You are here

Practicality Sets New York’s Silicon Alley Apart in the High-Tech World

New York’s Silicon Alley occupies a densely populated area loaded with human expertise, money and corporate ambitions. The local tech culture stands in opposition to Silicon Valley’s shoot-for-the-moon ethos by emphasizing practical concepts that are magnets for funding and, if realized, are ideal as bite-size acquisitions for larger companies.

“There’s less of the ‘giant idea’ that’s meant to re-paint the sky but more down-to-earth [concepts] that can be implemented in the short term,” says Al Lieberman, professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business and executive director of NYU’s Entertainment, Media & Technology program.

By all measures, the Big Apple region ranks a distant second in tech heft after Silicon Valley. The PwC/CB Insights Money- Tree Report counts New York second among states for tech deals and investment measured in dollars for the second quarter of 2019, but the sum is less than a quarter the size of leader California. When looking at metropolitan areas, PwC/CB Insights MoneyTree places New York-Newark as No. 2, ahead of No. 3 Boston-Worcester-Providence and No. 4 Los Angeles-Long Beach. Those numbers measure all tech, reflecting specializations such as the Boston region’s concentration of health-care tech, Pittsburgh’s leadership in robotics and Washington’s focus on cybersecurity and defense

Read Complete Article