No homeowner in Wisconsin should contemplate adding tropics-loving banana trees to her garden. Similarly, Floridians will quickly discover that lilac bulbs produce little but headaches in their neck of the woods.
Every organism prefers a specific type of home base; your app or tech startup is no different. Although you might not consider an entrepreneurial venture as being sensitive to its surrounding climate, it is.
Your choice of location for your headquarters could have just as much effect on incoming venture capital, scalability, and business exit options as the offerings you produce.
In the United States, four top contenders have arisen as tech business beacons. As an entrepreneur, you could find yourself choosing between two or more, or you might discover that one area is clearly the winning locale.
1. Silicon Valley
Without a doubt, Silicon Valley has become the primary place people think of when they hear the words “technology” and “startup.” In three decades, this almost mythical region has taken on a life of its own. Remember how wannabe stars dreamed of Broadway? Wannabe Zuckerbergs and Musks are drawn to the Valley.
Silicon Valley is a hub of serious activity and an incubator for major networking. There, you’ll be shoulder to shoulder with emerging talent. Tons of tech players — not just Google — are located in the Valley, like cloud solutions provider Zymr, my company Arkenea - a software consulting firm, and Appster. You might even be able to “steal” workers occasionally; this kind of employment swap is common in hot markets.
Yet beware: All that glitters may not be gold; alternatively, you may require a lot of gold to survive. In San Jose, you can expect your cost of living to be almost double the average found in the rest of the country.
Plus, the Silicon Serengeti crawls with other hungry entrepreneurs seeking money from the same investors as you, not to mention jockeying for market share. The cutthroat nature of the Valley makes sense; you just have to prepare yourself for the realities of life in a tech bubble.
2. East Coast
At the other end of the country, we have the East Coast, including places like Boston and New York City. Rather than one Valley, this is a swath of tech startup towns. StartApp, the rising golden child from a couple years back, is enjoying its heyday with New York roots and national and international tentacles.
Befitting the momentum preferred by East Coast Type A personalities, tech startup founders are expected to be on the go. Setting up shop in Brooklyn, like mobile app star Faction Studio, means you need to plan to hop a train, plane, or car to do your networking; it’s not available down the street.
Early-stage funding is flowing steadily into New York City, but for only a surprising few — and limited — technologies. Creating a healthcare app? You might be out of favor with East Coast investors. But if your app focuses on clean technology, the East Coast could have you hitting the jackpot.
3. Midcontinent
Think everyone in Middle America wears overalls and hats or works on a farm? Successful tech companies like software project developing firm KitelyTech and app prototype creation developer SnapMobile prove those assumptions wrong.
The Midwest now boasts more than a quarter of the Fortune 1000 companies, and that’s saying something. From Ohio to Missouri and Michigan to Indiana, startups are percolating in Midwestern cities. Take Chicago, for example: In 2014, it rocked the tech world; more than $1.5 billion in funding and nearly $7 billion in exits turned heads toward the Windy City.
Entrepreneurs are looking beyond the glitz into the nuts and bolts of creating a foundation on stable midcontinent soil. Unsurprisingly, venture capital firms like Mercury Fund, which specializes in SaaS and app developers and connects organizations with local vendors and resources, have noticed.
They use their expertise to build infrastructure in the middle of the country, providing more robust opportunities and a better quality of life for all Americans.
4. Overseas
The fourth option on the table for small app and tech businesses? Outside the United States’ boundaries. From Vancouver to Dubai, international cities are attracting entrepreneurs. Their pull is what sends climbers to the top of Mount Everest: the unique challenge.
Culturally, startups may find assimilation tough in some parts of the world. At the same time, they could discover that some foreign-born workers are accustomed to a much different relationship with their employers, leading to production issues. This doesn’t even touch upon language barriers.
Yet you needn’t jettison the idea of becoming an expat tech startup founder. Monies are available in many parts of the world, especially in countries and cities that want more than a toehold in the global marketplace. Plus, you may be rewarded by locals for initially branding your tech offerings in their area.
As Dorothy wistfully noted, “There’s no place like home.” Your startup deserves a place where it can safely evolve under the best possible circumstances and be enveloped by opportunities.
If you look around your community and don’t feel the love, you may be better off packing your suitcases and venturing into more welcoming arms.
