Why Vancouver.dev?

Toki,•tech community
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Since moving to Vancouver last year, one of the most challenging aspects I have encountered is networking. Meeting like-minded people in Vancouver has proven to be a real struggle.

Truth be told, When it comes to tech, Vancouver is not as vibrant as our southern neighbour city Seattle, let alone San Francisco.

One day, after becoming frustrated enough, I told myself, "Come on, there must be something I can do."

So, I started a Discord server with a vision in mind.

Wouldn’t it be cool to have a place where tech folks, especially developers, can hang out? Just like that, the name Vancouver.dev (opens in a new tab) came to mind. I bought the domain, set up a simple landing page, and went on our local Reddit community, asking if anyone currently in tech would like to join our community.

Boom! In a short span since I started, the community has not only grown but is also continuing to expand. As of today, the day I'm writing this blog, we have almost 800 members.

It’s not just something that exists online, we also organize in-person events. We host events such as:

What’s the vision?

I want to see Vancouver become one of the best tech hubs in North America.

How to achieve this?

There is no simple solution here, it's very complicated. But a tech community like this is a start.

We can't change things overnight, but I believe that if we come together to help each other grow, build startups, one day we’d be known. We need to make noise. By this, I mean we need to build things here in Vancouver. We simply don’t have great companies in Vancouver. Period.

We need to change that to attract more VCs or businesses to come here. I hope people can find their co-founder(s) within our community and build a company that becomes well-known worldwide.

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