Tech startups: location, location, location

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Published: 3:15pm, 10 Apr 2014Updated: 12:25pm, 30 Jun 2014

Where in the world can a person go to become a successful entrepreneur? The list isn’t just limited to international cities. Nearly every country has a city to go to with at least some semblance of a startup sector. Sydney, Sao Paulo, Moscow, Berlin, Waterloo (Canada), Singapore, Melbourne, Santiago, and Bangalore all have viable ecosystems for a startup. It just depends where an individual feels comfortable going and what they intend to do. Plus language is obviously a huge factor.

MBAs know that if they want their startups to be successful, the old adage of “location, location, location” comes into play. Tech business entrepreneurs know that San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles and London are ideal cities for startup success because of their ability to draw competitive talent while still being in close proximity to investors and customers. The cities themselves also usually offer economic incentives to keep it that way, too. But beyond Silicon Valley or the Silicon Roundabout, what are some other burgeoning tech startup hotspots around the world? The answers may surprise you.

Staying within the ‘Silicon’ nomenclature, Silicon Beach in sunny Los Angeles has made significant startup strides within the past few years. Internet companies seem to spring into success in Silicon Beach and the southern California hotspot can count Hulu, eHarmony, and LegalZoom amongst its protégés. Its nearness to the University of California: Los Angeles, the University of Southern California, and the California Institute of Technology helps feed its ever-growing Internet sector, while also offering an easy route to the bigger market of Silicon Valley for engineers.

On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, Hong Kong is making waves. In the past, Chinese students have studied abroad and ended up living abroad for better economic opportunities. However, a new tech-savvy generation is doing just the opposite: studying overseas and then returning to places like Hong Kong to invest their education into their native land. The Hong Kong government has taken steps to reciprocate this investment and vies to become the predominant startup city in Asia. Tech company powerhouses have taken note and companies like Google have begun to invest in Hong Kong’s tech startup future. Hong Kong still has lots of room to grow, and while the money to fund startups is there, the knowledge on how best to begin them hasn’t quite yet found the correct formula, making it alluring to more industrious individuals.

But where else in the world can a person go to become a successful entrepreneur? The list isn’t just limited to international cities. Nearly every country has a city to go to with at least some semblance of a startup sector. Sydney, Sao Paulo, Moscow, Berlin, Waterloo (Canada), Singapore, Melbourne, Santiago, and Bangalore all have viable ecosystems for a startup. It just depends where an individual feels comfortable going and what they intend to do. Plus language is obviously a huge factor.

Whatever location a startup chooses, they can’t rely entirely on the location. In the end it comes to personal ingenuity and keying in on the trends and zeitgeist of the world. If a startup can tap into that, who knows where it could go.

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