With an average of eight unicorns born each year (companies worth over $1B) throughout each of the past 10 years, it’s no surprise that startups are becoming much more common as entrepreneurs strive to create the next Facebook, Uber or Xiaomi. This increased interest in entrepreneurship has sparked the creation of startup communities around the world, and Hong Kong might be next.
Throughout the past year and a half, I have become fully immersed in the vibrant startup community in Waterloo. With a population of only about 550,000, more than 1,850 startups have been founded in Waterloo in the past 5 years alone making it the most dense startup region after Silicon Valley. More than $650 million in investment has been raised by local companies including VidYard, Thalmic Labs, and Aeryon Labs, and we now have our own unicorn, Kik Messenger.
