KITCHENER - An international rock star among internet entrepreneurs praised Canada on Friday for expertly exploiting American restrictions on immigration by using billboards in Silicon Valley touting new Canadian visas for startup entrepreneurs.

"I tip my hat to you, bravo Canada, please give yourselves a round of applause," Alexis Ohanian said during a keynote speech at the Tannery in Kitchener.

Ohanian was co-founder of the popular online community Reddit, the travel site Hipmunk, and the digital publishing site Breadpig. He recently published a book - Without Their Permission - and is in the midst of a 175-city tour of North America.

"This is what it is going to take for American citizens and American lawmakers to realize: 'Oh wait, the whole secret sauce of the U.S. is allowing the best and brightest from all over the world to come an innovate,' " Ohanian said.

In June the Canadian government bought space on two billboards in the heart of the U.S. tech sector: "H-1B problems?" say the billboards. "Pivot to Canada. New Start-Up Visa. Low taxes."

The H-1B is a non-immigrant visa in the United States that allows companies to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialized jobs. Tech companies in Silicon Valley have long complained about the limits imposed on their access to foreign talent.

So Canada rolled out the startup visa in January of this year, and the billboards followed soon after.

"So whatever," Ohanian said. "We are working it out and in the meantime you guys are going to drink a lot of our milkshake. So kudos. It pisses me off, but you know what? Fine, fine."

Ohanian spoke at Techtoberfest, which spotlights promising startups in the Tannery. He had lots of advice for startups.

"Any expert who says they know everything is either a liar or delusional," Ohanian said.

Other advice and observations from the 30-year-old internet entrepreneur included:

•All startups begin the same way - by kids who do not know what they are doing.

•Every startup is in a perpetual state of disarray.

•The real challenges come after some initial success because more people are watching you.

•Your competitors will never beat you, you will beat yourself, so do not care for a minute about your competition.

•Don't be afraid of failure.

About four months after Reddit launched in 2005 the internet juggernaut Google sent an email and asked for a meeting. The fresh-faced grads from the University of Virginia flew to California on Google's dime and listened to an offer to buy their company.

"We tabled that because we knew deep down this meant we were onto something," Ohanian.

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Later that same year Ohanian and his partners are asked to a meeting at Yahoo! The young men are asked about the traffic on their site.

"We said: 'Well we are only a few months old, it is just a few thousand users a day, but it is growing week after week,' " Ohanian said.

"He looks at us and says: 'You guys are a rounding error compared to Yahoo! Like, why are you even here?' And we looked at each other and we thought: 'Damn, you invited us. Did you invite us to make fun of us?' " Ohanian said.

The meeting went poorly after that, but the founders of Reddit posted that quote on their office wall: "You are a rounding error compared to Yahoo!"

Ohanian said all entrepreneurs will meet people who, in his words, "bring the hate." So do whatever is necessary to ensure that does not keep you down.

"Because at the end of the day there are always going to be haters - always," Ohanian said.

The Brooklyn-based Ohanian had high praise for the startup community here in an interview after his speech.

"Especially because the community here is so, so high on entrepreneurship. It's really special," Ohanian said.

The focus on hardware among some startups - Pebble, BufferBox - is especially impressive because so many others are afraid of going there, he said.

"But up until very recently hardware is something most startup founders and investors feared because of all the barriers," Ohanian said.

"It is definitely very special, I love coming back here, not jut because of the wonderful Oktoberfest, which is great too, but also because there are a lot of really hungry entrepreneurs here," Ohanian said.