Boris Mann points to Jeff Griffiths who writes about Caterina Fake's widely-linked essay explaining why she thinks 2006 is a bad time to start a company. John Gruber sort of misquotes David Heinemeier Hansson (also widely-linked), who says it's a great time to start a business: “You know, the kind that develops a product or service and asks money for it.” Also: “You don't need to live in San Francisco to make it big.” That's Boris' point: ActiveState, eBusiness Applications, Sxip and even EZ Systems are relatively successful Vancouver-based businesses or businesses with a Vancouver presence (hi Zak!). I don't claim to know how to start a business, but the ones around me seem to be keen on filling unmet needs, or at least creating products that have the semblance of a business model—and a business plan—behind them.
(In fairness to John, he did correctly title his link. But his comment places the emphasis on 'company', where David placed the emphasis on 'business'.)
