How to break into the tech scene in Toronto, Canada — Breaking into the Canadian startup ecosystem
Authors:
Erik Torenberg twitter.com/eriktorenberg
Daryna Kulya [DK] twitter.com/darynakulya
Mohammed Asaduallah twitter.com/heymosef
Paul Krajewski twitter.com/pkralle
Kamil Rextin [KR] twitter.com/kamilrextin
Mustefa Jo’shen twitter.com/mustefaj
1. Toronto Tech Scene FAQs
Q: What word best describes Toronto’s tech/startup scene?
[DK] Breakthrough. With so many great companies in the city, a lot of support networks for entrepreneurs and, hopefully, more funding for local companies, feels like Toronto is about to have its breakthrough moment.
[KR] Diversity & Openness. Both in terms of backgrounds, gender, ethnicity & cultures but also the type of companies from marketplaces to financial technology, commerce, marketing technology to many more. There’s no ‘right’ kind of founder or company, they come in all shapes & sizes. The TO community is open, welcoming and embracing to anyone who wants to get involved.
Q: How does someone break into Toronto’s tech/startup scene?
[DK] Depends what you’d mean by “breaking in”. If it’s just about finding a job at a startup, section 4 with a list of some startups that are hiring could be a good place to start. However, if you’d like to get involved in the community, meet future co-founders and make friends, I’d have a different answer.
I believe that creating value for others is the best way to “break into” any industry, including tech. Based on your skills and talents, find a way to help someone with what they are working on. Don’t ask for anything in return. Repeat. Keep doing it until people start reaching out to you for help (this means you’re creating value). Same people will be much more willing to help you after you’ve helped them.
Volunteer at an event, design / redesign someone’s logo, build something people in the community want / need, step up to host a meetup, write and publish a thorough product review, connect two people who should know each other, find an answer to the question someone has, do research nobody volunteered for.
Don’t forget to share your story. If you have a compelling story, strangers will go out of their way to help you. Thanks to Ruben Harris for sharing this important point in his post.
[KR] Don’t ask for permission. You own the community as much as anyone else. As long as you aren’t rude or an a**h**** you will be welcome and embraced. Get involved by going to meetups, asking people out for coffee, writing about your experiences and being active on Twitter & relevant Facebook Groups.
2. Where should I meet Toronto’s Tech Community?
Meetups
TORONTO TECH: Wearable, IoT, Big Data, 3D, Energy, AI, Robot
UXD / UX User Experience Design Toronto Meetup https://www.meetup.com/uxtoronto/
Product Hunt Toronto — producthunttoronto.com For all of you makers, hunters and early adopters.
Tech Toronto (Meet and learn from Toronto’s tech founders)
BotTO — meetup.com/Bot-TO/ (Get your bot on)
#DesignTO — meetup.com/DesignTO (Toronto’s monthly Design Meetup)
Girl Geeks Toronto — http://girlgeekstoronto.com/
LEAN Coffee Toronto — meetup.com/leancoffeeto/
MaRS Entrepreneurship 101 — Canada’s largest live & online entrepreneurship course — marsdd.com/entrepreneurship-101/
Startup Grind — meetup.com/Startup-Grind-Toronto/
Subscribe to the feed from startupdigest.com/digests/toronto from your own Google calendar to automatically see it filled with a good portion of events in the city
Conferences / Annual Events
DigiFest — torontodigifest.ca/
FITC — fitc.ca/
HoHoTO — hohoto.ca
Startup Open House — startupopenhouse.com
Startupong — http://get.uberflip.com/startupong/
TEDxToronto — tedxtoronto.com
Hackathons
Startup Weekend https://www.techstars.com/communities/startup-weekend
U of T Hacks — uofthacks.com
3. Where should I pick up necessary skills?
Bitmaker Labs — https://generalassemb.ly/
Brainstation — brainstation.io/
HackerYou — hackeryou.com/
Ladies Learning Code — ladieslearningcode.com/
Lighthouse Labs — lighthouselabs.ca/
RED Academy — redacademy.com/
Founder Institute Toronto http://fi.co/s/toronto
4. What Toronto startups are hiring?
500px — https://about.500px.com/jobs/
Autonomic.ai — www.autonomic.ai
ConnectedLab — https://www.connected.io/
Drop — https://www.joindrop.com/
Ecobee — ecobee.com/careers/
Joist — joist.com/jobs
Influitive — influitive.com
PagerDuty — pagerduty.com/careers/
StreetContxt — http://streetcontxt.com/careers/
Shopify — shopify.com/careers#work-at-shopify
TribalScale — tribalscale.com
Wealthsimple — wealthsimple.com/jobs
Wattpad — wattpad.com/life/?jobs
Hired — https://hired.com/ [The Hired Toronto team is awesome and if you get a chance, talk to them about all things Toronto, startups, recruiting]
Format — https://format.com/
Uberflip — https://uberflip.com/careers
Betakit Job Board — http://betakit.com/jobs/
5. What companies beyond startup stage are hiring?
Pivotal (Pivotal Labs, former Xtreme Labs) VMware Pivotal Labs: https://tanzu.vmware.com/labs http://pivotal.io
Now Ford owns Autonomic.ai www.autonomic.ai
6. Where can I get office space?
Breather — https://breather.com/locations/toronto
DMZ — http://dmz.ryerson.ca/
Lab T.O. http://labto.com
One Eleven — oneeleven.com/
wework https://www.wework.com/en-GB/l/toronto
Project Spaces — projectspac.es/
7. Who could help me build my product?
ConnectedLab https://www.connected.io/
Konrad Group — konradgroup.com/
Pivotal (Pivotal Labs, former Xtreme Labs) VMware Pivotal Labs: https://tanzu.vmware.com/labs http://pivotal.io (Get one hour of free consulting: Product Office Hours)
Tiny Hearts — tinyhearts.com (Shopify acquired them)
TribalScale TRIBALSCALE LAUNCHES $100 MILLION VENTURE STUDIOS PROGRAM TO CO-CREATE AI AND BLOCKCHAIN STARTUPS
TWG — https://twg.io/
Kinetic Cafe — http://kineticcafe.com
Playground Inc — http://playgroundinc.com
8. Who could write about my startup?
BetaKit — betakit.com/
BNN — bnn.ca/
Yonge Street Media — yongestreetmedia.ca/
9. Who could fund my startup?
Golden VP — https://golden.ventures/
OMERS Ventures — www.omersventures.com
Two Small Fish Ventures — twosmallfishventures.com
Highline Beta https://highlinebeta.com/
BDC Venture Capital — bdc.ca
iNovia Capital — https://inovia.vc/
TribalScale TRIBALSCALE LAUNCHES $100 MILLION VENTURE STUDIOS PROGRAM TO CO-CREATE AI AND BLOCKCHAIN STARTUPS
10. Who should I follow online?
Operators
Andrew D’Souza — https://twitter.com/andrewdsouza
April Dunford — https://twitter.com/aprildunford
Ben Zifkin — https://twitter.com/Ben_Zifkin
Brandon Chu — https://twitter.com/BrandonMChu
Breanna Hughes — https://twitter.com/unbrelievable
Dan Debow — https://twitter.com/ddebow
David Crow — https://twitter.com/davidcrow
Farhan Thawar — https://twitter.com/fnthawar
Heather Payne — https://twitter.com/heatherpayne
Huda Idrees — https://twitter.com/hidrees
Ian Gerald King — https://twitter.com/iangeraldking
Ken Seto — https://twitter.com/kenseto
Kyle A Collier @KyleACollier
Mark MacLeod — http://www.startupcfo.ca
Mark Evans — https://twitter.com/markevans
Michael Serbinis — https://twitter.com/mserbinis
Sean Power — https://twitter.com/seanpower
Paul Teshima — https://twitter.com/pteshima
Satish Kanwar — https://twitter.com/skanwar
Amrita Chandra — https://twitter.com/amritachandra
Tara Hunt — https://twitter.com/missrogue
Investors
OMERS Ventures https://www.omersventures.com
Ameet Shah, Golden VP — https://twitter.com/ameetshah
Christian Lassonde, Impression VC — https://twitter.com/classonde
John Ruffolo — https://twitter.com/ruffoloj
Marcus Daniels, HIGHLINE — https://twitter.com/marcusdaniels
Matt Golden, Golden VP — https://twitter.com/MattGoldenVP
Two Small Fish Ventures — twosmallfishventures.com
Sunil https://twitter.com/sunil_extreme
Sundeep Madra — twitter.com/sundeep angel.co/sundeepm
William Mougayar — https://twitter.com/wmougayar
Incubators
Communitech communitech.ca
DMZ — http://dmz.ryerson.ca
MaRS Discovery District — marsdd.com
The Next 36 — https://www.thenext36.ca
Accelerators
One Eleven — oneeleven.com
Techstars Toronto techstars.com
techstars-announces-first-cohort-toronto-accelerator
Founder Institute has a Blockchain Founder Syndicate: https://fi.co/join/blockchain
Founder Institute Toronto http://fi.co/s/toronto
Community Builders
Alex Norman, TechTO — https://twitter.com/alexandernorman
Arati Sharma, Shopify — https://twitter.com/aratisharma
Danielle Smith, DMZ — https://twitter.com/DaniMcSmith
Daryna Kulya [DK] — twitter.com/darynaku
Jason Goldlist, TechTO — https://twitter.com/goldlist
Nicole Kelly, OMERS Ventures — https://twitter.com/Nicole_Kelly
Nora Bieberstein, One Eleven — https://twitter.com/NoraVBieber
Ria Riaz, RIGHTSLEEVE — https://twitter.com/RoastedKeyboard
Mohammed Asaduallah, Women and Color https://twitter.com/heymosef
11. What online communities should I join?
Online Communities & Resources
Communitech communitech.ca
StartupNorth Facebook Group — facebook.com/groups/startupnorth/
PH Global Slack Community (Pick: “Toronto”) — phglobal.co/
Startup Digest — startupdigest.com/ (“Toronto”)
12. Where does the Toronto Tech community hang out?
Soho House — sohohousetoronto.com/
Coffee Shops
Dark Horse Espresso (Spadina or John Str locations) — darkhorseespresso.com
Fahrenheit Espresso — fahrenheitcoffee.com
Jimmy’s Coffee — jimmyscoffee.ca
Quantum Coffee — quantumcoffee.io
Portland Variety — https://twitter.com/portlandvariety
13. Further reading
Communitech communitech.ca
https://blog.websummit.net/toronto-the-startup-city-guide/
Quora — Which startups are hiring in Toronto?
Quora — Startups in Toronto