Silicon Valley and Seattle are rightfully the most famous U.S. cities for tech innovation. Google, Twitter and Facebook call the former home, while Seattle claims Amazon, Microsoft and Zillow.
We know those stories already though. New tech innovators might want to try their hand somewhere where innovation is the new word in town and everything is up for grabs.
For the success stories of tomorrow, where else should you be looking within the U.S. and around the world? Fueled gives you the answer.
1. Boulder, Colorado
Boulder, Colorado has the highest concentration of tech start-ups in the country. A study by the Kaufmann Foundation found that Boulder had six times the number of start-ups per capita than anywhere else US.
Nestled in the Rocky Mountains, Boulder might not be the easiest place to get to, or to get supplies delivered to, but the city itself is beautiful.
In fact, the quality of life is one of the things which draw innovators to the city and with the community thriving, it seems to keep them there too.
2. Tel Aviv, Israel
We don’t often hear about Tel Aviv as anything other than a risky conflict zone, but the impression is one-sided.
Tel Aviv is the city in the world with the highest density of start-ups. Babylon and Mirabilis are some of their success stories but the industry tends to focus on tech-driven innovation, rather than mass-appeal headline winners like Facebook or Google.
While it can be harder to secure investment than in Silicon Valley, Tel Aviv is beginning to be more proud of its innovators.
3. Los Angeles, California
Relatively speaking, L.A. is not so far away from Silicon Valley so it’s unsurprising than the enthusiasm for tech has spread to the city more often associated with entertainment than innovation. The community is strong and growing, and there are venture capitalists in town willing to fund new projects.
4. Toronto, Canada
Toronto is the best city for tech startups in Canada. With local initiatives in support of innovation, their share is likely to increase. Wave Accounting and FreshBooks both hail from Toronto. Key players have embraced outsourcing as a way to cut costs without cutting corners.
5. Bangalore, India
For too long, India has been seen as a source of cheap labour – a place to outsource menial tasks, rather than a place to source new ideas. Long the ideal destination for IT outsourcing, Bangaloreans are now developing their own ideas and taking their place on the startup map. Furthermore, US graduates are also recognizing that the low cost of materials and labour make Bangalore a great place for anyone to try out a new idea.
6. Santiago, Chile
In terms of number of start-ups, Santiago cannot compete with some of the other heavyweights on this list. But what is curious about their developing start-up culture, is the alternate demographics at work. 20% of start-ups are founded by women, compared to only 10% in Silicon Valley and they also rely lest heavily on the Silicon Valley diaspora for their ideas.
7. Boston, Massachusetts
Boston is a great place for startups, especially those focussing bid data. For healthcare and biotechnology it’s also a great place to be. Education is excellent in Boston so there’s no shortage of intelligent workers and mentors for innovators. Ovuline, AppNata and DataXu started here.
Fueled is the world’s premier development and strategy firm specializing in creating Android and iPhone apps.
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