The Digital Marketplace is Global. Identifying and Connecting With Regional Hubs is Key to a Winning Strategy.
What countries around the world have the most vibrant Built World Ecosystems? What makes a region particularly dynamic? In a digital world where connecting with people around the globe is increasingly like connecting with people at home, cross-country relationship between investors, solution providers and industry players seem to be increasing, quickly. Does geography even matter?
These were all questions that began occurring to us with the launch of our blog back in 2014. Although we were physically based in Chicago, because our conversation was digital, it quickly became apparent to us that there were certain places where the ecosystem of start ups in our industry was particularly fertile. Those places seemed to benefit from a virtuous circle in which tech companies and entrepreneurs benefitted from an environment rich with supportive industry players, investors, universities, and other related organizations. At the same time, the industry players, investors, and surrounding organizations benefitted from the energy, entrepreneurialism and better access to solutions a vibrant, local technology community offered.
Understanding the power of vibrant regional start up ecosystems, people wanted to know which regions were leading the way and why. So, in 2015, we launched the BuiltWorlds RoadTrip with the goal of cataloguing the places where innovation in our industry was most dense and also the companies and related organizations at work in each of those locations.
We'll look at all of these questions at our Global Summit this October.
Chicago: OuR FIRST Case Study
BuiltWorlds was the product of Chicago's Built Tech ecosystem. Beyond being the home of major industry-stakeholder companies like Caterpillar and AON, as well as universities like Northwestern and Illinois Tech, Chicago is the home of the Construction Industry's first-pure play construction company initial public offering. The impact of that IPO in the summer of 2013 was felt around the City. Chicago area Venture Funds, Construction Companies, and other stakeholders in the area who had participated in Textura's success had a first hand taste of the industry's potential and wanted more. Beyond Textura, many other factors contributed to Chicago's unique blend of Built World strengths. We have collected much of our early coverage here on Chicago's Guide Page,mostly from our first home, an incubator for industrial tech companies.
BuiltWorlds RoadTrip: Exploring The Leading Cities in America.
Early in our evolution, it became clear to us that communities focused on emerging technology, investment, and adoption were forming in cities like San Francisco, New York, and Boston. As we gathered subscribers, fielded inquiries, and even hosted visitors from those places, we began to get a picture of those ecosystems. In 2015, we launched the BuiltWorlds Road Trip and set out to catalogue the companies, people, and initiatives that made each region unique. We have compiled those logs, in what we are now calling our "Region Guides," guides to the Built World's Global Centers of Digital Innovation.
Discovering the Start Up Worlds Beyond the United States
The internet knows no boundaries. From our beginning, we connected digitally with start up entrepreneurs, technologists, investors, and industry players and began to understand that that there were people and places around the world sharing our passion for a better industry. You can find the start ups we have found so far in our directory, and, as we move to our Global Summit, we hope to be able to highlight many more.
We know we have a long way to go to identify all the companies around the world that are bringing new solutions to the industry. As we do, we will update our country rankings until we get a true picture of which countries have the more dynamic ecosystems in the Built World.
(Updated as of 8/23/2020)
Want to Help Your Country's Ranking Climb?
Make sure your technology company is part of our Directory today to be included in your country's total count of BuiltWorlds tech companies and for the chance to be featured in your country's Region Guide.