City October 10, 2012 2:53 PM

Buffalo: A City of Innovation

Buffalo: A City of Innovation
queenseyes
queenseyes 3
In a city where we actually have an Innovation Center, it may not be that surprising that we have been ranked highly on a list of innovative cities. Of course being home to a major university and a slew of colleges helps to place Buffalo towards the top of the list as well. At the same time, it might come as a surprise to some... or many... that Buffalo is ranked at #11. 

According to an article posted on Yahoo! (Inc.com), "Innovation is coming from some surprising places. When adjusted for population, Indianapolis ranks 6th in the number of Inc 500 firms, and Buffalo ranks 11th. Other cities you might not suspect: Baltimore (15th), Philadelphia (19th) and Louisville, Kentucky (20th)."

The article notes that Buffalo is not ranked for being a creative class (according to Richard Florida - see article), which is different than being an innovative city. In a city that has lost much of its blue collar industry, there has been a shift towards being innovative. Buffalo is the type of city that breeds innovation. Maybe it's because we have a low cost of living. Or maybe it's because Buffalonians come from a long line of innovators. If there was ever a city with an innovative past, it's this one. 

View image

Categories:

Comments

3 Comments Leave a comment
BeauFleuve
October 10, 2012 3:23 PM
BeauFleuve

Imagine the potential if New York had a matching SBIR/STTR program like many states or a tax credit program for investors in early stage companies like Arkansas and Kentucky. Buffalo's success is despite New York being the least supportive economic environment for innovation.

[ Reply ]
Score: 6 ( 6 votes ) Vote up Vote down Report this comment
South Buffalo Drifter
October 10, 2012 3:41 PM
South Buffalo Drifter

Come up with new innovations then they leave the state because they can't afford to do business in NY.

[ Reply ]
Score: 8 ( 12 votes ) Vote up Vote down Report this comment
Rand503
October 11, 2012 3:14 PM
Rand503

Lots of places are innovative, but I not sure what that means. I'll try to read the report, so thanks for that.

True innovation is measured by several things -- how many companies exit? That means, how many get acquired or go IPO. Buffalo has had no IPOs in several generations, so by that measure it's doing very poorly. As or aquisitions, that is probably fairly low as well.

Being innovative isn't just how many startups you have because most startups are failures and go nowhere. Real innovation isn't just coming up with another app or some social media play that makes it easier to do something we already do.

Worse, there is no venture capital or angel market in Buffalo. There is virtually no money for funding any companies. That's all outside of Buffalo. If an VC puts money into a company, that they sometimes require them to move, and that's the primary reason companies move out of Buffalo. It isn't because of taxes or the business climate (it if were, the Silicon Vally and Boston would be imploding). It's because they are often required to move their operations to where the VC is. Until this problem is addressed, and it could be, we won't have any "stickiness."

This is one reason why Buffalo should be using that Billion dollars to create a $!00 million fund centered in Buffalo.

Buffalo is much better off than where it was ten years ago or even five, but it still has a long ways to go before it can compete with Austin, or Boston or Washington DC.

[ Reply ]
Score: 1 ( 1 votes ) Vote up Vote down Report this comment

Leave a comment

Recent Comments