Nashville ranks #63 in latest “Global Startup Ecosystem Index Report” from StartupBlink
By Tom Ballard, Chief Alliance Officer, PYA
StartupBlink, the organization that describes itself as the world’s leading policy advising think tank on start-up ecosystem growth, released the 2021 edition of its “Global Startup Ecosystem Index Report” in a series of Zoom and YouTube videos yesterday.
The annual document ranks 1,000 entrepreneurial communities in 100 countries based on StartupBlink’s proprietary algorithms. The result is this downloadable report for free and access to a more detailed database called The StartupBlink PRO Map for a fee. Being a fiscal conservative, I opted for the free information!
Here are some highlights from our quick review of the massive document.
- Twelve of the top 30 entrepreneurial hotspots are cities in the U.S.
- Not surprising, the #1 ranked city in the U.S. and the world is San Francisco. In a narrative from the report, the authors wrote, “San Francisco remains the undisputed global leader of innovation and is almost three times more innovative than New York (City), the second highest ranked city in both the U.S. and worldwide.”
- Los Angeles eclipsed Boston to move up to #3, dropping the East Coast city to #4.
- The only city from Tennessee ranked in the top 100 globally is Nashville at #63. That’s not surprising, but what might be is the fact that Music City moved up 11 places in the world compared to last year. Without subscribing to the database, there’s no way to know how Chattanooga, Knoxville and Memphis rank. If anyone is a subscriber, let me know.
- We wondered how other cities fared where PYA, the power behind teknovation.biz, has offices. Atlanta is ranked #28 in the world, but that’s down nine spots from 2020. Tampa Bay is #81, down from #76 last year, and Kansas City is #98, down nine spots.
- One of the biggest moves in the Southeast/Mid-Atlantic region is Wilmington, NC that jumped 93 places to #95 globally. Two other North Carolina cities made the top 100 – Raleigh that moved up three spots to #40 and Charlotte that is #58, up 11 places.
- Two Ohio cities made big moves – Columbus jumping 20 spots to #75 and Cincinnati up 32 spots to #91.
