Over the past two decades, a handful of US cities have become hubs of start-up activity, from Seattle to Boston to Austin, Texas. Now, in the nation's heartland, entrepreneurs are building what they call the Silicon Prairie in three cities better known for their agrarian roots: Omaha, Nebraska; Des Moines, Iowa; and Kansas City, Missouri. Part of the organizers' strategy in these cities is to create clusters of tech start-ups with the idea that their density will, in turn, attract more entrepreneurs and help them flourish - a concept gathering steam in business circles.
In Kansas City, the major force behind the tech boom was Google's decision to locate its first fiber-optic broadband network there - one that boasts speeds up to 150 times as fast as the average online feed in the US. Since the September announcement, a handful of players from the local technology scene have come together to turn the old antique district into Kansas City's "start-up village." By the time Google began installing its fiber service, nearly a dozen start-ups had moved into a six-block radius, including companies building a search engine for social-network data and security software for smartphones that identifies users by vein patterns in their eyes.
Read more in the WSJ.
In Kansas City, the major force behind the tech boom was Google's decision to locate its first fiber-optic broadband network there - one that boasts speeds up to 150 times as fast as the average online feed in the US. Since the September announcement, a handful of players from the local technology scene have come together to turn the old antique district into Kansas City's "start-up village." By the time Google began installing its fiber service, nearly a dozen start-ups had moved into a six-block radius, including companies building a search engine for social-network data and security software for smartphones that identifies users by vein patterns in their eyes.
Read more in the WSJ.
