Kansas City ranks as top U.S. tech, entrepreneurship hub
June 9, 2017 | Meghan LeVota
Kansas City’s emerging tech hub and entrepreneurial ecosystem continue to attract national attention.
On Thursday, Kansas City ranked among the top tech cities in the U.S., according to the Tech Cities 1.0 report by Cushman & Wakefield. The report showcased the nation’s top 25 cities, with Kansas City nabbing the No. 22 spot on the list. The cities were determined by factors such as access to talent, investment capital and growth opportunity.
Cushman & Wakefield Tech Cities 1.0 report
Although it’s no surprise that cities like San Jose and San Francisco outranked Kansas City, The City of Fountains’ performance is still noteworthy. Kansas City fared better than New York City and Los Angeles in metrics such as tech workers per capita, share of workers with a Bachelor’s degree or higher, entrepreneurial growth and share of “knowledge” workers, defined as those in occupations such as architecture, social science, health care and education.
In preparing the report, Cushman & Wakefield found six qualities as essential ingredients for a tech hub: Institutions of higher learning; capital; tech workers; knowledge workers; educated workers; and growth entrepreneurship.
Kansas City ranked No. 18 on percentage of tech workers and No. 16 for entrepreneurial growth. In both areas, the metro is rated above the national average.
To calculate entrepreneurial growth, Cushman & Wakefield tapped the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation’s Index of Growth Entrepreneurship. The index is calculated by the rate of startup growth, share of scale-ups and high-growth company density.
Although these statistics are promising, Kansas City is nowhere close to Silicon Valley with venture capital and deal flow.
In 2016, the combination of venture capital capital activity from San Francisco, San Mateo and San Jose reached $35.2 billion. In Kansas City, that number is less than $2 billion.
Cushman & Wakefield Tech Cities 1.0 report
Ken McCarthy, principal economist at Cushman & Wakefield, said that “tech is everything.”
“Basically every company today is a tech company in one way or another. We’re all using it, we’re using various aspects of tech companies to do various things,” McCarthy said in a release. “Whether it’s Salesforce as customer relationship management, or Workday for HR, and various other database programs, the old way of doing business just doesn’t work anymore.”
Cushman & Wakefield is a global real estate services firm. 2017 marks the first year the firm has released a Tech Cities 1.0 report.
Featured Business
2017 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Bitten by Disney sharks, Roy Scott beats the odds with Healthy Hip Hop
When a potentially life-altering business deal suddenly vanished, Roy Scott didn’t get mad — he got funded. “Disney thought they were going to snuff us out, but all they did was put gasoline on this fire,” said Scott, founder of Kansas City-based H3 Enterprises (Healthy Hip Hop). Rewind. Starting his company with a live performance-based…
Governor-in-waiting talks startup funding, Amazon and why entrepreneurism is bigger than KC
The strongest person in the room isn’t necessarily the loudest, Jeff Colyer said. “Kansans are used to being overlooked,” he said. “My role as lieutenant governor was to be a little quieter. You give your best advice. And when decisions are made, you’re going to work to support them.” Soon, however, he’ll be the state’s…
Bus tech startup Transportant announces $11M in pre-sales at Lean Lab pitch night
School districts across North America are on board with Transportant — to the tune of $11 million in pre-sale agreements, co-founder John Styers said. The startup, which uses video-based technology to allow students, parents and school administrators to better monitor school buses, announced the milestone — $10 million over its goal of $1 million in…
Councilman introduces east side investment proposal with $15/hour wage provision
As economic development surges in pockets across Kansas City, residents and businesses on the east side shouldn’t be left behind, Scott Taylor said. “Our clock is ticking as a city on this, and we need to do more,” said Taylor, councilman for the sixth district, at-large. At a press conference Thursday, Taylor introduced a draft…