sean
3.3K posts
Totally fair and important nuance.
I think two things can be true at once:
1. Vancouver’s startup ecosystem has underperformed. We’ve struggled to scale companies, retain HQs, access capital, and turn innovation into large employers. That deserves scrutiny.
2. We are also seeing real growth in tech-adjacent sectors: AI, VFX, gaming, cloud, enterprise software and global firms expanding here (Netflix, Amazon, Microsoft workday, etc).
The bigger issue for me is that Vancouver still lacks a coordinated economic ambition. We need more HQ growth, more scale-ups, stronger university commercialization, and a serious talent + capital strategy.
We shouldn’t overhype, guilty of that at times but if I don’t talk about it the general public wouldn’t know anything so for that reason we shouldn’t ignore real momentum.
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Hey @KarmSumal, how do we reconcile Vancouver’s precipitous drop in startup ecosystem rankings (top 10>to 15> to #36), $25B in value lost and our stagnant job #s. I always respected your real talk. So what’s going on? How do we decipher the hype from reality? #BCecon #bctech
Karm Sumal@KarmSumal
Vancouver (and BC)is quietly becoming serious players in the future economy. Companies like D-Wave, Photonic, Sanctuary AI, AbCellera, Clio, and Sierra Space are proof we can compete globally in quantum, AI, biotech, aerospace, and advanced computing. Problem is the Province still governs like it’s 1998. BC needs a dedicated Future Economy office or czar focused on: - quantum computing - AI infrastructure - semiconductors - energy strategy - talent retention - commercialization - global investment attraction I would happily take that on and build out the team for this. The next economic boom won’t happen accidentally.
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@AnnikaSays Importing 11,000 foreign entrepreneurs and less than 700 unqualified investors for a week is um, something
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This isn't going to make me friends but:
I don't think Web Summit is doing much for Vancouver's early-stage tech scene
I walked the floor a bunch this week and did not feel inspired. A big share of the booths were regional governments doing economic development. The local builders actually doing interesting work mostly weren't there.
I do think it does a real thing for the established-tech-at-big-companies crowd — networking, panels, lanyards. That's additive for them. But I don't think it encourages the grassroots "let's take big swings and defy the status quo" vibe this city so desperately needs more of
Toronto Tech Week is the comparison I keep coming back to. Community-led, dozens of side events run by the people actually building
Web Summit does serve a purpose, and there are certainly benefits to it being here
But we don't need to outsource our builder credibility to a global conference coming to town. We have the ingredients already.
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@KarmSumal @MikeKlassen You are right. We used to be proud of our unique, economic success and now the discourse has soured. Perhaps the medium is the message. Time to rebuild our economic development muscle. It’s been far too atrophied for far too long.
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People really underestimate how much tech expansion is happening in Vancouver right now. Could we do more. Hell yes. And we will.
In just the last year or so:
- Netflix opened a massive 110,000 sq ft animation/VFX campus in Mount Pleasant (450+ staff, Eyeline VFX joining)
- Amazon completed its move into The Post — now fully occupying all 1.1M sq ft
- ILM opened a new 40,000 sq ft studio at The Stack, now 950+ staff, their largest office globally
- Sony Imageworks moved its global HQ into The Post
- Databricks opened a Vancouver R&D centre (a $100B+ AI company)
- Workday signed an anchor lease at 601 West Hastings, their first major Vancouver office
- Asana expanded into 601 West Hastings too
- Boomi opened a 54,000 sq ft Centre of Excellence at Bentall Centre
- Autodesk opened its first permanent West Coast office
- Wayve launched a Vancouver AI/autonomous systems hub
- Gumloop reopened a Vancouver office (after moving HQ to SF)
- Quandri opened a new 15,000 sq ft HQ
- Sanctuary AI continues building humanoid robots here
Vancouver is quietly becoming one of North America's biggest AI, VFX, gaming and creative tech hubs.
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@theBreakerNews Still no one talking about what all these new people will ‘do’. Vancouver #econdev crisis coming soon.
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Kits Point residents kept in the dark over impact of traffic from Senakw towers #vanpoli #cdnfoi
thebreaker.news/news/senakw-fo…
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sean retweetledi
sean retweetledi
Introducing Durable.
The first AI business builder that replaces your 9-5 income.
RT + comment “Durable” and we'll build your business for FREE.
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sean retweetledi
We asked people around the world to rate the morality and ethics of others in their country.
The U.S. is the only place we surveyed where more adults describe the morality and ethics of others living in the country as bad than good. See our full morality report here: pewresearch.org/religion/2026/…
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dear @BlueJays, I’ll be in Toronto on Friday, and I’m ready and able to sing our 🇨🇦 anthem if needed. ⚾️ #WorldSeries
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🇨🇦 In Vancouver, the affordability reset makes the U.S. look tame.
•Median detached home: $1.95M
•Median household income: $90K
•Ratio: 22× vs 6–8× l
To return to 2016–19 affordability:
👉 Prices down ~50%
👉 Incomes up ~50%+
👉 Rates back near pandemic lows
#vanpoli
unusual_whales@unusual_whales
To return to 2016-2019 levels of home affordability, 3 things must happen per Fannie Mae: - Median price of a single family home would need to follow 38%; - Median household income would have to rise more than 60% to $134,500 - Mortgage rates would have to fall 2.3% from 6.%
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sean retweetledi
Anthropic co-founder Ben Mann on why he chose Montessori for his daughter:
"If this were 10-20 years ago, I'd be lining her up for top-tier schools and extracurriculars. But now I don't think any of it's going to matter. Learning facts is going to fade into the background. What matters is that she's happy, thoughtful, curious, and kind."
Lenny Rachitsky@lennysan
Ben Mann (@8enmann) left @OpenAI in 2020 with the entire safety team to co-found @AnthropicAI (now reportedly valued at over $100B). In a rare interview, Ben opens up about: 🔸 What he saw at OpenAI that convinced him to leave 🔸 The AI nightmare scenarios that concern him most 🔸 His take on Meta’s $100M talent wars 🔸 Why he believes 20% unemployment is inevitable 🔸 His “economic Turing test” for knowing when we’ve achieved AGI—and why it’s likely coming by 2027-2028 🔸 How focusing on AI safety created Claude’s beloved personality 🔸 What three skills he’s teaching his kids to thrive in an AI future 🔸 So much more Listen now 👇 • YouTube: youtu.be/WWoyWNhx2XU • Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/2dhEd0… • Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ant… Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for supporting the podcast: 🏆 Sauce.app —Turn customer pain into product revenue: sauce.app/lenny 🏆 @Lucid_Link—Real-time cloud storage for teams: lucidlink.com/lenny 🏆 @Fin_ai—The #1 AI agent for customer service: fin.ai/lenny
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Now think about the fact that despite all this, Canada has less than 75% of America's income, its economy has barely grown in 30 years, and now it's going to start killing its depressed kids to save money.
How bad do you have to be to lose to a bunch of retards like America.
sid 🌹🔆🇨🇦@lilbabygandhi
Your president is a pedophile, you’ve shredded your influence across the world, your democratic and judicial institutions are collapsing, and your economy is poised to blow up. Maybe stop being so glib about Canada you retard
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.@chamath making Greta Thunberg autism jokes is the exact opposite of the #TorontoTechWeek energy I've seen so far this week. I hope it doesn't continue.
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You’re such a strong communicator @Jason. How can you not see your role and the role of your counterparts in the deepening of the tech-lash? It hurts us all.
@jason@Jason
📝 They used to burn the cop cars
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They don’t. Tell your president to reverse them @Jason.
@jason@Jason
Where can I read the exact details and mechanics of how these tariffs work?
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