Nurturing environment
Austin outshines San Francisco as nation's top thriving tech hub in 2021
Austin continues to gain ground, at least psychologically, on the San Francisco Bay Area and other U.S. tech hubs.
A new survey by Blind, an online community that lets professionals share their opinions anonymously, rates Austin as nurturing the most vibrant tech community in the U.S. In the survey, 92 percent of professionals in Austin say the city fosters an environment that enables tech companies and tech workers to thrive.
Austin’s showing in that category of the survey compares with 85 percent for the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle, and 83 percent for New York City. The national average was 84 percent. In all, 1,085 users of Blind participated in the survey.
The survey’s findings feed into the continuing narrative of Austin’s ascent as a tech heavyweight.
“A sustained migration from Silicon Valley, as both startups and giant companies search for less costly space while losing none of the sunny lifestyle, has built Austin into the [country’s] new tech hub,” Mailchimp’s Courier publication proclaims.
Elsewhere in the Blind survey, Austin ranked:
- Second for tech networking, behind New York City.
- Third for career opportunities in tech, behind the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle.
In a post on his website, Austin entrepreneur Paul O’Brien, who previously lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, maintains that tech is not the sole catalyst for Austin’s growth.
“Technology evolves, and it is indeed a reason why Austin is experiencing growing pains, but people aren’t leaving Silicon Valley to create it anew here,” O’Brien writes. “What we’re experiencing is the way in which technology plays a role in addressing conflict, inefficiency, and demand. Austin plays a unique role in the global economy, and the demand for what we’re doing isn’t because of tech but because of who we really are and how we work.”
