Given we were founded and are headquartered in Seattle, it was exciting to see the Atlantic ranked Seattle as our nation’s leading high-tech mecca (last year). As Richard Florida of the Atlantic wrote:
“The index combines a measure of the concentration of high-tech companies (based on the Milken Institute’s Tech-Pole Index) and two measures of regional innovation, patents per capita and average annual patent growth. The table below lists the top 20 U.S. metros.”
| Metro | Technology Index Score | |
| 1. | Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | .996 |
| 2. | San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | .983 |
| 3. | San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | .976 |
| 4. | Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, OR | .956 |
| 5. | Austin-Round Rock, TX | .955 |
| 6. | Raleigh-Cary, NC | .952 |
| 7. | San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos | .945 |
| 8. | Durham, NC | .940 |
| 9. | Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH | .933 |
| 10. | Boulder, CO | .920 |
| 11. | Burlington-South Burlington, VT | .918 |
| 12. | Tucson, AZ | .912 |
| 13. | Provo-Orem, UT | .909 |
| 14. | Corvallis, OR | .898 |
| 15. | Huntsville, AL | .894 |
| 16. | Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown, NY | .893 |
| 17. | Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI | .891 |
| 17. | Madison, WI | .891 |
| 19. | Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA | .886 |
| 20. | Manchester-Nashua, NH | .885 |
In more recent news, our own Barry Crist (VP, Enterprise) was just interviewed by Forbes about why he chose to leave his Silicon Valley roots and stake his personal and professional life in the Pacific Northwest. Check out Kelly Clay‘s piece for Forbes here and read about why Barry thinks Seattle is a benefactor of the “Goldilocks Effect”:
“Seattle really is the “Goldilocks” tech market. If a market is too big, then it can be difficult to navigate or make an impact. But if a market’s too small, you don’t have the critical mass to get the money and talent you need to build a great company. Seattle strikes the balance, making it ‘just right’”.