Seattle's innovation economy scores another goose egg |
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Mass High Tech
Seattle's innovation economy scores another goose egg
Flickr photo via Muffet
The Seattle area is supposed to be one of the country's hotbeds of innovation. After all, this region has spawned Amazon.com and Microsoft, two of the biggest tech juggernauts on the planet, as well as successful companies such as Immunex and aQuantive. But if you're to believe some of the recent rankings, Seattle's innovation economy is simply striking out.
Yesterday, we noted how just one company from Washington made Greentech Media's list of the top 50 venture-backed clean tech startups. That followed a ranking last month by the MIT Technology Review of the 25 most innovative privately-held companies, none of which happened to be headquartered within our borders. Now, The Wall Street Journal has compiled yet another list of the top 50 venture-backed companies and not one hails from the Pacific Northwest.
Nada. Nothing. Zip.
A bagel. A donut. A dreaded goose egg.
Arizona, Utah, Georgia and Kentucky have at least one company on the Journal's list, which is dominated by California biotech, gaming and software companies. What's going on here?
First off, you need to take any list with a grain of salt. And, as we've pointed out in the past, there's a possibility that the list makers simply aren't getting exposed to some of the cutting-edge technologies in the Pacific Northwest. (But, for some reason, they are in Utah and Kentucky?)
There's also the possibility that the Seattle area -- home to a startup ecosystem which other states would absolutely kill to have --just isn't producing enough innovative companies. And that one is a hard pill to swallow.
Washington state gets a disproportionate amount of venture capital, typically ranking in the top eight states for the amount of investment dollars. At some point, that money will have to produce some breakout successes which not only score the attention of MIT, Greentech Media and The Journal but also produce significant returns.
Until then, it seems like the Seattle's startup community and innovation economy is undergoing a bit of an identity crisis.
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