The Roanoke Times Dec. 15 editorial cited the “Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2019” prepared by Startup Genome. The editorial nicely explained why this report is relevant for our region. The report ranks the leading technology startup ecosystems in the world based on tracking over 200 qualitative and quantitative metrics. Collectively, these top ecosystems created $2.8 trillion in value between 2016 and 2018. This value creation is on par with a G7 economy and greater than the total GDP of the United Kingdom.

In addition to the $2.8 trillion in value driven by global startups, tech-based companies now dominate the list of the ten largest companies in the world. In 2008, only Microsoft made the list at number seven. By 2018, seven of the top ten global companies were technology companies, including Apple (#1), Google (#2), Microsoft (#3), Amazon (#4), Facebook (#5), Tencent (#6) and Alibaba (#8).

Clearly, there is an economic transition occurring. Tech sectors are dominating value and job creation across the world. A question facing regions like ours is whether we too can share in the prosperity that comes with having a vibrant, technology startup community. Or is tech-based economic prosperity going to be the sole domain of places like Silicon Valley?

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