By Mark Henricks
OPEN Forum
To find the city where technology startup businesses are thickest on the ground, “Go west, young entrepreneur.” When you reach Fremont, Calif., you’re there. Some cities may have larger raw numbers of startups in computers, software, medical devices and electronics. But measured by number of tech startups per capita, Fremont is all alone: The mid-sized city on the San Francisco Bay has more than 21 technology startups for every 100,000 residents. That blows away second-place San Jose, just south of Fremont in the heart of Silicon Valley. In fact, Fremont has almost as many tech startups per capita as the next three cities combined.
That is one of the striking findings of a ranking of U.S. cities by technology startups per capita. Another is that none of these tech startup hotbeds lies east of the Mississippi River. Silicon Valley boasts the three, Southern California has another and the rest scatter across Texas, Arizona, Nevada and Washington.