The United States of Startup Accelerators

As you might have heard, technology startups have become something of a hot item in economic development circles. Ian Hathaway describes how this dynamic of the new economy is playing out geographically:

A convergence of factors in information technology and capital markets have helped propel a boom in venture capital-backed startups in recent years. While well-established regions such as San Francisco-Silicon Valley, Boston-Cambridge, and New York account for the lion’s share of startup activity and funding, significant evidence suggests that a non-trivial amount of early stage capital is dispersing geographically throughout the United States. 

According to Hathaway, the emergence of startup accelerators reflects the importance of technology startups to contemporary economic development strategies, defining these accelerators as entities that "support early-stage, growth-driven companies through education, mentorship, and financing in a fixed-period, cohort-based setting."

Hathaway provides additional information about how to distinguish accelerators from incubators, angel investors, and other kinds of startup-focused entities before providing a series of infographics to illustrate the widespread (i.e., beyond the Silicon Valley) adoption of the accelerator model.