Twelve cities, twelve cultures
The "rise of the rest" narrative was half right. Some cities found defensible niches. Others didn't. Here is what we hear from founders in each.
01 Field notes from twelve metros
San Francisco / Bay Area
Founder mood: Cautiously bullish. The compute moat is real but the talent flight is also real. The remaining founders are doubling down on AI infrastructure.
New York
Founder mood: Energized. Fintech is back, AI media has Wall Street capital, biotech has the academic medical centers. Three booms in one city.
Boston
Founder mood: Disciplined. Biotech founders are still raising big rounds; robotics founders are now selling into defense. Hard tech survives the cycles.
Seattle
Founder mood: Bifurcated. Cloud and devices are still strong; consumer software is struggling. The Microsoft + Amazon shadow is now a positive.
Austin
Founder mood: Euphoric. Closing the gap to the top tier. Founders are aware they have 24 months before the secret is out.
Los Angeles
Founder mood: Reinventing. Aerospace is up (SpaceX gravity), creator tools are mature, gaming is consolidating.
Miami
Founder mood: Pragmatic. The crypto hype faded; the cross-border fintech opportunity is bigger than the hype suggested.
Denver / Boulder
Founder mood: Specialist. Aerospace + climate is real. Founders are technical and capital-efficient.
Chicago
Founder mood: Underrated. Fintech, supply chain, B2B SaaS. Founders here are tired of being told they're underrated.
Atlanta
Founder mood: Confident. Payments + healthtech. The HBCU pipeline is producing technical founders at scale.
Pittsburgh
Founder mood: Optimistic. CMU robotics keeps producing autonomy companies. The Argo collapse was a setback; the talent stayed.
Raleigh-Durham
Founder mood: Steady. Biopharma is the anchor; climate is the growth story. The Research Triangle works as designed.
02 Three structural takeaways
- The "rise of the rest" narrative was half right. Some second-tier cities found defensible niches (Pittsburgh in robotics, Miami in cross-border fintech, Austin in AI infra). Others tried to be a generalist hub and stalled.
- Specialization beats generalization. Every city we list above has a specific bet. Cities trying to be "the Silicon Valley of X" without picking an X are losing ground.
- Talent is sticky now. Post-2022, founder migration slowed. The cities that have a critical mass of senior engineers will keep them.