Digital media investment firm wants start-up visa to lure foreign entrepreneurs to Canada

Inspired by the American discussion of a new a “start-up visa” for immigrant entrepreneurs, Canada’s new media industry is now buzzing about the idea. The notion is borrowed from the U.S., where talk of a start-up visa has been in the air for some time. In Canada, Dan Robinson, managing director of Vancouver investment company Bootup Labs, is spearheading the concept. Robinson outlined the idea on his company’s blog in December, quickly generating discussion on the Web. Fed up with the bureaucratic red tape that immigrants face when they try to start a business — a problem for Bootup as it aims to bring start-ups into Canada for incubation – Robinson proposed a start-up visa for newcomers who are also entrepreneurs. “We don’t put any pressure on them to stay in Canada,” Robinson says of Bootup’s first immigration cohort, scheduled to arrive later this month. “We are a venture capital firm, and we want to make money. If that means that they leave Canada to make more money elsewhere, we’re supportive of that. That said, we live here … and we want to see a vibrant technology community develop here. We know ... companies will come here, and most of them will stay.... They fall in love with the area.” In Robinson’s view, the visa would work like this: investors would sponsor the new business’s team, who would apply to Citizenship and Immigration Canada. The team would receive temporary work visas, agreeing to particular conditions, such as promising to create a Canadian company within a certain period of time, closing the financing, and refusing to work for other companies. If the conditions are met, the applicants would be allowed to apply for permanent residency. Robinson says his company has had trouble winding its way through immigration bureaucracy as Bootup Labs invites start-ups from elsewhere into its incubator. While there are numerous provincial- and federal-government programs designed to ease newcomers into the country, none of them seems geared to new entrepreneurs. “Right now there’s this thing called a Business Visitor Visa,” he says. “We’re trying to squeeze them through that, but it takes a lot of stuff on our end to make it work, which isn’t the way we want to do it. We want a program that will allow us to bring them in on a specific visa.” The venture capital community in the U.S. has been talking about a start-up visa for a while, but it’s just getting rolling. If Canada moves first, Robinson says, it would put itself in an excellent position to attract more immigrant entrepreneurs, and pave the way for a more vibrant and sustainable digital media industry. “It’s an interesting idea,” says Michael Remillard, executive director of Canada’s Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (CVCA). “We’re not going to oppose it. But we’re not going to push it.” Remillard notes that the proposal may be putting the cart before the horse. Canada needs to first deal with the state of its venture capital industry. “Investments are at a 14-year low. Money raised is at decades-long lows,” he says. Lacking a robust capital pool, new businesses could find themselves in trouble. “One of the challenges is financing follow-on rounds of companies and entrepreneurs,” Remillard says. “Just getting in there with that initial seed funding, unless that’s your business model – to do early stuff and transfer out later on – leaves a problem down the road: people are stranded.” Dr. Linda Manning is the director of the Leveraging Immigrant Talent project, housed at the University of Ottawa. She says the start-up visa concept could help Canada’s new media industry grow, although it could just as well support other sectors, especially if Canada made the move sooner than the U.S. “It would generate powerful growth,” she says, if Canada could begin to attract immigrants who’d otherwise head for the U.S. But Canada also has to deal with its perpetual immigrant-credential issue: disparate industry, provincial, and federal criteria make it difficult for professional newcomers to apply their training, she notes. Her team has conducted research indicating that immigrants are held back from career advancement due to Canadian business-management practices. The Leveraging Immigrant Talent project is doing its part to help businesses realize immigrant potential via a video game called TalentNet. Designed for small businesses, it tasks the player with the role of a manager who has to develop trust, conduct performance appraisals, and identify employees who have high potential, all while working with a team consisting of people from various cultures. Remillard says moves are afoot to address the venture capital situation. The CVCA is lobbying the federal government to change venture capital rules to allow for greater fund growth. Meanwhile, new funds are appearing. Late last year, Montreal-based investment company Tandem Expansion announced that it had closed its first round – $300 million – for an investment vehicle designed specifically to develop new technology businesses that have secured first-round funding. Robinson notes that he has received plenty of feedback on the start-up visa idea through the Bootup blog as well an online petition he started to keep the ball rolling. While he doubts a pilot project will be in place for Bootup’s first group of foreign entrepreneurs, Robinson says he’s hopeful for the second group. “Our next group is coming in May, so before May would be a great time to have a pilot program going, just try it out.”

Digital media investment firm wants start-up visa to lure foreign entrepreneurs to Canada

Broadcast | January 11, 2010

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