If You Can Make It There

Forget New York City and San Francisco. The next great startup hub is

- Felix Salmon

For a childless 20-something male programmer, fueled by caffeine and ambition and seeking millions in VC funding, the San Francisco Bay Area is North America’s startup hot spot. But if you’re looking for the most plausible contender to soon supplant it, look to a city a couple thousand miles east. It’s home to companies that might have a bit more humanity, run by well adjusted entrepreneurs building sustainable businesses that employ a talented and diverse workforce. Welcome to Toronto.

World-beating, people-centered companies have long been birthed and thrive in Toronto, including Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts and MAC Cosmetics. It’s a natural home for the kind of people who really start companies (rather than the people who start companies in the movies): mid-career men and women, who care not only about their work but also about their families. Toronto’s health and family-leave benefits are more generous than those found in the United States. That, coupled with its strong school system, does wonders in terms of providing opportunities by taking certain key stresses out of the equation.