Toronto a top entrepreneurial city: Study

Nov 26, 2012 | Biz/Tech

by Jeanette Liu

Toronto is home to one of the top ecosystems worldwide for encouraging entrepreneurial activity, according to a report from a major research benchmarking firm.

In a list of the leading 20 cities across the globe,  Startup Genome has ranked Toronto as the eighth best metropolis for technological startups and entrepreneurial companies.

Toronto’s Board of Trade boasts 10,000 business members, so our city’s ranking comes as no surprise to me at all,” small business expert Roger Pierce told Humber News.

“Our businesses here get lots of program support and help. The report is merely a reflection of that.”

The report titled The Startup Revolution: The Global Rise of Startup Ecosystems and How They Compare reviewed and collected detailed benchmarking data from 50,000 startup businesses.

The study lists the top ecosystems for new tech-savvy corporations and ranks them based on criteria including talent, startup output and available funding, with Silicon Valley near San Francisco and Tel Aviv leading the pack of cities.

But not all business experts fully agree with the study’s findings.

“We’ve found that strong business startups need a government that supports it and larger cities, like Toronto, don’t necessarily have that,” vice president of the Canadian Federation of Business Ted Mallet told Humber News.

“Businesses based in the suburbs are better ecosystems for startups because they’re based closer to suppliers that offer lower cost items. They also aren’t taxed as heavily by the government as downtown businesses.”

Three Canadian cities have made the top 20 list, with Toronto and Vancouver placing eighth and ninth respectively and Waterloo ranking 16th.

Both Mallet and Pierce said they are hopeful Toronto will place higher in future.

Mallet offers entrepreneurs a few tips.

“New business owners should always ask for some marketing, finance and legal advice, even if they think they know all the answers,” he said.

“They should also preserve as much cash as they can because it takes a few years for startups to really survive and start making any money.”

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