September 14, 2010 Industry Canada Office of the Honourable Tony Clement Minister of Industry C.D.

Howe Building 235 Queen Street Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0H5 Dear Tony, I am writing to you today to ask for your support for Startup Visa Canada. Startup Visa Canada is an initiative designed to encourage the brightest entrepreneurial minds from around the world to choose Canada as the best place to start a company, which in turn would create jobs and provide more investment opportunities in Canada. By eliminating the barriers that immigrant entrepreneurs currently face when trying to obtain a visa to start a business, Startup Visa will enable Canada to remain competitive in the global startup economy. Currently, the federal and provincial governments’ entrepreneurial programs contain minimum personal fixed asset provisions of about $300,000 and a long approval process that make it nearly impossible for immigrant entrepreneurs to start companies here. Many young entrepreneurs do not have the money or capital required to be approved under these programs and are denied a visa. Immigrant entrepreneurs face similar barriers when applying for a visa to start a company in the United States. Recognizing the opportunity for economic growth, many prominent entrepreneurs and venture capitalists in Silicon Valley spearheaded a Startup Visa initiative in the US and legislation is now pending in Congress, sponsored by senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Richard Lugar (R-IN). (startupvisa.com) As part of the American’s effort to persuade the government, they’ve been using Canadian entrepreneurs as their primary source of deal flow. We would like to beat the Americans to the punch but we need your guidance and support to take this initiative to the next level. How it Could Work The Startup Visa Canada Initiative would create an alternate visa program that:

• would swap the minimum asset provisions with a minimum Canadian investment of $150,000.
• enable qualified Immigrants to partner with pre-approved local investor(s) to expedite their temporary work permits.
• would require Immigrants to have at least a third equity position in their companies, be active in management and create at least 3 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs over the course of a 2-year program period.

Step 1 We recognize that it could take up to a year to get a program like this approved by the Canadian government. Therefore, we would like to propose that while the program is being structured that we kick off a Pilot Program, which would include a select group of immigrant entrepreneurs and investors. The entrepreneurs accepted into this program would be first nominated by local investors, and then approved by you and will have received, or a firm offer to receive, a minimum investment of $150,000 from accredited and qualified Canadian investors. I have attached some background information about Startup Visa in Canada and the US for you to review. Please advise what you think the next best steps are to get this initiative launched. We are standing by, ready to reach out to other key influencers across Canada to demonstrate widespread support for Startup Visa Canada. Sincerely,

Danny Robinson

BACKGROUNDER: StartUp Visa is an initiative spearheaded by Boris Wertz, W Media Ventures, and Danny Robinson, Bootup Labs, after encountering red tape in building relationships with innovative immigrants. Studies have found that immigrant-founded companies account for almost 30% of founders in software and computer start-ups[1], and fast-growing new firms account for 10% of job growth in the economy.[2] According to the Kaufmann report, in the US the average firm creates almost 3 jobs a year, compared to earlier (3-5 year old) companies creating 27 jobs per year. While immigration is constitutionally a federal matter in Canada, the government has provincial PNP programs in place to allow the promotion of immigration appropriate to the province’s (generally economic) interest. For information on existing provincial programs please consult the links on the following page: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/ provincial/apply-who.asp.

There is a federal Entrepreneurship Program under the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/business/entrepreneurs/index.asp. This program requires $300,000 in personal assets and only applies to businesses that have already existed for at least 2 years prior to applying. The StartUp Visa Act was introduced in the US Senate and House, earlier this year. It requires $250,000 in financing secured from US nationals and the further creation of 5 jobs or further $1 million dollar investment or revenues, in the 2-year program period. Investors are qualified in either angel (at least 2 investments of $50,000 in each year of the 3-year lead-up to application) or venture capital structure ($10 million total capital commitments with 2 investments of $500,000 in each of a 2-year lead up to application). For the full text of the legislation click here: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c111:3:./temp/ ~c111AgAw5T::. Links for your further consideration: · Start-up Visas Can Jump-Start the Economy – Wall St. Journal · The Founders Visa Movement – Brad Feld · The Founders Visa – Paul Graham · The Startup Visa And Why The Xenophobes Need To Go Back Into Their Caves – Techcrunch · Startup Canada Petition: http://blog.bootuplabs.com/2009/12/11/startup-visa-canada/

[1] Applied Research in Economic Development, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 6-14, 2008 [2] High Growth Firms and the Future of the American Economy, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, 2009.

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