New York is a city by many names – The Big Apple, The Concrete Jungle, The City That Never Sleeps, and many more monikers. Not only is it the largest metropolitan area in the United States, it’s also known as the #1 city for female entrepreneurs and the #7 best city for startup activity.
New York, NY is the largest city in the country and the primary city in the country’s largest metropolitan area. WalletHub’s 2017 rankings of the best large cities to start a business ranked New York 77th overall, with rankings of 36 and 41 in the “business environment” and “access to resources” categories, respectively. According to ExpertMarket, New York is one of the nation’s top-10 cities for minority entrepreneurs, while Dell’s Women Entrepreneur Cities Index ranked the city as the best for female entrepreneurs. Finally, the Kauffman Index listed the New York metropolitan area as the nation’s seventh-best in startup activity.
Based on these rankings, FundingSage has reviewed the resources that make upNew York’s entrepreneurial ecosystem:
Entrepreneurial Meetups:
A meetup group with the aim of supporting women making the transition into entrepreneurship.
EBNG aims to support entrepreneurs with regular networking events to help them make connections and seminars to educate them.
A group open to entrepreneurs of all types that aims to help them succeed and create sustainable businesses.
New York City Entrepreneurs is a social group to help entrepreneurs meet one another and share ideas.
The New York Entrepreneur Exchange & Networking Club aims to help connect entrepreneurs with potential business partners.
NYESN is a group dedicated to supporting active and aspiring entrepreneurs and helping them meet potential partners, investors, and clients.
NYEN hosts regular inexpensive seminars with the goal of supporting and educating entrepreneurs and small business owners in the New York area.
A branch of the group Apps Without Code, this group supports those with big startup ideas – specifically in the tech sector – but without the requisite knowledge or experience.
A meetup group that hosts events with the goal of helping Internet entrepreneurs meet each other and share ideas or collaborate.
NYC CEO organizes and hosts a wide variety of events to help support Chinese entrepreneurs making their way in the East Coast tech community.
A networking group with the aim of being the primary hub for creative entrepreneurs and freelancers in the NYC community.
A large group designed to help entrepreneurs to meet one another through both business and social events.
An entrepreneurial meetup group aimed at supporting entrepreneurs in their attempts to increase their profits.
WISE is a specific branch of the Real Estate Investors Association of NYC aimed at supporting women in real estate investment and entrepreneurship.
Regular Entrepreneurial Events:
BDT Conference is an annual full-day conference discussing and celebrating innovations in products and services that will disrupt and impact society’s most pressing issues.
An annual gathering of some of the nation’s best and most influential female entrepreneurs celebrating and supporting them.
One of New York’s largest events, the Small Business Expo is an annual exhibition and networking conference for small business and entrepreneurs.
Next Gen is an annual conference held in New York that celebrates and supports young entrepreneurs.
An annual two-day conference celebrating the culture of entrepreneurship and innovation at Columbia University.
Organized and hosted by Fordham University, TrepCon is an annual conference celebrating entrepreneurship and innovation.
Startup Competitions:
The Columbia Venture Competition is an annual competition in which students at Columbia University can compete in one of four tracks for the chance to win thousands of dollars.
A pitch event in which entrepreneurs have two minutes to pitch their startup to a panel of investors and have the opportunity to receive feedback.
The New York Public Library organizes an annual competition for founders and startups based in Manhattan, The Bronx, or Staten Island to compete for $15,000.
Sponsored by the Queens Economic Development Corporation, Queens StartUP! Is a business plan competition in which entrepreneurs in three categories compete for $10,000.
The Zahn Innovation Center at the City College of New York offers four concurrent tracks for students to compete for up to $50,000 in cash prizes.
Co-working Spaces:
A co-working space specifically designed to help support entrepreneurs across a variety of sectors and helps them make connections.
Hosted in an old barn, The Farm is a pet-friendly workspace that offers members a variety of flexible plans and 24/7 access.
An eco-friendly, professional, and fully-furnished workspace with 5,425 desks available across several locations around New York City.
A co-working space in Brooklyn that aims to support individuals through facilities, amenities, and access to helpful programs.
With locations in New York and Los Angeles, NeueHouse offers a number of flexible membership plans.
In addition to co-working space, a membership at Primary includes access to a variety of amenities, including daily events and classes.
WeWork Offices has 50 locations around New York City, with traditional co-working options as well as private offices at different price points.
Located in midtown Manhattan, Workville offers members centrally-located private offices and traditional co-working to support members.
With locations spread around Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, PA, and New York City, The Yard offers a number of flexible membership plans.
Maker spaces:
With a focus on digital fabrication and electronics, Fat Cat Fab Lab also includes metal and woodworking tools as well as a textiles shop.
Offering special membership deals to students and unemployed people, Hack Manhattan has a wide variety of tools and equipment available for use.
The Makery is a maker space with an emphasis on education, offering workshops and classes to people of all ages.
Skill Mill offers a variety of services, including design consultation, various workshops, and the option to have a personalized product made for them.
SPark Workshop Brooklyn offers traditional shop memberships as well as the ability to reserve a private studio as well as a number of educational classes and workshops.
Staten Island MakerSpace offers members access to 33,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor workspace and a wide variety of tools and equipment.
Incubators:
With locations in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, PA, and New York City, 1776 invests in startups in the sectors of education, energy and sustainability, health, and transportation.
Offers a 12-week program to support early- and growth-stage financial technology startups from around the world succeed.
An incubation program that connects Fordham students with resources like workspaces, advisors, mentorship, and programming.
The In-Residence program is a highly-personalized incubation program, typically for early-stage startups looking for solutions in capital markets and banking.
A workspace and community that aims to support young, creative media and technology entrepreneurs and startups.
New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering offers several incubation programs for up to two years to students.
Somewhere between a co-working space and an incubator, Voyager HQ provides travel startup founders with a place to work, meaningful connections and access to vital resources.
Incubators vs. Accelerators: Which Best Fits Your Needs?
Accelerators:
A 12-week seed-stage accelerator program with locations in New York City and San Francisco, CA.
With locations in New York as well as London and Tel Aviv, Barclays Accelerator is a 13-week program that provides support to promising FinTech startups.
Blueprint Health is a 12-week program that takes 6% equity in return for a cash investment, working space, and valuable resources to grow a business.
A combination of a venture fund and accelerator program, Dreamit Ventures offers a 14-week program as well as investment to promising health and urban tech startups.
One of New York’s largest accelerators, ERA provides early-stage startups with capital, a co-working location, and expert help over the course of their four-month program.
An accelerator program for technology startups that provides free rent for zero equity in exchange for a commitment to staying in the building after the program’s completion.
MetaProp offers a 22-week accelerator program with up to $250,000 to real estate entrepreneurs and innovators.
New York’s leading healthcare providers nominate startups to participate in this accelerator program, which pairs startups with mentors to help them grow.
TechStars, a large company supporting entrepreneurs and startups, including with competitive tech accelerators around the world, with one in New York City.
Colleges/Universities:
The women’s liberal arts school Barnard College offers to help support and grow the next generation of female entrepreneurs.
With a wide variety of support and resources offered to students, Columbia is a great place for those interested in entrepreneurship.
Fordham provides students with a number of resources, including events, incubation, and classes and concentrations in entrepreneurship.
Both NYU and the NYU School of Engineering offer a variety of resources to entrepreneurial-minded students, both in and out of the classroom.
The St. John’s College of Professional Studies includes a center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship which provides programs to support entrepreneurial-minded students.
Angel Groups/VCs:
37 Angels is a New York-based investment group made up entirely of women that invest in seed-stage startups regardless of sector or geographical location.
An angel group and venture firm hybrid, ARC Angel Fund invests in early-stage companies in technology-related sectors located in New York City and the northeast United States.
Contour Venture Partners invests between $250,000 and $1.5 million in seed- and early-stage technology-enabled companies around the northeast United States.
Empire Angels invest in an array of technology-enabled startups, especially in the sectors of FinTech, e-commerce, and education and enterprise software.
A technology-focused venture capital firm that invests in seed- and early-stage startups based on new or expanding technologies.
An early-stage venture capital firm located in New York that aims to create a tight-knit community between the members of the startup and investment firm.
Great Oaks Venture Capital primarily invests in seed-stage consumer, enterprise, or healthcare companies in either New York City or San Francisco, CA.
Lerer Hippeau aims to provide early-stage venture capital ambitious entrepreneurs based in New York across all sectors.
One of the most active angel groups in the world, New York Angels invests in early-stage companies, particularly those based on new technology.
A New York-based venture capital firm that provides seed, Series A, and Series B stage funding to disruptive startups across a variety of sectors.
Tribeca Venture Partners invests in early-stage startups using technology to create or disrupt a major market, particularly those located in the New York metro area.
A Glimpse Into Thinking Like an Angel Investor
Entrepreneurial Newsletter Coverage:
AlleyWatch, which covers technology, startups, and general entrepreneurship in New York, offers a newsletter with the biggest and most important stories.
Crain’s New York Business covers the major happenings in the business and entrepreneurial world of New York and offers both free and paid newsletters and subscriptions.
A website that covers the major news and events in the New York City technology and entrepreneurship scenes that offers a weekly newsletter with the biggest stories.
New York University offers several newsletters covering entrepreneurship both at the university and in the New York area as a whole.
Are you familiar with entrepreneurial ecosystem infrastructure in New York City not included in the article above? If so, let us know via a comment below and we will add it to the article.
Interested in Ecosystem Spotlights of other cities in the USA?
Denver, CO,Boston, MA, Memphis, Tennessee
Article by Quinn Pilkey
Quinn Pilkey
Quinn is a journalism major at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He also serves as a freelance author for Hashtag Basketball where he writes about the NBA's Charlotte Hornets and at FundingSage where he researches and writes about entrepreneurial ecosystems.
