Puget Sound Tech Universe map
NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION, Feb. 16, 2009 – Six key organizations have provided the foundation for numerous technology companies that have surfaced in Seattle over the past three decades.
This was a major finding of a year-long study, Visualizing the Puget Sound Technology Universe, conducted by Heike Mayer, associate professor, urban affairs and planning, and co-director of the Metropolitan Institute, Virginia Tech National Capital Region. The results of the study are depicted visually on a map with a solar system design that documents the history of the Puget Sound technology industry and depicts the genealogy of 711 companies, institutions, and organizations.
Mayer and a team of researchers and industry experts from the Puget Sound region and from Seattle University conducted the study for the Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA), North America’s largest statewide association of technology companies, information technology departments, and individual technology professionals.
Depicted as “suns” on the map, the six companies that built the foundation of the local tech industry are Microsoft, Aldus Corporation, University of Washington, Boeing, McCaw Cellular, and Amazon.com. “Planets” revolving around the “suns” are companies founded by entrepreneurs with experience at one of the “sun” companies before leaving to start something new. The map also depicts “comets” or startups that fall outside the orbit of the six big players, and also includes signs for key connection-maven organizations, including the WTIA and venture capital firms.
“It’s clear that a handful of foundational companies and research institutions made an enormous impact on the state’s economy,” said Ken Myer, president and chief executive officer of the WTIA. “The entrepreneurs who populated this galaxy and the venture capitalists and service providers who support them have created the robust technology industry we see today.”
An interactive version of the Puget Sound Tech Universe map can be found on the Washington Technology Industry Association website (http://www.washingtontechnology.org/TechPoster) and poster copies are also available for purchase from the WTIA.
Other findings in Mayer’s study include
Mayer conducted her doctoral dissertation with a similar visual analysis of the universe of tech companies in the Portland, Ore., area, and in 2008, she completed a similar map for the Portland, Ore., and the Boise, Idaho, regions. (Myer contacted Mayer on behalf of the WTIA after he saw the Boise map.) “Seattle was significantly different because there were six foundational companies,” said Mayer. “In my previous studies I traced the roots of technology to only two companies in each city. In Portland’s case it was Tektronix and Intel; in Boise, it was Hewlett-Packard and Micron Technology.”
Data for Mayer’s Visualizing the Puget Sound Technology Universe study was gathered through an online survey and from secondary sources such as the Puget Sound Business Journal’s Book of Lists, a Seattle Startup 2.0 list, and an Xconomy gaming cluster analysis published in 2008.
The study was sponsored by Accenture, Deloitte, F5Networks, Madrona Venture Group, OVP Venture Partners, Physio Control, Regence Blue Shield, University of Washington Computer Science and Engineering, Voyager Capital LLC, and the Washington State Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development.
Mayer is currently collecting data to visualize startup dynamics in Phoenix, Ariz, and Kansas City, Mo., a continuation of her Knowledge Regions Initiative at Virginia Tech to explore the urban and regional development implications of emerging innovative and entrepreneurial industries.