Columbus, Ohio Is Quickly Becoming the Midwest's Tech Hub

An anonymous reader shares an excerpt from a featured TechCrunch article, written by Christine Hall: Where the Olentangy and Scioto rivers come together lies the city of Columbus, Ohio, a bedrock town famously known as "Test City, USA," boasting demographics that mirrored the country's population, and the home of The Ohio State University. It is steadily becoming an emerging tech scene in the Midwest where startups are finding all the tools needed to develop burgeoning businesses.

Venture capitalists injected over $3 billion into the city over the past 20 years, particularly in healthcare and insurance startups, according to Crunchbase data. Investment into the city startups started picking up around 2017 and really peaked in 2021. That's when investment essentially doubled, going from $583 million in 2020 to just over $1 billion, with half of those dollars going into two companies: healthcare technology company Olive and autonomous robotics company Path Robotics. So far in 2022, $110 million has gone into Columbus startups. Olive is now valued at over $4 billion and is among Columbus success stories like CoverMyMeds, a healthcare software company that was acquired by the McKesson Corp. in 2017 for $1.4 billion, which represents Central Ohio's first $1 billion exit. Root Insurance, which raised over $800 million since 2015, went public in 2020. Other notable raises include Forge Biologics' $120 million Series B round, which was thought to be Ohio's largest Series B to date. Forge plans to add 200 new jobs by 2023.

Columbus has also caught the eye of enterprises, including Facebook, Amazon and now Intel, which announced earlier this year that it will build two chip factories outside of the city that will provide 3,000 company jobs and many more thousands of indirect jobs. Meanwhile, therapeutics company Amgen announced last November that it is building a new biomanufacturing facility in New Albany, one of Columbus' suburbs, providing 400 jobs for assembling and packaging medicines. All of this activity, plus a low cost of living, availability of a young, skilled talent pool and public/private partnerships eager to support entrepreneurs, research and innovation, is why TechCrunch has chosen to spotlight Columbus' growing startup scene with a special episode of TechCrunch Live.

Stay in your coastal paradise, please

[Tailhook]

Yes, where you are is better than Ohio. This Ohio "tech hub" is fake, it will never have the depth of your preferred coastal megapolis and TechCrunch is, indeed, full of it. So there is no reason to migrate. None at all. Just stay where you are.

Thanks in advance.

Re:

[Ksevio]

Don't worry, I don't think there's any danger of that happening

Re:

[rantrantrant]

Well, TFS did say that Ohio's tech hub has already "peaked" so according to them it's apparently all downhill from here. Or did they really want to say it's surged? Soared? Increased exponentially? Journalists really should know what the words they use mean.

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[93 Escort Wagon]

Yes, where you are is better than Ohio.

I've been to Ohio numerous times, and I agree - the only people who live in Ohio are people who don't know any better.

Re: Stay in your coastal paradise, please

[fermion]

The west coast is ideal because so many of the tech firms depend on manufacturing in Asia. So back when it was important to be physically present.

In term of US, that was developed in New England and Texas between houston and Dallas. Ohio has a lot of talent and resources. It was that decisions made in the US in the 1980s put the US at a critical disadvantage.

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[whitelabrat]

I used to live in Columbus, doing tech work back in the early 2000's. After two years I noped the heck out of there. Nopedy nope nope. You couldn't pay me enough to live there on purpose.

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[Skjellifetti2]

No, Please do move to Columbus. I'll be retiring in the next couple of years and will have a nice house for sale for a very reasonable soon-to-be jacked up price.

Obvious mistake

[locater16]

Ohio has, per capita, the most astronauts produced of anywhere in the world. Why anyone would want to work in a place so dull it is statistically the place people want to get the absolute furthest away from as possible is beyond me.

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[gtall]

Couldn't tell it by the things you elect to Congress.

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[Phact]

Gym Jordan [cleveland.com] is what you call great? Ha ha stay classy Ohio.

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[StevenMaurer]

You're not exactly dispelling the pejorative narrative about small minded people there, just FYI. That you call "I'd rather not have forced birth while happily sacrificing kindergarteners on the altar of machine guns" a form of "liberal utopian communistic ideas" is all anyone needs to know what you'd be like as a neighbor.

Most intelligent people, much less engineers, don't want to live in places in which the dominant culture feels entitled to cram their "flat earth/lily white Jay-sus/creationist/have-lots-

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[Gilgaron]

This is more due to gerrymandering than diversity, especially when looking at Columbus or Cleveland. There is hope that the burgeoning tech hub will break at least some of the current gerrymandering but it is a small consolation.

LOL

[JBMcB]

That's why California is loosing population, while Texas and Wyoming are gaining population. Once my cousin's employer, a large social media company, in San Francisco enacted work-from-home permanently, she *bolted* to Chicago. Nearly all of her co-workers left, too. This is after having lived in San Francisco and New York City for about a decade.

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[Enigma2175]

So your cousin "bolted" from a big corrupt city to a bigger, more corrupt city? How does that illustrate your point?

Comparisons

[JBMcB]

Chicago has hot summers, brutally cold winters, crime and corruption issues, and is smack dab in the middle of "flyover" country. Cost of living is relatively high compared to nearby cities (some areas are more expensive than the pricey areas of Manhattan.)

But to my cousin, a relatively young tech professional, it's still preferable to San Francisco or New York City. She makes enough money that she could live anywhere. She could have stayed in San Francisco, or easily moved back to NYC.

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[luis_a_espinal]

That's why California is loosing population, while Texas and Wyoming are gaining population.

Nice anecdote. Now add some data to give us a clear picture of demographic changes over time, in the aggregate, and that are not necessarily dependent on temporary events (like the pandemic.)

I honestly don't care where people live as long as they are happy and can live to their potential. But it is rather odd to be spinning narratives about depopulation, and bank on them very hard without providing some quantifiable evidence. Without that, this is just "faith" dressed as "conclusions" sustained by persona

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[CaptQuark]

Nope. Ohio is part of the "midwest" in every map and list I found. Columbus and Cleveland have more in common with Gary and Muncie than anywhere east coast.

Re: Obvious mistake

[Kelxin]

Not only that, they don't even understand the definition of mid or West.

Re:Obvious mistake

[FictionPimp]

AWS data transfer charges are cheaper if you are leaving Ohio. Even data doesn't want to be in Ohio.

The Southwest is quickly running out of water

[rsilvergun]

And without large-scale Federal action the individual states have a hard time solving the problem on their own. It's a NASA sized problem. It's the kind of thing that in the 1950s or 60s before we let right wing extremism divide the country we have just solved but there's too many people convinced that if you woke you deserve to die of thirst or worse. Funny thing is a lot of those people are going to die of thirst themselves or be overwhelmed by refugees from the southwest. But the words woke and broke hap

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[Anonymous Coward]

You voted for borderless 'murica with millions of water consuming immigrants and they piled into into the West Coast and the Southwest. Enjoy, dummy.

Conservatives love to claim that it is only illegal immigration that they oppose. But once in a while, we have one so eager to be stupid in public that he tells the truth. Thank you for your service asshole.

Re: The Southwest is quickly running out of water

[LindleyF]

You got your soundbytes crossed. This is the climate change crisis, not the immigration crisis.

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[gtall]

Einstein was an immigrant, dolt.

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[cunina]

Einstein was an immigrant, dolt.

One who banged his cousin, took credit for Poincare's work, and was a rabid Zionist.

Re:The Southwest is quickly running out of water

[ShanghaiBill]

The Southwest's water problems can be solved by ending the subsidies for irrigated agriculture. California grows five million tonnes of rice, which would make no sense if taxpayers weren't paying for the water.

It is an entirely political problem.

Compared to agriculture, the amount of water used by tech companies is negligible.

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[jonadab]

Running out of water. Well, that's a problem we do NOT have in Ohio.

Mid west?

[slazzy]

Not sure why it's still called the mid-west. Seems kinda East to me

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[gamefaces]

I think it makes more sense when looking at a "US territory evolution over time" map like this for context: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] Up until about 1803, Ohio was part of the "Northwest Territory". I assume as the USA expanded further westward after 1803 and places like the "Pacific northwest" region arose in the nomenclature, the Ohio area being called the "mid-west" was a natural evolution.

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[HotNeedleOfInquiry]

Ohio used to be called "the rust belt". Works for me.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Definitely not East. It's west of the Appalachians and it farms too much. It wasn't in the Confederacy so it's not South. Mid-west all the way.

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[N_Piper]

Midwesterner here I'll give you a quick way of knowing if a state is Midwestern, was the area part of the Confederacy during the American Civil War, Does it border any major body of water other than the Great Lakes, Does it host any of the three major American mountain ranges, Has there ever been a nuclear weapon detonated in your state, if all of those are no then that state is Midwestern.
Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee are Appalachia not Midwest, Colorado has mountains and nuclear test sites thus it is not Mi

Re:Mid west? But Superman works out of Ohio

[shoor]

I passed through Metropolis, Ohio years back. They seemed to be proud to be the home of Superman. Even the Stop signs had pictures of Superman holding up his hand in a stop gesture.

And it's B&D central of the center of the US

[Anonymous Coward]

Ever since Disclave lost its hotel agreements after the infamous "chain your slave to the sprinkles" party in the 90's, Columbus has hosted their BDSM parties for the surrounding states. The sys-admins at the colleges especially enjoyed giving girls from out of state free, anonymized accounts on the college systems and lured them to where houses are cheap, and horses, and leather. Especially leather.

Arisia took over for the east coast for a while, but lost their agreements as well when the convention presid

Totally not a regional booster firm ad.

[Eunomion]

Yup. Totally not some hack-ass marketing firm hired by (insert city name, cue stock imagery) to promote (insert city name, cue stock imagery).

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[Anonymous Crowded]

Yup. Totally not some hack-ass marketing firm hired by (insert city name, cue stock imagery) to promote (insert city name, cue stock imagery).

I dunno, I once watched an ad that seriously said "Ohio has no business tax, so it's great for workers".

I checked my finances over the last year or so and income doesn't seem to follow inflation very well . . . the cost of Broccoli on the other hand is still going up . . .

I already live in a state that uses beyond-next-level math to do it's books. Imaginary numbers are old hat . . . they use imaginary ordinals and I think they added a new operation symbol that kind of looks like a confused tourist.

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[Gruntbeetle]

Yeah, the whole copy/paste summary seemed odd.

"Venture capitalists injected over $3 billion into the city over the past 20 years, particularly in healthcare and insurance startups"

But...

"started picking up around 2017 and really peaked in 2021.,,,when investment essentially doubled, going from $583 million in 2020 to just over $1 billion,"

So investment was 1.5B for 2020 and 2021. This leaves 1.5B for the previous 18 years? And somehow the previous 18 years were considered exceptional as well..

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[nevermindme]

Insurance as "tech"?

Insurance profits are nothing to do with tech very much like health care delivery. If tech were actually used to benefit the companies stated customer costs would be much lower. Sure tech is used but none of it is new or interesting to technologists.

Insurance costs are everything to do with run of the mill IT and Voice over IP costs. There is a rather large phone company just for insurance sales people dressed in red golf shirts and kacky in IL, but "tech" they are not.

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[jbengt]

". . . really peaked in 2021.,,,when investment essentially doubled, going from $583 million in 2020 to just over $1 billion, . . "

And, according to TFA, most of that $1 billion in venture capital went to just two companies.

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[ThurstonMoore]

Intel is building a mega fab in Columbus. The less close minded and redneck of us in WV hopes this brings in some tourism dollars if the rebel flags don't scare them off.

https://www.intel.com/content/... [intel.com]

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[Eunomion]

I don't doubt Columbus has some good stuff going on. But when a city is jerking itself off like this, that's usually about selling real estate and not really about any other kind of business prospect.

Coin a new phrase

[rantrantrant]

It's time to coin a new phrase then. How about "fly-over tech hub"?

...excuse me while I blink in confusion

[Jacen Aster]

Since when is Ohio in the midwest? I've lived in the mid west (unfortunately) for most of my life. I've never once heard anyone here consider Ohio part of the midwest...

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[jbengt]

I've heard Ohio called part of the midwest all my life. Though, since the 80s it's been more likely called part of the rust belt.

Re:...excuse me while I blink in confusion

[Gilgaron]

It is historical and defined by the Census Bureau; the states in "the midwest" were part of the midwest territories, of which Ohio is the east most. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

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[Skjellifetti2]

There is a Midwest currently defined by the Census Bureau, true. But Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin were originally known as the Northwest Territory, not the Midwest territories. The Northwest Territory included the then mostly unsettled lands North of the Ohio River between Pennsylvania and the Mississippi River claimed by the US after the American Revolution. This is where Northwestern University in Chicago [wikipedia.org] derived its name. Much of the territory was subject to overlapping claims by the

Columbus is also cheapest single shipping hub of U

[matthaak]

If you want one central shipping hub for your online retail operation, Columbus is the cheapest point in the country to locate it based on carrier shipping rates to rest of country and average demand from each region.

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[soloslinger]

Except if you want to fly anything in and out of there.

Call it an engineering trade-off

[flashpoint31415]

I've lived in the DC area. I've lived on the west coast. I now live in Ohio.
Does Ohio have everything a "Tech Hub" from the coasts have? Not exactly... but what it does have are enough to balance the scales.
For example, my daily commute is 17 minutes. I'm not kidding! And I *still* have the option to work from home.
My house cost about half of a comparable sized house in DC, and I live in a MUCH better neighborhood (less crime, etc.) with a MUCH better school district.
My taxes (city, state, property, and sales) are significantly less than on the coasts.
To put it simply, a family can live *VERY* comfortably in Ohio on a single tech industry income of $75k to $250k.
Yet, for those positive points, the negatives are a comparable lack of "cultural" opportunities. Good museums are not as prevalent. Concerts and plays are tricky to get tickets for. Top-notch restaurants exist, but are not as prevent as the all-you-can-force-yourself-to-eat buffets. And yeah, the average "people" can be a bit dim, slow, backwards, or otherwise unpolished. But they are fun to drink with... ;-)
So, just like a good engineering exercise: define your requirements first, and then do the trade-off on the most important requirements.
To the folks who immediately dismiss Ohio, I quote The Dude: "That's just, like, your opinion, man..."

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[Joey Vegetables]

FYI: assuming you're somewhere in central Ohio: drive a few hours north to Cleveland, where I am, and you'll find every bit as much in terms of theater, museums, concerts, etc. as you would anywhere else between NYC and Chicago. Overall Columbus is probably the better place to live (better economy and less crime than Cleveland), but we're only a few hours away and still have a lot of the cultural attractions that were built when we were the dominant city in the region.

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[RitchCraft]

Drive 1.5 hours due north from Columbus (where I live) and you can ride different roller coasters all day long at Cedar Point. Hell, it may take two days now to ride them all. From there it's just a ferry ride to the Lake Erie islands. A few hours drive to the east and you can ride the Maid of the Mist. Try not to go west though, you'll end up in Toledo. Ugh. They do have an awesome zoo though.

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[Joey Vegetables]

All true as well. And, yes, if you want to ride everything at Cedar Point, you need at least a couple days.

I didn't even scratch the surface of what there is to do in North Central and Northeast Ohio.

But I've lived in or near Cleveland nearly all my life, and have NEVER lacked for new things to see or do. Just the time and/or money to see or do them.

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[k6mfw]

Yet, for those positive points, the negatives are a comparable lack of "cultural" opportunities.

I am thinking Silicon Valley may have lots of cultural opportunities but these can be pricey (and spend lots more on housing doesn't leave much disposable income). Yes there are other free or low cost opportunities but at times after exhaustingly running in the rat race maybe just want to rest when have some free time.

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[edi_guy]

Living standards are pretty decent in Columbus, especially if suburbs are your preferred living arrangement. Columbus has a diversified economy as well. There is a lot of insurance and regional financial services companies, automotive and light manufacturing, large educational presence courtesy of Ohio State Univ, and as the capital of Ohio it also supports local and state government jobs. Tech I think would be a nice addition.

One warning is that the state legislature is becoming very, very populist, an

WV

[ThurstonMoore]

Hopefully they'll visit WV and spend some money if the rebel flags don't scare them off.

Columbus Tech

[Skjellifetti2]

I moved to Columbus in the 80s to go to grad school and never left. Been working IT for the past 30 years and am about ready to retire. Columbus has always had a smattering of tech besides Ohio State. There is Battelle [battelle.org], which does a lot of R&D and manages many of DOE's Nat'l Labs. There is OCLC [oclc.org], which builds tools for libraries. There is Chemical Abstracts [cas.org], which catalogues data for the chemical industry. Once upon a time there was Western Electric / Bell Labs, Columbus [dispatch.com], which was mismanaged into oblivi