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It's hard to miss Kansas City when you look at a U.S. map. After all, it is right smack dab in the middle.
But it's even more difficult to miss Kansas City when it is spotlighted for its progression in information technology and displayed on a U.S. map by the Wall Street Journal. And that's exactly what happened this morning.
The Wall Street Journal has defined Kansas City as the nation's newest leader in information technology. The city is booming with entrepreneurs, small business and technology. In fact, in a study found by the TechAmerica Foundation, the number of Kansas City tech companies rose by 5% in 2009, trumping the growth rates of Silicon Valley, Boston and Austin.
The initiative of Google Fiber is a large contributor for the technological growth of the city. Obviously, this lightning-speed network will lure in even more entrepreneurs (some have already moved to Kansas City from the coasts!). But it's not only the Google Fiber network that has led startups and entrepreneurs to the area. It's also KC's friendly business environment. And the fact that it is far less expensive to develop technology here. And there are fewer state regulations to worry about. All in all, KC has every missing puzzle piece that an entrepreneur may be looking for.
Check out the full article written by The Wall Street Journal and bask in the Kansas City love. Click here to read the full article and see a full-scale version of the U.S. map.
Congratulations, Kansas City! Now that's Thinking Big.
Written by Allison Way
@AllisonThinkBig
But the final paragraphs of Scott Canon's piece in the 8/22 KC Star...covering the WSJ piece...show TechAmerica's Josh James going out of his way to play down the whole entrepreneur aspect:
ReplyDelete“It’s mostly Sprint” that puts Kansas City on any technology map, James said. “Kansas City has some things going on, but it’s never going to be a Silicon Valley or Boston or Dallas.”
You can still find Canon's (brief) analysis on kansascity dot com; the closing points seem to throw the accuracy of the WSJ piece into question. Nonetheless, great PR for Kansas City. ;-)