I love that people who don't work in tech can still afford to live in Toronto. I don't think we're doing as well as we could to combat income inequality, but I'm glad we aren't throwing billions of dollars at overinflated startups. Hell, the biggest recent Canadian startup success story is Shopify, which actually sells real products and has revenue. Not just "slap some ads on it and we'll turn a profit".

> But that insulated bubble is tremendously helpful for growing from a little shitstorm of a startup into something potentially world-changing.

I think that if your main goal in your startup is to raise capital from tech investors then you are correct that SV is where you need to be.

But in terms of actually building a business in the early days where head-down heavy lifting is required, I don't really see what SV offers that Toronto or Montreal do not. There are countless brilliant people in the Canadian tech community if what you are looking for is discussion or mentorship.

Then stop pretending that going to Silicon Valley is part of any social views and just go with the fact that it's easier to get money thrown at you in Silicon Valley and your just feeding another problem.

To your edit: > It's not just about funding. It's about finding like-minded individuals

That's one problem you're part of fueling. There is no reason you can't have people work remotely. You shouldn't have to go to a physical place to find like minded people. However, thanks to people looking at funding can only happen in SV, and then start-ups being somehow having such a backwards view that if you're not in the seat I can see it's to hard to work as a team, and the believe that the only place to find decent, 'like-minded' people are in SV, everyone has to go to SV to get a job.

So a little bubble ends up sucking up a whole bunch of money and being a contributor to growing social problems in both SV and where ever everyone comes from.