Little Rock On List of Top 5 Under-the-Radar Tech Hubs
By Mark Carter
Lately, a lotta love for Little Rock.
Little Rock ranks No. 3 on the SpareFoot blog's list of the top 5 under-the-radar tech hubs in the U.S.
Recently, you may remember, Wallet Hub took the country's top 150 most populous cities and ranked them by virtue of best cities to start a career.
Little Rock came in at a solid 64.
Rounding out the top 5 in John Egan's SpareFoot blog are Boise at No. 1, Des Moines at No. 2, Baton Rouge at 4 and Portland, Maine, at 5.
Here's some of what John had to say about Little Rock:
- Major accolades: No. 1, Great Places to Live (Kiplinger.com); No. 14, Best Cities for Young Adults (Forbes.com)
- Tech startup players: Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub, Arkansas Venture Center, Startup Arkansas
- Tech startup stars: Acorn Hours, Apptegy, Overwatch
- Why Little Rock is a great place for startups: “Little Rock is great for startups because veteran entrepreneurs … are supporting younger entrepreneurs in amazing ways.”—Jordan Carlisle, director of entrepreneurship and innovation programming, Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce
Very cool to see the Innovation Hub, the Venture Center and Startup Arkansas listed, plus IA's own Overwatch. The Hub is fixing to open its Argenta Innovation Center and the AVC "officially" launched this week with the announcement of a $500,000 state grant.
One cool moment from the AVC presser: Charles Morgan said he'd forgotten how hard it was to launch a startup.
Morgan, of course, founded international big data giant Acxiom -- one of the state's poster boys for entrepreneurial success, and is behind IA's own PrivacyStar. He'd perhaps be included on an Arkansas business Mount Rushmore and personally is a founding sponsor of the AVC.
(That Acxiom startup, we think, is gonna make it.)
Good stuff. As we've noted in this space, Arkansas is starting to appear on the national tech startup radar. Think of the progress the state has made in just six, seven years without resources like the Hub, the AVC and Startup Arkansas.
Now, fast forward five years and just imagine the possibilities....