The hacker community being built in Kansas City is truly remarkable. It's a great place to ignite new ideas and reform old ones! Nothing compares to midwest community.
I am visiting some of the startups and related services and while visiting at one named the Brandery the person I was talking to said "you know how it is in Cincinnati, everyone wants to help".
And I thought to myself, really? Then I realized. In Cincinnati, and probably the midwest as a whole, people do generally have more a sense of community and are more forward about "helping".
But this doesn't apply to business or startup ventures. They'll help you pick up groceries that you dropped or hold doors open for you. But when it comes to providing support for someone that's doing an entrepreneurial venture it's almost non existent.
The support is there at first, but when things get really tough the fact of the matter is most people haven't gone through that and can't relate.
It's frustrating as I believe we'll eventually end up back here to be close to my wife's family.
I talk to a lot of people here who speak of it being a great place for technology entrepreneurship. I'm just not seeing it. I really wish I did though.
First off, I'm glad you had a chance to stop by our program. Hopefully you saw the fact that we're trying to not just talk about it being great for technology entrepreneurship, but actually deliver against that as well.
Now, in terms of your point on support for business / startups, that is the very reason we started this program in 2010. We are at the beginning part of the journey but there is a real change happening in the town. If you ask any of the companies that have gone through our program, they will tell you that our support of them doesnt end when they graduate from the program. We can't help all of the companies in town, but we're there for the 26 that have gone through The Brandery and are making a real go of it.
Give me a shout (dave@brandery.org) and lets grab coffee. I'll share whats made me decide to make Cincinnati my home and a place where I really believe in the technology opportunities. We have a long ways to go but we've taken the first steps that I am confident will get us there.
But my heart will always be in the Midwest. Wide open spaces, friendly people, affordable <everything>, tolerable seasonal patterns.
I don't have any experience with the startup scene, I imagine it's not fantastic =/
While you're right, it's definitely not Silicon Valley in terms of the kind of network that exists, you're comparing apples and oranges. The startup scene is vibrant. There are tech meetups with hundreds of monthly attendees. There are active groups for all stages of business, from ideas over beers to celebrating series A to burning through buyouts on starting new ideas.
I think you should be less frustrated at your eventual return to the Cincy area to hopeful and even excited. There are great opportunities here for all types of startups, and it's still small-ish enough that you get that midwest, hometown, half your network has a startup in some stage, feeling that you will never get in a large market.
That is, until we become a large market.
But, it has made me think about it a little bit and I guess I do have an answer. I think it's that critical mass of having a large enough group of people and the support network to allow startups to actually make it from conception to profit. So, for example, we have a handful of startup accelerators, CincyTech and the Brandery, to name the big players. There is also Cintrifuse, which is run out of P&G now (not affiliated business-wise, mind you). There are also a lot of heavyweight dev and design minds in the city (due to big marketers) who host and speak at events. There are also investment firms bringing money into the city, and the state of Ohio has also invested a couple of hundred million dollars in seed ventures around the state.
So, as far as 'vibrant' as a descriptor, I guess I would say that the combination of these things creating a feeling of excitement and possibility is why I would use the word. Does that help? I feel like I just rambled.
One good example of a Cincinnati startup is http://gigaom.com/2012/05/30/from-cincinnati-to-silicon-vall... they seem to be really fostering that ol' Cinci spirit. They send you a codility test and thats it, you don't get much worse than that. I am a little bit biased here as me and my friends went through this experience, but that is just my two cents.
I love the city though, its in a perfect spot. You have great neighborhoods like OTR and Northside. Easy access to stuff across the river in Kentucky. And a lot of college kids coming out of UC and Xavier. If you ever looking for a place that is small enough to have a yard, but big enough to have things to do Cinci is a great place.
I just don't see how that works though I'm always happy to be proven wrong.
I'm not saying nothing great is happening in Cincinnati. I do believe there are probably some great start ups. I am specifically talking about the environment.
Do most people in KC identify with the Midwest?
*Edit: Now that I think about it, I guess I've always kind of considered the Midwest to be the Great Lakes Region, and from the Dakotas on South to be the Plains (with Missouri being more in the South than anywhere else).