An open letter to Toronto's technology community

To the wonderful members of Toronto's Technology Community,

I have noticed a couple posts regarding Toronto's state of becoming a technology hub. Joey Devilla made a good post about it, as well as David Crow. I thought I would share my 2 cents as I'm a new entrant into the community and well, the new guy needs to express his opinion too. :)

The comparison is always going to be made  between Toronto and Silicon Valley. Toronto is never going to be Silicon Valley. If Toronto wanted to become like Silicon Valley it would be shooting themselves in the foot because it would be a moving target at speeds of 1000km/hr.

It's like the Apple analogy. When Apple was running into trouble back in the late '90's. They didn't concern themselves with what other people were doing ie. Microsoft. They concentrated on what Apple did best, and that's making a good user experience for their customers.

The question is, what does Toronto want to be known for? What is going to be Toronto's contribution to technology and its impact on the lives of this and future generations? Do we want to be known for making Google loads of money, making products that impact the masses, creating an environment that allows entrepreneurs and technology enthusiasts to thrive and fulfill their dreams, all of the above?
 

It's going to take alot of work, that's for sure. It's going to take innovation, and making things that people want to use. Sometimes people try to over analyze things that don't have to be over analyzed. We're simply not making things that people will use or want to use on a regular basis.

Here's what Toronto has:

1) We have talent.  Toronto has  a very smart and talented workforce with students coming out of very reputable Universities. South of the border realizes this as well, our labour is way cheaper.
2) We have risk takers. We have people willing to take risks and try new things.
3) We have individual voices. People like Mathew Ingram and Mark Evans, both technology blogs that I read religiously, put Toronto on the map.
4) We have established entrepreneurs and companies. People like Albert Lai, Stuart MacDonald, Idee Inc. etc.

Here's what Toronto needs:

1. We need to grow the community - This can be done by welcoming new members into the community who are interested in technology or transferring people who aren't interested in technology into the technology scene. Tech people just market to tech people. We need to get all types of people involved. I think the Case Camp idea is a great undertaking to do this. More can be done. Let's try to get more media coverage on what we're doing.
2. We need to differentiate ourselves from the Valley, Seattle, New York, Boston, London etc. Just like no one can be Michael Jordan, no one can be Silicon Valley. You can however, be a Lebron James, ie Toronto.
3. We need sponsors and support. It takes money to do all these things. Which established Toronto companies want to be on the battle ground with us.
4. We need people in leadership positions in technology companies to show their face. If you want direction, you need leadership.
5. We need time. It's not going to happen overnight. We're not going to wake up one morning and suddenly be on top of the world. It's going to take persistence, determination, patience and a couple ticks on that trusted wristwatch.
6. We need to get people excited. Passionate people do impressive things and drive outstanding results. Let's raise the bar.
7. We need a central hub online for what Toronto is doing. If you had to the answer the question, which site online accurately portrays Toronto's Technology community, what would you say it would be? Right now, I would say nothing. I think StartupNorth.ca is a great initiative to do this, however, there needs to be more functionality on the site.
8. We need alot of things. We haven't cracked the recipe yet.

Toronto can be a world renown technology hub, it's just a matter of causation:
1) A Toronto company gets acquired.
2) Another Toronto company gets acquired.
3) Yet another Toronto company gets acquired.
4) Michael Arrington from Techcrunch: Another company from Toronto gets acquired. What the hell is going on in Toronto?

But you ask, how do we get to Milestone 1? You have an idea and you execute. If you're passionate about something go do it. Don't listen to anyone else. I've been told no about 20 times already. I still keep going.

Here are my suggestions:

1. How about a TrialCamp - an event that gives startups the opportunity to get good and honest feedback about their products/services. Or maybe an ElbowDropCamp that completely tears apart peoples products so they can improve upon them.
2. At DemoCamp, make an effort to introduce new people to the existing group. I'm a Toronto Entrepreneur. Not many people know me. What can I do to get my name out there?
3. Let's bring this up as a discussion at one of the next community events(DemoCamp? )

But rest assure, no one should count out Toronto. We have a vibrant community, great people, and a promising future. If you count us out you will end up like the Giant in the following clip:

To the wonderful members of Toronto's  technology community and people looking to take part in its growth and prosperity, stay tuned for more ramblings in the near future....

If you are an active participant in the Toronto Technology community. Feel free to share this with others. Maybe they have a different perspective or opinion from mine.

Furthermore, if you liked this post, please feel free to subscribe to my rss feed here or visit another post  at www.ragobeer.com

Comments

[Roland]

Toronto is starting to be recognized as one of the players in the "American" IT world, About the cheap labor thing, a few months back I was talking to some recruiter from the States trying to recruit me for some contract in Miami, and he asked me what my rate was, and I said $25/hr.. and there was a long pause, at that moment I realized I undershot it big time :) I didn't follow up with him though, because I think that job is a little ahead of my time for now.

Regarding the central hub, that would be nice to see. I would like to see a website that is keeping in touch with the Toronto startup scene. Something like a list of companies that describe their business in detail and you can blog about them.

One flaw that I heard about Toronto is we are slow to progress with the changes going on in the IT world, I remember my old startup company I worked at for a year didn't have that problem, they were on the bleeding-edge. But in general, I hear Toronto companies are slow to move forward with their technology and apparently that's what puts us in 2nd place. We hear all this talk about RIA in Flex or AIR, and emerging technologies like groovy/grails, technologies that improve where Java and .NET are known to fail, but will these technologies gain enough momentum is the question. Or will they just silently fade away like ColdFusion. I guess we will have to wait and see.

Btw, nice Wrestling video lol

[Jamie McQuay]

>I'm a Toronto Entrepreneur. Not many people
>know me. What can I do to get my name out
>there?

Keep writing posts like this one!

Cheers, (and welcome)

Jamie

[Mark Evans]

Chris,

Great post! Toronto needs this kind of passion.

Mark

[Chris Ragobeer]

@Roland : Great points. Yeah I bet the US recruiter thought it was odd you were asking for so little. Next time raise the bar!

@Jamie : I'll certainly try!

@Mark : Thanks! I thought I would share my 2 cents around this topic.

[корректоры осанки]

Thanks.