Waterloo gets Googled
Google Inc. has quietly established a growing foothold in Waterloo, Ont. -- the home of Research In Motion Ltd. -- following the stealth acquisition of a wireless startup last summer, as well as plans to staff up a recently established research and development facility.
When I interned at a VC firm while in business school, I used to cold call a lot of small software companies in Waterloo looking to source deals. My assumption was that they were generally being ignored by many US-based VCs. My colleagues and bosses ribbed me about my Canadian "fetish." I gotta say that this article makes me feel a bit redeemed.
As the article illustrates, Waterloo has a a critical mass of high quality, educated (and English speaking) software engineers. Salaries and other development costs are in Canadian dollars (1C$ = 86 US cents) and the Canadian R&D tax credits are slightly more generous then the US ones. See Deloitte's explanation of both: http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/newsletter/0,2307,sid=16190&cid=52649,00.html
When I interned at a VC firm while in business school, I used to cold call a lot of small software companies in Waterloo looking to source deals. My assumption was that they were generally being ignored by many US-based VCs. My colleagues and bosses ribbed me about my Canadian "fetish." I gotta say that this article makes me feel a bit redeemed.
As the article illustrates, Waterloo has a a critical mass of high quality, educated (and English speaking) software engineers. Salaries and other development costs are in Canadian dollars (1C$ = 86 US cents) and the Canadian R&D tax credits are slightly more generous then the US ones. See Deloitte's explanation of both: http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/newsletter/0,2307,sid=16190&cid=52649,00.html
posted by Mark Crofton at
7:18 PM
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