The infamous TN1-VISA: Its like Willy Wonka’s golden ticket, except this one lets me legally work in the US. I took this photo 5 minutes after walking out of the US customs office in YYZ
(for tips on what to do/expect when making the move yourself, checkout my other post here)
I recently moved from my home town of Toronto, Canada to downtown San Francisco. A lot of people have asked me why I moved (other than the job) so I thought I’d write a quick post about my move. Over the next few months I will also be publishing weekly (hopefully) updates about my journey into the heart of the tech world.
For the past couple of years I have been working at a small internet startup, immersed myself in startup culture, attended tech / startup events, talked and debated with startup people. In this experience, there was always one common denominator: no not startups… “The Valley” (Yes, I understand that San Francisco isn’t exactly in the “Valley”). At almost every experience I had, peoples’ experiences, anecdotes, connections always pointed back to a person, company or product that came out of the Bay area. It was surprising to me at first, but it eventually made more sense. In addition to the history of the area, the high standards + influence of nearby academic institutions, the Bay Area has a reputation of software projects and teams with drive, talent, experience and success.
But the nay-sayers argue that we (the software industry) look too blindly at the valley and put it on a pedestal. Great software can come from anywhere in the world. I totally agree on all those points. Many people do blindly look towards the Valley for the next big thing, the software industry does put the valley up on a pedestal while labeling other developing tech cities “the next valley”, and for sure, amazing software can come from anywhere in the world. There is no doubt that the Bay area is the center of the tech world. It was 10 years ago, it still is today. We can attempt to recreated these settings elsewhere, and Toronto is building an impressive scene, but it will take a long time to move out of the shadow.
If I was a serious American Football player, and was serious about one day playing in the Superbowl, I would apply to an American University and try damn hard to make it. In my case, I am a serious software developer. I am serious about making “something big” some day, so I moved to the Bay Area and am going to try damn hard to try to make it. I cannot replicate years of culture, hundreds of already rooted companies, and thousands of local talented minds. I can, however, relocate myself. And so I did.
The hardest part of the choice was:
-Leaving a company I helped build
-Moving very far away from my close family and friends
-Moving away from my girlfriend
-Leaping into the total unknown
The other things that helped me make my choice:
-I have endured 25 years of Toronto winters, I wanted a break
-I have never lived outside of Toronto
-I had an incredible offer to work for an amazing company
-I have a supportive family who was behind my decisions
-I have an amazing girlfriend who was on board with me 100%
-I am at a place in my life (financially, career, relationship) were I can afford to take risks
-I have very little to lose, and can always come back home
So I also forgot to mention that I took a job at Twitter. With ~200 brilliant people and growing strong, I’m in for an interesting ride. I packed up all my stuff, and moved to San Francisco. I’m sure not everyone will agree with my justifications, but I wanted to experience this for myself, and be part of something big. How many people who criticize the “overrated tech scene” in the Bay area have actually lived here? And to those who have lived here, it took first hand experience to formulate that opinion, let me experience then formulate my own. I’ll work as hard as I can to contribute to a product which affects and touches millions of people around the world. I will try to absorb every bit of information I can, and meet as many people as I can. And lastly, I will try to have some fun… .
Ian Chan's Blog 
Good luck!
It sounds really exciting!
People can say what they want about putting the Valley on a pedestal, but it’s still the center of the tech universe – and will be for the foreseeable future. It has the perfect mix of talent, venture capital, and academic foundations!
I like how you compared your visa to a golden ticket. That’s hilarious.
The “football player attending an American University” is a pretty neat analogy; I don’t think I’d ever thought of it that way before.
Anyways, welcome to the city.
Thanks, it was kind of Gladwellian… but seemed relevant. I have used a hockey example before, but football seemed more graspable. You are not going to be an NHL all-star if you live and play hockey in Egypt ;)
Great post! The Valley is always going to have an influence in the worldwide tech startup community. And there are so many seasoned entrepreneurs there to learn from. But I also think some of the next big ideas are coming from Israel and Europe. One of my personal goals is to go to Israel in the next couple of years to check out the tech startup community there. Israeli startups have been winning competitions such as TechCrunch and IBM Global Entrepreneur
Thanks for the comment! Yeah, I met Yossi Vardi at TechCrunch and in Toronto. He did a talk at a democamp and delighted the audience with hilarious anecdotes and his experiences with the tech scene in Israel. I’m waiting for you to make Toronto the next Valley. Then maybe I’ll come back ;)
Great post, as per usual!
Very interesting read as I am currently attempting to gauge how I really feel about what moving out of Toronto for the position with Redknee.
We all have your back, and know that you are going to do great things over there, cany wait to see where you end up!!
Great find,
I am moving from Toronto to SF as well.
If you have the time could you send me a quick email. I have a couple questions that would be amazing if you could answer.
Cheers
Hi Ian,
“Immersed myself in startup culture, attended tech / startup events, talked and debated with startup people.”
I’m luckily coming to San Francisco from India on account of winning a student competition, and really looking forward. But only for a week. And that’ll be it.
Looks like I’ll be greatly missing the city.
Do you think this is enough time to turn a visit into, idk, a summer Internship?
anything can happen! enjoy your trip to SF! I’m working down in Palo Alto now, but still live in SF. It’s a wonderful and exciting city.
Hi I am planing to move to San Francisco in a month. Can I get an advice where to look for a place to rent. I would prefer to be close to a food store . I prefer to leave at a safe place. What about their public transportation. is it reliable?