Expa's founder is from BC so I think them opening up an office there is mostly due to an excess of cash they have from Uber's success, not that it necessarily makes sense from a VC perspective.
I hope I'm wrong since I would love to see Vancouver / Toronto have the same earning power as SV.
> Expa's founder is from BC so I think them opening up an office there is mostly due to an excess of cash they have from Uber's success, not that it necessarily makes sense from a VC perspective.
The founder of Slack grew up on Vancouver Island and went to UVic, the co-founders of Tableau is an SFU comp sci alumnus; so is the founder of Buddybuild[1] (the first genuine mobile-first CI provider, raised a series A round from KPCB (!) for $7.6M which is unheard of for a Van company, let alone they managed to find an SV VC firm which was okay with the company keeping the company local).
The way I see it, it matters less why they came (whether it makes sense from a VC perspective, the founders are homesick, or as a response to shifting political tides in the United States) and matters more that they're here.
We're opening up Vancouver because there's a massive untapped potential of talent in the area that we can help bridge with SF.
I've met and seen many amazing entrepreneurs, developers, designers and all other roles of a startup in this city who are very capable and talented. Our goal is to give them a platform and a opportunity to realize success without having to move south.
I hope I'm wrong since I would love to see Vancouver / Toronto have the same earning power as SV.