New York’s Tech Start-Up Scene Comes of Age – Just stop calling it ‘Silicon Alley’

In the late 1990s, as Silicon Valley’s tech industry headed into boom-land, so too did New York City.

A slew of startups formed, many focused on "new media," or advertising on the Internet. I lived in the city for part of it, and it was a crazy time. Venture and corporate money flowed, and dot-com parties became a frequent occurrence in lower Manhattan, where many of the new media startups clustered. Somehow along the way, the moniker "Silicon Alley" was given to one of the densest urban areas in the U.S., where nary a computer chip firm was to be found.
[skyline] Getty Images

But much like its namesake in the San Francisco Bay area, New York also imploded after the dot-com boom and bust, with Darwinism getting rid of the worst ideas, like the free delivery service, Kozmo.com. Slowly, though, over the last decade, New York has been building a real tech center, where software, media, and ad-related startups are thriving, a venture capital community is growing and serial entrepreneurs are as commonplace as they are in Silicon Valley.

"There is a general feeling here, a buzz, that there is momentum here," said David Silverman, a partner PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York.

By THERESE POLETTI

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