Pittsburgh a Tech Town?
Can Pittsburgh Pennsylvania finally recover from the demise of the steel mills and the recession of the 1980’s? While other parts of the country have recovered and adapted to the New Economy Pittsburgh is still a laggard. Local politicians like to tout the region as making the transition from a steel town to a tech town but it really hasn’t happened. Here’s a report from 1998:
TECH TRANSFORMATION
Much of this is still true today. The University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University produce a lot of talented graduates every year, but few are able to stay in Pittsburgh. An entrepreneurial infrastructure has yet to exist. I found this really good article that gives the straight dope on making a startup company:
How To Start A Startup
I think it’s interesting to note that the author points out that there are only 3 places in the U.S. that are good for startups:
“If I were going to start a startup today, there are only three places I'd consider doing it: on the Red Line near Central, Harvard, or Davis Squares (Kendall is too sterile); in Palo Alto on University or California Aves; and in Berkeley immediately north or south of campus. These are the only places I know that have the right kind of vibe.”
I highly recommend reading this article of you are considering starting a business.
What are they doing right? Maybe Pittsburgh should try to copy that.
In any case, here is a link to the article that I read that prompted this post:
Google coming because local talent likes it here
Could it be that Pittsburgh is finally turning things around? Or will these new efforts go the way of the Pittsburgh Digital Greenhouse and Lycos?
TECH TRANSFORMATION
Much of this is still true today. The University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University produce a lot of talented graduates every year, but few are able to stay in Pittsburgh. An entrepreneurial infrastructure has yet to exist. I found this really good article that gives the straight dope on making a startup company:
How To Start A Startup
I think it’s interesting to note that the author points out that there are only 3 places in the U.S. that are good for startups:
“If I were going to start a startup today, there are only three places I'd consider doing it: on the Red Line near Central, Harvard, or Davis Squares (Kendall is too sterile); in Palo Alto on University or California Aves; and in Berkeley immediately north or south of campus. These are the only places I know that have the right kind of vibe.”
I highly recommend reading this article of you are considering starting a business.
What are they doing right? Maybe Pittsburgh should try to copy that.
In any case, here is a link to the article that I read that prompted this post:
Google coming because local talent likes it here
Could it be that Pittsburgh is finally turning things around? Or will these new efforts go the way of the Pittsburgh Digital Greenhouse and Lycos?
1 Comments:
Why all this focus on *where* to start up? Isn't Google showing by this action that the future (at least for information workers) is largely location-independent? I think places like Pittsburgh that focus almost exclusively on entertainment, attractions, and enjoyable surroundings will actually benefit in the coming years as more and more people become information workers.
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