>Harley Finkelstein says that problem is a lack of ambition that’s permeating the Canadian psyche and weighing down the country’s tech sector.
>He says the lack of ambition has left Canadian companies with a reputation for being acquired while their U.S. competitors grow more dominant by taking them over.
>Finkelstein instead wants Canadian companies to focus on striving for more rather than settling for being acquired.
>He also adds that he wants more companies to be headquartered in Canada rather than the country being treated like a branch plant for bigger organizations.
Key_Mongoose223 on
Ah, it’s our fault. Got it.
JackSwit on
So he is offering comparative salaries to the US to acquire those ambitious individuals or just crying?
aktionreplay on
As a Canadian in tech, you either need to pay us more or watch us go to the US where, shocker, we get paid more.
OldManFleming on
ITT no one reading the article as usual
StarryNightSandwich on
Yea cus it’s a lack of ambition that’s stopping us from taking a $50K+/Year pay cut to work the same job at Shopify
natemarshall110 on
600-pound Beaver was my band in college
MartyMcFlysBrother on
Might be time to stop bringing “lack of ambition” in and giving them a bunch of money to get settled
ceduljee on
To be clear, he’s not blasting workers, he’s talking about management, founders and investors. And it’s also very true… not 100% true obviously because there are exceptions, but the reality is that most technology (not just s/w) businesses have an exit strategy of being sold to foreign entities so the founders or investors can cash out. They get some money, but workers (and our economy) lose out as jobs are chiseled away, IP is moved offshore, and growth opportunities are lost.
I regularly work with founders and sometimes I honestly can’t convince people that it’s possible to be an internationally competitive company, even with great products. There’s just this attitude that Canadian companies are meant to be small and should just be happy with modest growth.
rudyphelps on
It’s not a lack of ambition, it’s just that buying real estate is a much lower resistance path to wealth in Canada. Why go through the effort of running a business and producing something, when you can just buy property, let someone else pay the mortgage, and be reassured by the federal government that they’ll do anything to keep the bubble growing.
New_Literature_5703 on
Ambition only works if there’s something to achieve. No one has ever been ambitious about making their CEO richer
icemanice on
LOL… Canada has long been a shitty country to do business in. Pretty sure it’s the exploitative douchebag “entrepreneurs” and the corresponding lack of competitive salaries offered by startups that’s weighing down the Canadian tech sector. That and zero prospects of ever owning a house in this country. Tech companies in this country shit on their employees and then wonder why they aren’t productive.
PeregrineThe on
you can raise 5 million US on a pitch deck in the USA. Here you have to show you can beat government backed 40% returns on real estate to get less than a mil cad
creepystepdad72 on
I’m not a fan of the guy, personally – but he’s right.
We like playing Fischer-Price start-up in Canada. It’s fun to be part of the scene… Going to Elevate (literally the event he was quoted at), going to meet-ups, playing start-up ping-pong, etc. BDC will pay your pittance (since they gotta invest money in something!)
Count the number of folks in Canada on LinkedIn that describe themselves as “serial founders/entrepreneurs”. Thing is, they don’t realize it’s not a positive.
loose_larry on
Not in tech. One of the reasons I left my old company was because it was FULL of people who just did the bare minimum to not get fired. These people got into the housing market pre 2015, were often in their late 30s and older, and saw their house go up 20% in value for like 4 years straight.
Nothing wrong with just chilling at your current position. But people definitely saw their house go up 500k in 3 years and decided to turn down their effort. If you’re making 60k why aspire to learn and get a higher position or start your own business when you can just buy a condo and it goes up 60k a year tax free? Now multiply that effect by hundreds of thousands of professional workers would could buy that home in the first place and are the ones staffing these startups and tech companies… not to mention the government…
Neother on
The ambitious mostly either go to work in the US early in their careers because the pay is double (after currency conversion tech in Canada is a joke, even worse in biotech) or take their company to the US early because you’ll get way more funding.
Can you stay in Canada? Sure, but it’s an uphill battle the whole way that you don’t need to fight.
Best thing we could do is fix underlying problems holding the talent back who stays anyway, which means getting housing under control so employees can afford to live well in major cities and getting real estate investors to realize they are taking immense leveraged risk and shouldn’t be remortgaging multiple properties to acquire more like wsb regards.
hoser1 on
People now work to earn money just to live, not to fulfill an ambition.
If you want people to work, you need to pay them a living wage commensurate with the current value of things.
17 Comments
>Harley Finkelstein says that problem is a lack of ambition that’s permeating the Canadian psyche and weighing down the country’s tech sector.
>He says the lack of ambition has left Canadian companies with a reputation for being acquired while their U.S. competitors grow more dominant by taking them over.
>Finkelstein instead wants Canadian companies to focus on striving for more rather than settling for being acquired.
>He also adds that he wants more companies to be headquartered in Canada rather than the country being treated like a branch plant for bigger organizations.
Ah, it’s our fault. Got it.
So he is offering comparative salaries to the US to acquire those ambitious individuals or just crying?
As a Canadian in tech, you either need to pay us more or watch us go to the US where, shocker, we get paid more.
ITT no one reading the article as usual
Yea cus it’s a lack of ambition that’s stopping us from taking a $50K+/Year pay cut to work the same job at Shopify
600-pound Beaver was my band in college
Might be time to stop bringing “lack of ambition” in and giving them a bunch of money to get settled
To be clear, he’s not blasting workers, he’s talking about management, founders and investors. And it’s also very true… not 100% true obviously because there are exceptions, but the reality is that most technology (not just s/w) businesses have an exit strategy of being sold to foreign entities so the founders or investors can cash out. They get some money, but workers (and our economy) lose out as jobs are chiseled away, IP is moved offshore, and growth opportunities are lost.
I regularly work with founders and sometimes I honestly can’t convince people that it’s possible to be an internationally competitive company, even with great products. There’s just this attitude that Canadian companies are meant to be small and should just be happy with modest growth.
It’s not a lack of ambition, it’s just that buying real estate is a much lower resistance path to wealth in Canada. Why go through the effort of running a business and producing something, when you can just buy property, let someone else pay the mortgage, and be reassured by the federal government that they’ll do anything to keep the bubble growing.
Ambition only works if there’s something to achieve. No one has ever been ambitious about making their CEO richer
LOL… Canada has long been a shitty country to do business in. Pretty sure it’s the exploitative douchebag “entrepreneurs” and the corresponding lack of competitive salaries offered by startups that’s weighing down the Canadian tech sector. That and zero prospects of ever owning a house in this country. Tech companies in this country shit on their employees and then wonder why they aren’t productive.
you can raise 5 million US on a pitch deck in the USA. Here you have to show you can beat government backed 40% returns on real estate to get less than a mil cad
I’m not a fan of the guy, personally – but he’s right.
We like playing Fischer-Price start-up in Canada. It’s fun to be part of the scene… Going to Elevate (literally the event he was quoted at), going to meet-ups, playing start-up ping-pong, etc. BDC will pay your pittance (since they gotta invest money in something!)
Count the number of folks in Canada on LinkedIn that describe themselves as “serial founders/entrepreneurs”. Thing is, they don’t realize it’s not a positive.
Not in tech. One of the reasons I left my old company was because it was FULL of people who just did the bare minimum to not get fired. These people got into the housing market pre 2015, were often in their late 30s and older, and saw their house go up 20% in value for like 4 years straight.
Nothing wrong with just chilling at your current position. But people definitely saw their house go up 500k in 3 years and decided to turn down their effort. If you’re making 60k why aspire to learn and get a higher position or start your own business when you can just buy a condo and it goes up 60k a year tax free? Now multiply that effect by hundreds of thousands of professional workers would could buy that home in the first place and are the ones staffing these startups and tech companies… not to mention the government…
The ambitious mostly either go to work in the US early in their careers because the pay is double (after currency conversion tech in Canada is a joke, even worse in biotech) or take their company to the US early because you’ll get way more funding.
Can you stay in Canada? Sure, but it’s an uphill battle the whole way that you don’t need to fight.
Best thing we could do is fix underlying problems holding the talent back who stays anyway, which means getting housing under control so employees can afford to live well in major cities and getting real estate investors to realize they are taking immense leveraged risk and shouldn’t be remortgaging multiple properties to acquire more like wsb regards.
People now work to earn money just to live, not to fulfill an ambition.
If you want people to work, you need to pay them a living wage commensurate with the current value of things.