NY - the new Silicon Valley?

New York is probably the most diverse city in the world, with people intermingling from all countries, cutting across cultures, communities, caste and religion. And with so much diversity, surely it is a more fertile ground for new ideas and new ventures. If Silicon Valley was essentially about innovation in the IT sector, looks like New York is fast emerging as the go-to city for any new idea from any sector.

Over the past five years, post the Wall Street tumble, over 10,000 new jobs have been created by start-ups. Unlike Silicon Valley on the West Coast which is more focused on bigger things, start-ups in New York are essentially more consumer focused. Right from fashion, media, travel, food, books; there seems to be a star-up popping up in almost every facet of our lives. And being in New York means funding is much easy to get.  Since 2007, it has seen a 37% rise in venture capital funding.

But those in San Francisco’s Silicon Valley pooh-pooh this news and say that New York can never become the Silicon Valley as it concentrates on too much individual specifics unlike Silicon Valley, which innovates with a much bigger picture and vision in mind. So New York might become the Silicon Valley for smaller start-ups but it will remain the one which changes global dynamics.