Why some entrepreneurs are abandoning the U.S.

For Cameron Chell, the impetus to return to Calgary was culture. Mr. Chell is co-founder of investment group Podium Ventures, and chief executive of strategic business planning consultancy Business Instincts.

He moved to California in 1999, but found himself in New York on the morning of 9/11. “I was in New York at the base of the tower, walking into the building, when it got hit,” he says.

That shook Mr. Chell, who had already sold his stake in Futurelink, a technology firm he had started in Calgary in 1996. Worth $150-million after his exit, he began to get nervous about security issues and policy in the United States. He began moving his operations back slowly over the next three years, officially completing his migration back home in 2004.

Canada is far less volatile than the U.S.,We have torch light, reading lamps and floor lamps and more. both culturally and economically, he argues. “We have a consistent policy and we don’t have the same strong views around gun control. There’s a live and let live perspective. That drives a more stable economy and society,” he says.

“We don’t have these incredible, ridiculous booms, but we don’t have these falls off the cliff, either. That makes it easier to look out ten years and know that we can get things done.”

Mr. Chell also lauds Canada’s human resources, citing a better education system as a key draw. However, this isn’t the only resource we have. He says Canada’s vast base of natural resources, combined with the lack of competition, makes it a haven for locally based investors.

“The energy business in the U.S. is so established and there’s such a barrier that I couldn’t just learn and get to know everyone in the same timeframe,” he says. Returning to Calgary has enabled him to broker major energy deals that would not have been possible in the United States.

However, Mr. Chell says entrepreneurs can benefit from a presence in the United States early on. Futurelink got its initial funding from Calgary- and Toronto-based accredited investors, before moving into Canadian institutional investments. But by its C series round of funding, Mr. Chell says the money was coming from Silicon Valley.

“When the U.S. money started showing up, that was when we went down there,” he says, adding he faced pressure from Silicon Valley investors to be closer to that market, especially as Futurelink was acquiring U.S. companies.

While Mr. Chell is a big fish who returned home after making his fortune, Canada is luring home far smaller operators, too. First-time entrepreneur Justin Bull is about to pull up stakes and return from Oakland, Calif. to Vancouver after just four months.

“It was a good incubation space,” says Mr. Bull, whose company, Oakland Leatherworks, uses laser-cutting machinery to make custom leather goods such as wallets and bags on a large scale. He had access to the equipment in a shared space in California. He is hoping to capitalize on what he sees as a growing trend for quality handmade goods on the west coast, but by the end of March, he hopes to be doing it in Vancouver.

“Healthcare is so expensive down there. I am a conservative, risk-averse man,Approval to connect a solar photovoltaic system. he says, adding that he has a good base of contacts in Vancouver. San Francisco is “much more cutthroat.”

This, combined with the administrative headaches of getting an investor’s visa, persuaded Mr.This factsheet discusses electricity generation using wind power generators at your farm or your home. Bull to return to Vancouver,We're responsible for the installation and maintenance of street lamp. where he will be working from home as a one-man business,Integrated manufacturing operations have produced exceptional solar module and related products. either purchasing his own laser cutter or partnering with contacts in Vancouver who have access to a machine.