Champaign-Urbana’s tech scene is in the news once again, and this time, it’s due to Rackspace’s Robert Scoble, who profiles Champaign (as well as Blacksburg, VA) as one of the most underrated places for tech in the entire country. Read his full feature via Medium here, and check out some choice quotes below:
So, when I say Silicon Valley is being beaten, and is at risk of losing more companies to small towns, here’s why. In the past week I’ve visited two of those towns, Champaign Illinois and Blacksburg, Virginia.
You might not know, but YouTube, Tesla, PayPal, Mozilla started in Champaign at University of Illinois there, and Blacksburg is home to many of the leading thinkers of autonomous vehicles, and others, thanks to being the home of Virginia Tech.
I’m seeing signs that the flow of talent from small town America to Silicon Valley is reversing, though, and wanted to understand it.
One huge reason? Housing costs. Everyone loved taunting me with their homes with big yards that cost a few hundred thousand compared to more than a million back home.
But it goes further than just housing costs. After all, that gap has always been there as far as I can remember.
No, now they are winning people and company because way of life is much more friendly to families and, small town leaders have worked to fill in a “livability gap.” Things like having nice bars, music events, and restaurants for entrepreneurs to hang out in after a long day working. Things like high speed internet. In Virginia they have gigabit wifi in some areas.