Startup climate change: Need for jobs, revenue sparks moves to back new sectors
During the downturn, New York City has stepped up efforts to create a climate in which entrepreneurial companies like SyntheZyme can thrive, in order to help wean the local economy off its dependence on Wall Street.
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There have been some successes to date. For instance, the incubator 160 Varick Street, launched last year by the Polytechnic Institute of New York University, is almost full to capacity, with 35 tenants that have created more than 100 jobs.
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But because the venture financing community is far less robust here than it is in Silicon Valley and Boston, the search for funding bedevils many startups.
Also, while the city is developing more of an entrepreneurial culture and supportive infrastructure—in which there are more startup veterans available to run new companies, and more local programs to connect fledgling firms and investors—it still focuses less on creating new businesses than the nation's most active hubs do.
“New York is the home of big-league business,” says Bruce Niswander, a professor of technology entrepreneurship at NYU-Poly who directs its three business incubators. “It is a very aggressive business environment.” ...
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