Entrepreneurs transforming Vancouver into "Silicon Valley North"

A new YouTube video titled “Grow Inc.” presents Vancouver as a city “fast becoming Silicon Valley North.”

“It’s the best of Seattle, the best of San Francisco, and the best of L.A., all kind of rolled into one,” says Rob Glaser, a pioneer in audio and video on the web.

Also making a prominent appearance in the video is Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson .

“Technology is now a critical part of Vancouver’s economy,” the mayor notes. “We have more jobs in technology than we have in mining, oil and gas, and forestry combined. Over 80,000 technology jobs….We have amazing clusters of talent here and it is driving the economy of the city now.”

Among the many tech entrepreneurs featured are GrowConf’s Deb Landa, Perch’s Danny Robinson, Topix’s Chris Tolles, Wantering’s Matt Friesen, BattleFly’s Jason Xu, My Best Helper’s Alexandra Greenhill, Thinkific’s Greg Smith, Weeve’s Alex Chuang, Urban Airship’s Scott Kveton, and Placespeak’s Colleen Hardwick, among others.

Bigger players also offer their opinions about working in Vancouver, including Ryan Holmes, CEO of the social media tool Hootsuite—which could be worth as much as half a billion dollars—and PayPal senior director West Stringfellow.

The 22-minute video was produced by Telus and M2O Digital Agency.