“Valley or Bust.”
It has been a common refrain amongst Canadian entrepreneurs over the years, but recently it sounds more like a rallying cry. New data shows that only one-third of “high-potential startups” created in 2024 are still headquartered in Canada in 2025, with half of those companies fleeing to the US.
“In the beginning, we were like, ‘this must be a scam’ because with the way things move in Waterloo and Toronto, it seemed way too fast.”
Nain Abdi
Colare
You also don’t have to be an entrepreneur to feel the pull of Silicon Valley: US tech workers are paid 46 percent more on average than their Canadian counterparts.
Today on The BetaKit Podcast, we speak to one Canadian entrepreneur who has ‘drained.’ Nain Abdi, co-founder of hardtech hiring platform Colare, was recently a third-year University of Waterloo student; on this episode, he shares what brought his company to SF, what’s keeping it there, and what (if anything) could possibly draw him back to Canada.
Nain’s story puts the data in sharp relief. As a member of the cooked generation who has been part of Canadian tech for more than two decades, I must admit it was heartbreaking to hear a young entrepreneur contrast the speed at which he was embraced in the Valley with how he felt treated back in Canada.
At Toronto Tech Week, leaders from Shopify, Wealthsimple, and Cohere told Canadian founders to ‘just say no’ to leaving Canada. Was that message too late?
Let’s dig in.
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Recorded and edited by Toronto Podcasts. Feature image courtesy Madhur Chadha via Unsplash.