Startup Visa Canada: Who's In, Supporting Organizations, Media Coverage, and How You Can Help

Startup Visa Canada

“We believe startups to be the driving force behind job creation and prosperity,” says [CVCA's] executive director Richard Rémillard. “We need to be more attractive to foreign entrepreneurs." 

Thanks for supporting the Startup Visa Canada Initiative. It's been about 5 months since we launched. During that time, the team has been busy reaching out to government officials, influencers and organizations across Canada to gather data and garner support for an alternative visa for entrepreneurs.   

Here's a quick update on our progress:

Chris Arsenault, iNovia Capital joins the Founding Team

We are pleased to welcome Chris Arsenault, Managing Partner at iNovia Capital to the Startup Visa Canada team.  Chris has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur for over 17 years and is an active board member with the Canadian Venture Capital Association (CVCA).  Chris has been a strong supporter of the initiative and recently wrote a post in the CVCA magazine entitled Attracting Foreign Entrepreneurs  to Canada.  

Based in Montreal, it's great to have Chris on board to represent and support Startup Visa Canada on the East Coast. 

Who's In?

Over 270 people including you have signed our online petition and 67 notable entrepreneurs, investors and influencers have come forward to publicly endorse the initiative including: 

• Ben Yoskovitz, Year One Labs
• Jason Bailey from SuperRewards and GrowLab
• Anthony Lee, Altos Ventures and C100 Organization
• Chris Albinson from Panorama Capital and C100 Organization
• David Crow from Startup North
• Roger Chabra, Rho Ventures
• JS Cournoyer, Real Ventures
• Paul Kedrosky
• Dan Martell, Flowtown
• Maria Pacella from GrowthWorks 
• Brian Wong of Kiip

Supporting Organizations

Many thanks to the organizations, who have also endorsed the initiative including the CVCA, StartupNorth, Real Ventures, iNovia Capital, Bootup, the Canadian Innovation Exchange. Podium Ventures and Startup Edmonton. If your organization would like to endorse us as well, please send maura [at] bootup [dot] ca a message.

Media 

"It takes eight years for the Canadian immigration system to evaluate a young tech entrepreneur applying to immigrate from Paris. Applying from Hong Kong takes a little more than seven years, from New Delhi more than six and from Beijing nearly four.  I

n the world of technology startups, waiting times measured in Olympiads will convince applicants to apply for a visa elsewhere."  - 

Joe Friesen, The Globe & Mail

Startup Visa Canada has also received some great coverage in CVCA Magazine, BC Business, Techvibes, StartupNorth and Hacker News. You can find links to more stories in the Press section on the Startup Visa website.

How You Can Help

1. Tell your friends to endorse the Initiative, if they have not already done so.
2. Tweet and blog about the initiative @startupvisaca
3. Send your local MP's a message with a link to the site and express your support for Startup Visa Canada
4. Follow us on Twitter @startupvisaca and like us on Facebook 

Thanks again!

The Startup Visa Canada Team

Posted via email from Chris's posterous