The 25 Best U.S. Cities for Tech Startups

Senior Entrepreneurship Writer at CNBC

August 14, 2013 2 min read

Move over, Silicon Valley. Colorado is building some serious startup swagger.

Four of the top 10 metro regions in the U.S. with the most tech startups are in Colorado: Boulder, Fort Collins-Loveland, Denver and Colorado Springs. That’s according to a report released today by technology policy coalition Engine and entrepreneurship research association the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The research focuses on high-tech startups specifically, defining them as new businesses with a concentration of employees in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.

Here is a rundown of the U.S. metro regions with the highest ratio of tech startups compared to the national average:

Boulder, Colo.
Fort Collins-Loveland, Colo.
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif.
Cambridge-Newton-Framingham, Mass.
Seattle
Denver
San Francisco
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C.-Va.-Md.
Colorado Springs, Colo.
Cheyenne, Wyo.
Salt Lake City
Corvallis, Ore.
Raleigh-Cary, N.C.
Huntsville, Ala.
Provo-Orem, Utah
Bend, Ore.
Austin-Round Rock, Texas
Missoula, Mont.
Grand Junction, Colo.
Sioux Falls, S.D.
Bethesda-Frederick-Rockville, Md.
Durham-Chapel Hill, N.C.
Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, Ore.-Wash.
Wilmington, Del.
Ames, Iowa

As an entrepreneur looking for a startup community to launch your business, knowing where other entrepreneurs have planted their seeds may prove fruitful. And for local leaders, encouraging high-tech startup growth in your community could generate jobs. While high-tech startups have an undeniably high failure rate, those that do succeed take off quickly. On the whole, high-tech startups are good for the local job market, according to the research.

A thriving startup community that's creating jobs typically attracts vitality -- and cash -- to a region. "In the case of Boulder, a startup community whose evolution I've observed and participated in closely over the past many years, the cultural and economic transformation has been extraordinary,” says Brad Feld, co-founder of the Boulder-based Foundry Group and author of numerous books about startup ecosystems, in a statement. “While there isn't one, definitive blueprint to building a technology industry, this research can hopefully inspire communities and policymakers to work together to ensure that the spread of high-tech entrepreneurship isn't just a trend, but a long-term phenomenon.”