Hamont struuuugling....
needs moonshot:
1 of 4 radical ideas. Basically the only hope for hamont is to create a special economic zone.
- Self-driving cars only.
- Cycling only (or radical cycling-first urban infrastructure).
Do something that is so different you have to stand out. 0->1 Peter Theil.
Every trend you here about it overvalued and overrated. Once an industry has buzzwords, the window for opportunity has closed. Concatenation of buzzwords ~= fraud.
The less-good products/ideas/startups involve a TON of competition. When you compete like crazy, all the profits/benefits are competed away.
--- post on SWHAM @petersmaluck describes scenario similar to what I've experienced (as a fullstack javascript dev (Node + Angular/React)).
First we need to evaluate Hammer relative to its formidable peers: Toronto and Waterloo. It's hard to have a thriving tech ecosystem in Hamilton when the gravitational forces pull capital (human and financial) towards TO and KW. Massive headwind for #hamonttech.
There are also too few firms in Hamilton using modern tech stacks (I've read every posting on this site for 3 years), and the ones that are seem reluctant to pay market rates for developers.
Given proximity to KW and TO, and tech firms in Hamilton needs to be EXCEPTIONAL to attract talent. They must have either great pay/benefits/work culture, or cutting-edge tech stacks, or mind-blowing mission/motivational-Steve-Jobs-esque leadership.
If Hamilton firms fall short on 1 or 2 of the above 3 criteria (hint: most fall short on 2/3, or 3/3), they are toast. Can't compete on salary or remote work?? Bye, bye. Using legacy tech? No thanks. Leadership is average? Good Luck.