New York has emerged as a heavy-hitting startup ecosystem, with a strong foundation of entrepreneurial and tech talent, venture capital, accelerator and incubation programs. New York is now a serious alternative to the Bay Area for founders hoping to make it big.
The New York startup scene is starting to resemble the traditional New York economy. Companies and investors are looking for companies that are already making money instead of promises and potential grow.
There is a lot of support for companies and entrepreneurs that want to start their business in New York. Like any other big city, there is no shortage of accelerators, workspaces, business groups, events, and government initiatives.
The tech industry originally started in what is called the Silicon Alley (an area surrounding 23rd Street and has since expanded up North to Harlem and the Bronx, as well as out to Queens, and even to entirely new developments in Brooklyn. Silicon Alley is still filled with traditional tech companies (Fintech, AdTech, etc.), while Brooklyn attracts more UrbanTech and CreativeTech companies, FoodTech.
Biotechnology startups are showing up in Queens and social good enterprises are setting up in Harlem and the Bronx.
Ecosystem
The Concrete Jungle was ranked number 2 in the Top 20 Global Startup Ecosystem by Startup Genome. New York city is now the second largest startup ecosystem in the world, having up to 7,800 active startups in the marketplace. It is also the 3rd most valuable city, with an estimated worth of 71 billion dollars.
The NYC ecosystem also outperformed the global averages in a number of key areas, such as average salaries, number of female and immigrant founders, and employee experience.
Industries
NYC has various sectors with great impact in this city’s economy and lifestyle, including Finance and Insurance, Mass Media and Information Technology. The last one includes companies dealing with digital and new media, the internet, telecommunications, etc. Over US$2.1BN was generated in capital in the first half of 2014 in Silicon Alley and an approximate 43,000 city residents are employed by the sector in that year.
Wall Street in Manhattan, New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ turn this city into the world’s premier financial center.
Events
The main technology events in New York are LMHQ Programming, NY Tech Meetup, TheLi.st Monthly Meetups, AlleyNYC’s Happy Hour Showcase, Mashable’s Social Good Summit and Startup Grind New York.
