Every Startup Community Wants ‘Storytelling.’ Too Few Are Doing Anything About It.
In the late 2000s, as tech startup culture began to spread beyond Silicon Valley, tech enthusiasts and journalists recognized a need for localized coverage. This led to the launch of blogs and news sites dedicated to emerging tech communities across the country. However, despite its critical importance, the art of storytelling within these innovation ecosystems remains underdeveloped. It’s a vital component for promoting local culture, connecting communities, and guiding new participants.
Many dedicated local tech media outlets have struggled to survive in a competitive digital landscape, despite a growing desire among innovation ecosystem leaders for their region’s narrative to gain wider recognition.
Back in 2008, reporting on tech and startups in Philadelphia and Baltimore was not seen as a serious endeavor. Undeterred, a few journalists realized that traditional newspapers weren’t interested in covering the rise of tech in other cities. They believed that Silicon Valley’s startup culture was expanding, similar to the model of AllThingsD, which launched with the aim of bringing journalistic rigor to tech startup coverage. The rise of the internet, software, and consumer electronics was happening everywhere.
From the late 2000s into the early 2010s, other under-employed journalists and tech enthusiasts began to track local startup communities. Many launched newsletters, blogs, and news sites, including Technical.ly.
Unfortunately, many of these early initiatives have failed. As tech becomes increasingly central to economic strategy, civic leaders are investing more in programs aimed at workforce development and entrepreneurship. The decline of local newsrooms creates a gap in coverage. There are fewer resources to follow these investments and even fewer outlets to tell stories beyond a specific community.
That’s why what I call the “Innovation Ecosystem Stack” has a storytelling deficit — aka a distinct need for narrative change in a specific scene. It’s the role that Technical.ly aims to play in more places.
In 2019, Technical.ly produced a report for the Kauffman Foundation on how local entrepreneurship communities were getting news and information.
Five years and a pandemic later, revisiting that report offers some insights.
What kind of storytelling do you want…or is it a need?
The pandemic paradoxically boosted entrepreneurship, underscored the necessity of digital access, and intensified demand for a STEM workforce. Now, every state in the US boasts at least one organization dedicated to startups, technology, or both.
With growth comes complexity. In the early stages of a community, key connectors can serve as information hubs. Eventually, the sheer volume of startup and tech activity outgrows the capacity of a few individuals to manage information flow. This isn’t a problem, but a sign of success. Unfortunately, there are fewer than two dozen dedicated publications focused on the tech and startup issues of a given region. Most of them concentrate on startups in a single market.
A notable exception is BostInno, a startup blog founded in 2008 that was acquired by American City Business Journals (ACBJ) in 2012. The “Inno” brand is now used for ACBJ’s tech coverage across multiple markets, though much of it is behind a paywall.
A few publishers, including Technical.ly, balance important information sharing with original reporting on hard-but-useful truths.
Silicon Valley and New York City, the biggest tech markets, have a wealth of national coverage, alongside local resources like the San Jose Mercury’s SiliconValley.com and AlleyWatch. Chicago’s Crain’s has built a respected tech vertical, and publications like GeekWire in Seattle and dot.LA in Los Angeles have emerged to serve their respective communities. Smaller hubs also utilize storytelling to connect local ecosystems.
Around the same time, Technical.ly launched, Silicon Prairie News became a popular resource across the Midwest. In 2022, it was donated to the Nebraska Journalism Trust, where it continues today. The Research Triangle’s local NBC affiliate, has published its TechWire since 2002. All of these are independent, offering a distance from organizations creating programming for startups. This contrasts with efforts like Startland News in Kansas City and Refresh Miami in Florida, which are entrepreneur support organizations that employ journalists. Others don’t hire any journalists, and most avoid difficult or controversial subject matter—like a failing startup or issues with public figures. Regardless of a publication’s origin, all share a common goal: to promote local innovation culture and guide new entrants.
Local startup news is easy to envision, hard to sustain
While most local tech efforts focus on internal storytelling, civic leaders often want their innovation stories to reach beyond their markets. This can be a challenge for single-market publications, but good stories can break through. In a recent survey, nearly a third of Technical.ly readers reported researching regions beyond their own.
With limited storytelling resources, local business and talent attraction executives often combine tactics under the “storytelling” banner, including stand-alone websites with catchy phrases. Some organizations like Milwaukee’s chamber of commerce, have launched their own standalone news sites focused on startups.
Most efforts often fail to recognize the difficulty of sustaining a media business. Despite digital tools making the cost of launching an online publication effectively zero, a crowded marketplace has driven up the cost of building an audience. Of roughly 150 regions with some entrepreneur or tech engagement strategy, fewer than 15% have a dedicated news resource.
The best evidence of how difficult this work is comes from the number of publications that no longer exist. After changing ownership in 2018, Tech.co, originally named TechCocktail, was transformed into a national tech review site. The pandemic era was especially brutal, as multi-local, biotech-focused Xconomy, Iowa-focused Clay&Milk, and Midwest-minded Mug.news all ceased publishing. These were some of the strongest, and many others never came close to the reach and influence of those efforts.
Fifteen years after launching Technical.ly, the importance of this work has grown, despite the lack of good examples.
