not applicable not applicable
2175 Web designers and developers not applicable not applicable
2241 Electrical and electronics engineering technologists and technicians $81,000 $38.94
2283 Information systems testing technicians $78,000 $37.50
Sub-set of 5241*
Digital Media and Design

*position requires a minimum of five years of industry experience, and skills requirements including: 3D modeling, virtual and augmented reality; animation, level editing, editor and pipeline software and tools in applicable industry; other specialized knowledge of software framework in applicable industry (for example, Unreal 3.0); and/or, Experience in planning and managing a project.

$80,000 $38.46
Disgusting stuff. And they dont even have any wage guidelines. Well except for two positions where the minimum is not even the minimum for a run of the mill senior developer. Not even half of a senior developers salary 100km south of us in a real global tech hub that will continue be a global tech hub. My word of advice to all you in Canada in this industry, get the fuck out while you can.

Hey but they do say it should a be a position tha tusually pays more then 80k. 80k is pathetic. I can get 80k in eastern Europe by just downgrading to being a run of the mill code monkey. Top talent is 200-300k up, and these people are special. I am not one of them. This country is a joke and the people here continue just take it.

Last edited by cornholio; Jun 14, 2017 at 2:54 AM.
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  #243  
Old Posted Jun 14, 2017, 7:58 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Alpine View Post
One thing that confuses me is, is it five floors or seven floors? The media releases say seven, WeWork's site says five. And has it been revealed yet which particular floors have been leased?
It's five. The beautiful part is it's nearly all gone already and WeWork is already well down the path in leasing their next location.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Alpine View Post


Are you confident that your source was reliable? Because I was under the impression that Alphabet was passing on opening a standalone engineering office in Vancouver, in favour of expanding their Kitchener, ON office. The new office is 185,000 sf in the redeveloped, now-LEED v4 Silver Breithaupt Block, and was opened by Justin Trudeau last January.

In fact, Sam Sebastian, the Alphabet VP who oversees Google Canada, told the Vancouver Board of Trade not too long ago that there were no plans to expand into Vancouver (the purchase of AppBridge notwithstanding, I guess). And if I were to guess why, I think the lack of affordable 2br/3br housing close to downtown may play a factor. It makes convincing executives to relocate themselves and their families a bit difficult when 2/3-bedroom housing targeted towards families in CoV besides SFHs is almost non-existent. I'm surprised Gregor and Vision have gotten a free pass on their archaic zoning policies (look at how New West/Surrey/Langley have mandated developers offer a certain proportion of 2/3br density), but that's a subject for another time.
They were definitely looking, but plans change all the time.

Tableau canceled their Vancouver office at the last minute due to cost of living, so google doing the same is not inconceivable.

As for Kitchener, as you no doubt know 185K for google is like a small closet. They would have no problem expanding in their Kitchener and Toronto offices while opening a Vancouver office as well.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Alpine View Post
Mobify moved from 948 Homer to 725 Granville? There's been a flurry of big office moves in the last few years (AMZN: 555 Robson -> Telus Garden (Aviglion took the vacated space); MSFT: 840 Cambie -> 725 Granville (Animal Logic took the vacated space)).
Mobify moved into 725 several months ago, the deal was announced last year. The space is super cool.

Msft didn't move to 725 Granville, they kept their entire premises at 840 Cambie, 725 was pure expansion. As far as I know the Animal Logic premises is in the old Vision Critical space or something like that.

Last edited by LeftCoaster; Jun 14, 2017 at 8:10 PM.
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  #244  
Old Posted Jul 6, 2017, 3:08 AM
Alpine Alpine is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LeftCoaster View Post
It's five. The beautiful part is it's nearly all gone already and WeWork is already well down the path in leasing their next location.
Where the heck do you get this information. I lurk in the VanDev group's Slack channel and I had no idea WeWork Burrard Station was filled up, nor did I know WeWork is looking for a second Vancouver location. All I know is that the first location is opening sometime in the fall and the tenant list hasn't been made public yet. Are you privy to names of particular companies that will be in the space (you don't have to divulge the names if there are privacy/confidentiality concerns, I just wanted to know if you are familiar with any tenants)?



Quote:
Originally Posted by LeftCoaster View Post
Tableau canceled their Vancouver office at the last minute due to cost of living,
If Tableau pulled out of Vancouver due to CoL concerns, I definitely would of heard about it, because it would have been on Techvibes, BiV, BCBusiness, maybe even the Globe and Mail.

Unless...you're talking about Tableau's initial plans for their presence here. I recall the news reports from 2015, Tableau moved into 885 West Georgia (Hongkong Bank of Canada Building) with the intent of opening a temporary office, while they searched for a more permanent office presence downtown. I see only four positions at the Vancouver office (a few years ago I saw a lot more), so in that case, you'd be right; Tableau has nixed its expansion here, cutting back on its initial plans for Vancouver headcount; and I don't doubt that the dizzying housing costs (especially for 2br/3br housing for executives who want to bring their families) probably played a significant factor.

But even then, I heard nothing about this from Avison Young's reports or something like BCTIA. Where'd you hear it?!


Quote:
Originally Posted by LeftCoaster View Post
Mobify moved into 725 several months ago, the deal was announced last year. The space is super cool.

Msft didn't move to 725 Granville, they kept their entire premises at 840 Cambie, 725 was pure expansion. As far as I know the Animal Logic premises is in the old Vision Critical space or something like that
Thanks for the correction. By the way, I forgot to mention one other high-profile move: A Thinking Ape (YC W08) moved from 322 Water a few years ago to 1132 Alberni, and if the information in the Canada Corporations Act registry is correct, the company has moved again, into Bentall Three. I wasn't able to find any dates, though.

Anyway...I did some digging and after looking through back numbers of Avison Young reports, it became much clearer. I was under the impression that the buildings in Microsoft's Yaletown campus had no other tenants, but it turns out several tech companies have leased space in 840/858.

I think this is an accurate of Microsoft's Vancouver presence:

840 Cambie: Microsoft's Yaletown campus (part of the VDC), which, if I recall, works on the following: Windows, Office, Enterprise Solutions, the Xbox One platform and a few others, all while liaising with Redmond HQ.

858 Beatty: The second building in Microsoft's Yaletown campus, home to AAA gamedev studio The Coalition (they make Gears of War) as well as Microsoft BigPark Studios. I don't know very much about BigPark, but I did meet a BigPark employee at the July 2016 #TechVancouver event. He told me he works on the UFC.tv Xbox One client. Interesting anecdote.

725 Granville: An R&D expansion called the "Excellence Centre". LEED Gold, opened by Justin Trudeau. Anecdotally I've heard MCEC alone has 650 engineers. I'm not sure if MCEC is part of VDC, or if VDC is part of MCEC. Which is which?

So, Vision Critical was at 858 until they moved to 200 Granville, way back in October 2012. It was this vacated space that Animal Logic is currently leasing. Avigilon moved from its original HQ in Bentall One in 2010 to 1038 Hamilton, then moved again to 555 Robson (aka the William Farrell Building, aka BC Tel's old HQ, aka Amazon's old office in Vancouver) in 2016, buying 555 outright for $42M the year before. Avigilon moved into Amazon's old at 555 when they moved into the Telus Garden (510 West Georgia), and so far as I know, their old space at 858 is still empty.

This means, at some time or another, the Yaletown buildings had the following tenants:

840 Cambie: Microsoft VDC,

858 Beatty: The Coalition, Microsoft BigPark, Animal Logic, Aviglion, Vision Critical

You know what would be really interesting? A public record of the various companies that lease space in office buildings. Like, 555 Robson could have (Amazon.com 2011-2015, Avigilon 2015-current), or something like that. I guess I could search up business licenses from CoV open data, and Canada Corporations Act company registrations (since they have HQ addresses), but not a lot of historic data there.

On the subject of MCEC, as many may know, the space was originally going to be L-1 transfers to Redmond and miscellaneous TFWs; top overseas talent recruited by Microsoft that couldn't get into the United States because of immigration laws. But, I'm actually not sure why Microsoft backtracked on its original plan to make it a holding tank for Redmond-bound engineers.

I was aware of the TFW fiasco in 2014-2015, and of the criticism even by the Harper government of companies exploiting the TFW program (which was designed for, like, seasonal workers (fisheries, agriculture) and foreign artists/musicians) to fill jobs where there are plenty of skilled citizens and permanent residents willing to do the work, just because they're not willing to pay competitive enough salaries.

The original documents, which you probably have seen, only promised 6% of MCEC positions would go to Canadian citizens or permanent residents. Of course, these were draft proposals submitted to the B.C. Ministry of Labour and CIC, which were subject to change. Plus, they're dated way back in February-March 2014, a few months before the TFW scandal really hit the media cycle.

My hypothesis is one of the following:

1. As the TFW scandal built through 2014 and into 2015, the Harper government's hand was forced, and CIC pushed Microsoft to have more jobs for Canadian citizens and permanent residents at the MCEC. Especially with a federal election looming.

Or,

2. Once the Trudeau government came into power, they were furious that Microsoft would bring in TFWs to the MCEC when there was so much tech talent coming out of UBC and SFU, so the feds chewed them out and as a result Microsoft was forced to have a larger proportion of jobs going to citizens/PRs.

The second option seems less likely, because the MCEC opened on June 17, 2016, only six months after the throne speech; that would not be nearly enough time to scale back the number of visa jobs and increase the number of permanent positions; my guess is it would require a year, at least to get this done. So, I'll take the Third Way: I think the TFW scandal forced the Harper government to require Microsoft to hire more citizens/PRs, and this pressure was continued by the Trudeau government when they came into power in 2015.

The funny thing is, I didn't see any government documents, Avison Young reports, news stories, etc. saying that Microsoft had a change of heart and would be hiring more citizens/PRs at MCEC. The common wisdom on Reddit and HN is that MCEC is nothing more than a visa holding tank, which is absolutely not true. Could anyone help me try and find said documentation?
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  #245  
Old Posted Jul 6, 2017, 11:53 PM
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LeftCoaster LeftCoaster is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Alpine View Post
Where the heck do you get this information. I lurk in the VanDev group's Slack channel and I had no idea WeWork Burrard Station was filled up, nor did I know WeWork is looking for a second Vancouver location. All I know is that the first location is opening sometime in the fall and the tenant list hasn't been made public yet. Are you privy to names of particular companies that will be in the space (you don't have to divulge the names if there are privacy/confidentiality concerns, I just wanted to know if you are familiar with any tenants)?
It's my business to know this kinda stuff.

And ya I recognize who will be going into the space, definitely not my news to share though.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Alpine View Post
If Tableau pulled out of Vancouver due to CoL concerns, I definitely would of heard about it, because it would have been on Techvibes, BiV, BCBusiness, maybe even the Globe and Mail.

Unless...you're talking about Tableau's initial plans for their presence here. I recall the news reports from 2015, Tableau moved into 885 West Georgia (Hongkong Bank of Canada Building) with the intent of opening a temporary office, while they searched for a more permanent office presence downtown. I see only four positions at the Vancouver office (a few years ago I saw a lot more), so in that case, you'd be right; Tableau has nixed its expansion here, cutting back on its initial plans for Vancouver headcount; and I don't doubt that the dizzying housing costs (especially for 2br/3br housing for executives who want to bring their families) probably played a significant factor.
Yes sorry it was for a major expansion they were planning. Could still happen some day but not now.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Alpine View Post
Thanks for the correction. By the way, I forgot to mention one other high-profile move: A Thinking Ape (YC W08) moved from 322 Water a few years ago to 1132 Alberni, and if the information in the Canada Corporations Act registry is correct, the company has moved again, into Bentall Three. I wasn't able to find any dates, though.

Anyway...I did some digging and after looking through back numbers of Avison Young reports, it became much clearer. I was under the impression that the buildings in Microsoft's Yaletown campus had no other tenants, but it turns out several tech companies have leased space in 840/858.

I think this is an accurate of Microsoft's Vancouver presence:

840 Cambie: Microsoft's Yaletown campus (part of the VDC), which, if I recall, works on the following: Windows, Office, Enterprise Solutions, the Xbox One platform and a few others, all while liaising with Redmond HQ.

858 Beatty: The second building in Microsoft's Yaletown campus, home to AAA gamedev studio The Coalition (they make Gears of War) as well as Microsoft BigPark Studios. I don't know very much about BigPark, but I did meet a BigPark employee at the July 2016 #TechVancouver event. He told me he works on the UFC.tv Xbox One client. Interesting anecdote.

725 Granville: An R&D expansion called the "Excellence Centre". LEED Gold, opened by Justin Trudeau. Anecdotally I've heard MCEC alone has 650 engineers. I'm not sure if MCEC is part of VDC, or if VDC is part of MCEC. Which is which?

So, Vision Critical was at 858 until they moved to 200 Granville, way back in October 2012. It was this vacated space that Animal Logic is currently leasing. Avigilon moved from its original HQ in Bentall One in 2010 to 1038 Hamilton, then moved again to 555 Robson (aka the William Farrell Building, aka BC Tel's old HQ, aka Amazon's old office in Vancouver) in 2016, buying 555 outright for $42M the year before. Avigilon moved into Amazon's old at 555 when they moved into the Telus Garden (510 West Georgia), and so far as I know, their old space at 858 is still empty.

This means, at some time or another, the Yaletown buildings had the following tenants:

840 Cambie: Microsoft VDC,

858 Beatty: The Coalition, Microsoft BigPark, Animal Logic, Aviglion, Vision Critical

You know what would be really interesting? A public record of the various companies that lease space in office buildings. Like, 555 Robson could have (Amazon.com 2011-2015, Avigilon 2015-current), or something like that. I guess I could search up business licenses from CoV open data, and Canada Corporations Act company registrations (since they have HQ addresses), but not a lot of historic data there.
Now that was a serious run down, impressive. It would be really cool to see who was where but there are a lot of places that don't publish anything but their main address so it's tough to know what other spaces/floors they may have.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Alpine View Post
On the subject of MCEC, as many may know, the space was originally going to be L-1 transfers to Redmond and miscellaneous TFWs; top overseas talent recruited by Microsoft that couldn't get into the United States because of immigration laws. But, I'm actually not sure why Microsoft backtracked on its original plan to make it a holding tank for Redmond-bound engineers.

I was aware of the TFW fiasco in 2014-2015, and of the criticism even by the Harper government of companies exploiting the TFW program (which was designed for, like, seasonal workers (fisheries, agriculture) and foreign artists/musicians) to fill jobs where there are plenty of skilled citizens and permanent residents willing to do the work, just because they're not willing to pay competitive enough salaries.

The original documents, which you probably have seen, only promised 6% of MCEC positions would go to Canadian citizens or permanent residents. Of course, these were draft proposals submitted to the B.C. Ministry of Labour and CIC, which were subject to change. Plus, they're dated way back in February-March 2014, a few months before the TFW scandal really hit the media cycle.

My hypothesis is one of the following:

1. As the TFW scandal built through 2014 and into 2015, the Harper government's hand was forced, and CIC pushed Microsoft to have more jobs for Canadian citizens and permanent residents at the MCEC. Especially with a federal election looming.

Or,

2. Once the Trudeau government came into power, they were furious that Microsoft would bring in TFWs to the MCEC when there was so much tech talent coming out of UBC and SFU, so the feds chewed them out and as a result Microsoft was forced to have a larger proportion of jobs going to citizens/PRs.

The second option seems less likely, because the MCEC opened on June 17, 2016, only six months after the throne speech; that would not be nearly enough time to scale back the number of visa jobs and increase the number of permanent positions; my guess is it would require a year, at least to get this done. So, I'll take the Third Way: I think the TFW scandal forced the Harper government to require Microsoft to hire more citizens/PRs, and this pressure was continued by the Trudeau government when they came into power in 2015.

The funny thing is, I didn't see any government documents, Avison Young reports, news stories, etc. saying that Microsoft had a change of heart and would be hiring more citizens/PRs at MCEC. The common wisdom on Reddit and HN is that MCEC is nothing more than a visa holding tank, which is absolutely not true. Could anyone help me try and find said documentation?
I'm not sure why they changed their purpose for the MCEC but it has definitely changed. Do people still end up at MCEC and go to the states? Sure. But that is definitely not it's prime mission any more. My guess is it had to do with multiple factors including Canadian pressure, US immigration laws and the lower cost of doing business in Vancouver.
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  #246  
Old Posted Jul 27, 2017, 8:21 PM
christmas christmas is offline
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And we call ourselves a "tech-hub"

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  #247  
Old Posted Jul 27, 2017, 8:44 PM
spaceprobe spaceprobe is offline
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And we call ourselves a "tech-hub"

Well, your diagram doesn't actually provide any evidence against being a tech hub.
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  #248  
Old Posted Jul 27, 2017, 8:58 PM
trofirhen trofirhen is offline
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Well, Seattle and the Bay Area beat us - and everyone else - out in quality, but Vancouver still seems to deliver superior quality at about the best price. And we can only get better.
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  #249  
Old Posted Jul 27, 2017, 9:10 PM
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Well, your diagram doesn't actually provide any evidence against being a tech hub.
If anything, it shows why tech companies lkely find Vancouver and Toronto very attractive for setting up shop.
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  #250  
Old Posted Jul 27, 2017, 9:45 PM
christmas christmas is offline
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If anything, it also explains why the brain drain to the US is hurting Vancouver's tech sector.

And I personally don't see it as good news, when placed aside our outrageous housing prices, yeah?
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  #251  
Old Posted Jul 27, 2017, 10:04 PM
trofirhen trofirhen is offline
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If anything, it also explains why the brain drain to the US is hurting Vancouver's tech sector.

And I personally don't see it as good news, when placed aside our outrageous housing prices, yeah?
Well, that's 'the rub' so to speak, IMO. Vancouver pays respectable salaries but nothing like San Francisco, Seattle, or Boston.
San Francisco can afford to attract the best of the best despite outrageous home prices because the salaries there are so high.

But how is a tech person, no matter how well qualified, even with the MICROSOFT CENTRE FOR EXCELLENCE here, supposed to house themselves without mortgaging their lives?

It's the freaking house prices/condo prices/rents that are blocking the city from becoming what could be a major tech (and other sectors) hub.
And that pisses me off to the extreme. Up the investment real estate tax by another 10% or more, despite the squawks that will accompany it.

Do something, or it will be a city of people working in the service sectors to accommodate what will become a giant resort town with no powerful economy ... IMO, of course.
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  #252  
Old Posted Aug 31, 2017, 3:40 AM
casper casper is offline
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Well, Seattle and the Bay Area beat us - and everyone else - out in quality, but Vancouver still seems to deliver superior quality at about the best price. And we can only get better.
The "Quality" measure is silly. It looks at graduates from the top 25 universities in Computer Science in Canada or the US as decided by US News. In Canada, most tech workers in Vancouver are going to have degrees from Canadian universities. Does anyone believe US News and World Report is an authority on the quality of Canadian university programs.

I searched there website for Canadian and US universities this is their top ranking in Computer Science:
- MIT 100
- Stanford 96
- University of Texas - Austin 95.2
- Harvard 94.3
- University of California - Berkley 91.4
- Princeton 83.8
- University of Sothern California - 82.5
- Georgia Institute of Technology - 81.3
- Waterloo 79.2
- University of California - San Diego 79.1
- Toronto 78.6
- UBC 77.5
- Carnegie Mellon 77.1
- University of California - Los Angels 76
- University of Illinois - Urbana- Champaign 71.2
- University of Maryland College 70.8
- Columbia 69.5
- University of California - Irvine 69.1
- University of Michigan - Ann Arbor 68.9
- University of Washington 68.5
- California Institute of Technology 68.3
- Cornell University 67.1
- Purdue University - West Lafayette 66.7
- New York University 66.2
- Pennsylvania State University - University Park 64.3
---------------------------------------------------------------
- University of Wisconsin-Madison 63.1
- University of California - Davis 62.8
- University of Minnesota - Twin Cities 62.3
- U of Alberta 59.2
- University of Pennsylvania 58.1
- John Hopkins University 57.1
- Rutgers - State University of New Jersey 56.9
- Michigan State 56.8
- University of Chicago 56.7
- Ohio State - 56.3
- University of Tennessee 56.2
- McGill 55.4
- Texas A&M 55.3
- University of Florida 54.7
- SFU 54.5

Waterloo, UofT and UBC are the only Canada universities in their top 25 ranking. I included the list all the way down to where SFU is located. Given the highly respected universities bellow the line on that raking, I think the metric is suspect.
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  #253  
Old Posted Sep 5, 2017, 11:12 PM
Alpine Alpine is offline
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Anyone knows where Segment, Kickstarter, and Expa Labs' office in Vancouver are located? I know Kickstarter is where Huzza used to be, but I can't find an address anywhere.

Last edited by Alpine; Sep 6, 2017 at 12:14 AM.
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  #254  
Old Posted Sep 8, 2017, 6:29 AM
towerseeker101 towerseeker101 is offline
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What do you guys think? Does Metro Vancouver have any realistic shot at an Amazon headquarters, or is that just a pipe dream?

https://www.biv.com/article/2017/9/c...s-second-home/

This will most likely end up somewhere in the U.S., but I think Toronto could have a decent chance, followed by Vancouver. Some people have mentioned that Canada's immigration policies could make it an attractive location to attract potential employees from abroad. Not to mention, lower costs due to lower salaries and a low Canadian dollar.

I wonder if proximity to Amazon's Seattle headquarters would be a negative or a positive?
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  #255  
Old Posted Sep 8, 2017, 8:46 AM
Pinion Pinion is offline
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I would bet a lot of money against it. US cities are going to be falling over themselves with subsidies and Vancouver is too expensive.
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  #256  
Old Posted Sep 8, 2017, 4:00 PM
twoNeurons twoNeurons is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Alpine View Post

I wonder why I don't hear more UBC grads being attached to world dominating startups, like SFU grads are.
A friend of mine said it best... "I learned more in 6 months at BCIT than the previous 3 years at UBC"

SFU is more of a business-oriented school. UBC wants to be a trainer of theoretical computer scientists... in theory the ones that would go on to do the theory work... like develop new languages, compilers, etc. Don't know if that actually works or not... but I could definitely say that UBC grads know far less about practical skills... and that the industry moves very quickly... whereas UBC moves at about the speed of a melting glacier.
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  #257  
Old Posted Sep 8, 2017, 6:56 PM
Aroundtheworld Aroundtheworld is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by towerseeker101 View Post
What do you guys think? Does Metro Vancouver have any realistic shot at an Amazon headquarters, or is that just a pipe dream?

https://www.biv.com/article/2017/9/c...s-second-home/

This will most likely end up somewhere in the U.S., but I think Toronto could have a decent chance, followed by Vancouver. Some people have mentioned that Canada's immigration policies could make it an attractive location to attract potential employees from abroad. Not to mention, lower costs due to lower salaries and a low Canadian dollar.

I wonder if proximity to Amazon's Seattle headquarters would be a negative or a positive?
I think Toronto has a very good chance because it is bigger and gives the company an east coast presence. Vancouver would have to do a lot of work to win this IMO.
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  #258  
Old Posted Sep 9, 2017, 6:51 PM
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a very long weekend a very long weekend is offline
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^ toronto would be a perfect fit for amazon in so many ways, but if amazon planned to go that route, they'd have done it quietly, negotiated and then announced, and built out little by little. doing this HQ2 contest thing makes it far too politically controversial to choose a foreign city.
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  #259  
Old Posted Sep 9, 2017, 7:43 PM
casper casper is offline
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Originally Posted by twoNeurons View Post
A friend of mine said it best... "I learned more in 6 months at BCIT than the previous 3 years at UBC"

SFU is more of a business-oriented school. UBC wants to be a trainer of theoretical computer scientists... in theory the ones that would go on to do the theory work... like develop new languages, compilers, etc. Don't know if that actually works or not... but I could definitely say that UBC grads know far less about practical skills... and that the industry moves very quickly... whereas UBC moves at about the speed of a melting glacier.
That was the case over 20 years ago when I obtained my SFU degree in Computer Science. Interesting it is still the case today.
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  #260  
Old Posted Sep 9, 2017, 7:46 PM
casper casper is offline
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Originally Posted by a very long weekend View Post
^ toronto would be a perfect fit for amazon in so many ways, but if amazon planned to go that route, they'd have done it quietly, negotiated and then announced, and built out little by little. doing this HQ2 contest thing makes it far too politically controversial to choose a foreign city.
Given the CEO of Amazon and Trump are so publicly vocal about what the other guy is doing, I am not certain they would try avoid controversy.
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