Silicon Valley has long been the home of many a startup in the tech sector, but recently several other areas have arisen as similar hotbeds of innovation and technology. Robert Cringely is holding a public contest to allow visitors to nominate these “Not in Silicon Valley” Startups for inclusion in a US tour.
Starting next month I will be accepting from readers nominations for interesting startup companies in six general categories — biotech, energy, entertainment, information technology, materials, and transportation. Over the course of about six weeks we will examine and discuss as a community these nominated companies of which I am hoping there will be hundreds, primarily not from Silicon Valley or any other tech hotbeds. I’ll have some assistance in this process from the Kauffman Foundation.
Together we’ll whittle the number down to 24 then come June I will set off with my family in our RV to visit all 24. We’ll camp in the parking lot or in the driveway of the CEO and spend a couple days at each startup, learning about the company, the people, their technology and their market. I’ll take with me a small camera crew and we’ll produce what will begin with a summer of blogging and end with a 13-part TV reality series
Tony DeYoung of FireUser rightfully suggests that we should nominate StudioGPU, creators of the fabulous MachStudio Pro rendering suite. You can head on over to Cringely’s Voting Site and see it’s faring pretty well against the competition.
Who do you think should be added?
