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10 or 15 years ago, Boston was easily the top tech city in the Northeast and the closest thing Silicon Valley had to a rival. But, Boston semes to have stumbled a little bit lately, while NYC has been rapidly rising.
Has NYC now overtaken Boston in this area?
BTW, I mean as a hub of innovative tech start ups. Not corporate IT staffs of which NYC obviously has more.
NYC now attracts more VC dollars than Boston, thanks to the social media explosion and various other startups.
I would say one could go with either. Boston is the traditional tech hub, but startups are concentrated in the Bay Area and NYC, so that's where the dollars flow.
I'd probably still say Boston, although NYC through virtue of its size, has more tech jobs(CIO.com - Geek America: The Top 10 U.S. Cities for Technology Jobs - 1. New York Metro Area). Both areas have world renowned universities that attract top talent, but Boston has MIT to feed its science/tech sector. Bloomberg is also offering essentially free land to establish an engineering school in Manhattan which if it comes to fruition would serve to diversify NYC's business sectors. As of now, as Wall Street goes, so goes the city.
NYC now attracts more VC dollars than Boston, thanks to the social media explosion and various other startups.
I would say one could go with either. Boston is the traditional tech hub, but startups are concentrated in the Bay Area and NYC, so that's where the dollars flow.
Social media is more marketing/media folks, which makes sense as NYC has that. Same thing with Chicago and Groupon for instance. They have talented people in those arenas.
As the OP said, I don't really view that as "tech"... I view tech as R&D oriented.
NYC now attracts more VC dollars than Boston, thanks to the social media explosion and various other startups.
I would say one could go with either. Boston is the traditional tech hub, but startups are concentrated in the Bay Area and NYC, so that's where the dollars flow.
Where did you hear NYC was attracting more VC dollars than Boston? This report says that's wrong.
NYC Metro attracted $624 Million in venture capital in Q2 2011, while New England attracted $1.108 Billion. Yes, I know it says "New England" and not Boston, but there's not much tech cash going to Maine, Vermont, Northern NH or Western MA. It's basically all concentrated in the Boston area. At the very most, $100M is spent outside of Boston's sphere of influence.
So venture capital is still very much in Boston's favor.
However the number of startups are very much in New York's favor: Since January of 2009, New York has had 24 major startups while Boston has only had 11.
So overall, there are more startups in New York, but more money in Boston. However the greater amount of money in Boston may be flowing to larger, more established companies funding new projects rather than fresh startups.
In terms of overall innovation, Boston has a slight edge according to this list...though New York isn't far behind. They both did extremely well, ranking #1 and #5 globally.
All in all, I'd say they're basically even with a small edge to Boston.
Where did you hear NYC was attracting more VC dollars than Boston? This report says that's wrong.
NYC Metro attracted $624 Million in venture capital in Q2 2011, while New England attracted $1.108 Billion. Yes, I know it says "New England" and not Boston, but there's not much tech cash going to Maine, Vermont, Northern NH or Western MA. It's basically all concentrated in the Boston area. At the very most, $100M is spent outside of Boston's sphere of influence.
So venture capital is still very much in Boston's favor.
However the number of startups are very much in New York's favor: Since January of 2009, New York has had 24 major startups while Boston has only had 11.
So overall, there are more startups in New York, but more money in Boston. However the greater amount of money in Boston may be flowing to larger, more established companies funding new projects rather than fresh startups.
In terms of overall innovation, Boston has a slight edge according to this list...though New York isn't far behind. They both did extremely well, ranking #1 and #5 globally.
All in all, I'd say they're basically even with a small edge to Boston.
I agree on Boston, though NYC does pretty well.
On your last link it was interesting in that all 4 large NE cities are among the worlds top 30 (Boston being #1). And 4 of the top 5 (Bay area being the other) US cities on this ranking are in the NE, with only these 5 recieving a NEXUS designation in the whole US - tech/innovation is not always top of mind for the NE (Boston aside) yet it performs very well in this regard, as well as so many other key industries. (On a personal note Philly often labeled dead and blue collar ranked ahead of oft bandied Seattle and Austin as an example and DC is very substantial in this regard and growing its influence)
On your last link it was interesting in that all 4 large NE cities are among the worlds top 30 (Boston being #1). And 4 of the top 5 (Bay area being the other) US cities on this ranking are in the NE, with only these 5 recieving a NEXUS designation in the whole US - tech/innovation is not always top of mind for the NE (Boston aside) yet it performs very well in this regard, as well as so many other key industries. (On a personal note Philly often labeled dead and blue collar ranked ahead of oft bandied Seattle and Austin as an example and DC is very substantial in this regard and growing its influence)
Nice links, thanks for sharing
Yea Philadelphia certainly gets overlooked in this regard. It'll get its due credit soon enough!
NYC metro is also 3x larger than Boston...7.5m vs 22m
something to think about.
Yes but an intangible of NYC is the greater control of the meny flow and even VC funding. Nothing or no place works in isolation but NYC via concentration of money/fund control exudes influence in virtually every industry.
Also NYC is a large player in so many industries even within its Metro that many times areas (like this) can be overshawdowed by other facets of the NYC economy. Boston also has very good finance representation among other industries as well but is excellent in this specific regard (as caymon says on the per capita basis) and most definately a core economic driver the Boston area at a higher percentage basis than would be NYC.
Top of mind for Boston, innovation jumps to mind, for NYC it is not the case even though it is still very much a major player in this regard
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