How is Baltimore, MD perceived by people in Tech Startup hotbed areas?

Disclaimer: I'm moving to Baltimore in about a month, and I have some connections to the area, so I may be biased in favor of it. Of the five major northeastern cities, the other 4 have a well-defined role. New York is the financial center of the country. Washington is the seat of government. Boston is the academic center. Philadelphia is the historic soul of the U.S., because the Society of Friends (Quakers) did more good in defining this country than the Puritans. Baltimore is the smart city that the country hasn't figured out what to do with. That's actually an advantage, because that's much like what the West Coast was (see: Silicon Valley, 1950s-70s) before this Disneyfied venture-capital version of it sprang up. That's where a Maker Culture comes from. On "smart city", there is such a thing as a smart city feel. You get it in Boston, Seattle, Minneapolis. You don't really feel it in New York; the people are plenty intelligent, but they're distracted by finance and real estate. You definitely don't feel it in LA, even though there are enough smart people there. Baltimore, though it has its problems, definitely has the smart city feel. How is Baltimore perceived by "the startup world"? It isn't. It doesn't need to be. Baltimore is fertile ground for a Maker Culture and that's about doing, not perception. Reputation is a lagging indicator and for cities, that lag is about 10 years. Anyway, fuck reputation; it just brings people into a place for the wrong reasons. Austin wasn't really on the radar 5 years ago; but now it's one of the best places for a technologist to spend her 20s. North Carolina is now the epicenter of the Clojure community; 10 years ago, that state was primarily known for SAS. (Don't bother; R's better and free.) Things change.  I think the general sense among people who know Baltimore is that something cool is going to happen there. I don't think anyone knows what yet, but that's part of what makes it interesting.

Don't be short-sided. Jobs didn't know anything about animation until he went to San Rafael, where the heck is that? There is more than one way to skin a cat. But it does take something special. The key is to build and keep on building. Baltimore is just getting started.

It really depends on who you are talking to.  People from Baltimore move around just like people from other places. I think I have met as many people from Baltimore in the valley as I have in DC, perhaps a few more in New York, and Austin.  Since Baltimore is not a top tier city by population, it isn't going to have the same number of alumni as say San Francisco or Manhattan who live in the Bay area. This is changing.  Over the last decade, Baltimore has undergone a re-urbanization much like many other cities.  They rate of grown in city's urban white collar population has accelerating rapidly.  This is supported by efforts by the city, educational institutions (e.g. Johns Hopkins University, University of Maryland Baltimore, University of Baltimore) and the city's economic development community.  The Baltimore downtown landscape and surrounding areas have seen rise to sophisticated communities blending business and residential.  Alongside all of this, the state of Maryland has been working to pull in engineering and research through state programs as well as higher education research programs. Tech Startup communities are definitely measured in terms of foot traffic, but what they are really measured by is epic startups like Google, Amazon, eBay, PayPal, and others like them.  These types of organizations contribute a great deal to the community of entrepreneurs in a place like Baltimore.  When these types of companies get big, it inspires people to take their shot.  Baltimore has had some big wins in recent years and should see quite a few more.  A few of these are Baltimore based, like Bill Me Later (acquired by PayPal), and Webs.com. Some might argue that Webs is a DC based company, but they are not. They are a Maryland based company that is on the rail line connecting Baltimore and DC.  The same could be said for Blackboard and Living Social, both DC based companies, but with rails connecting them to Baltimore.  As a result, Baltimore acts much like the southern portion of the San Francisco Bay area does - think Cupertino, San Jose, Santa Clara.  People often don't differentiate between San Jose or Cupertino and San Francisco City.  The same is true of the DC area.  This is a brand project for the city or the community. Ultimately, it doesn't matter what people think about the city as much as what the people in the city create and build.  And by build, I don't mean communities - there are plenty of those to go around here.  San Francisco recruits some of their best engineers out of DC and Baltimore communities.  Despite this, Baltimore and DC have professional user communities and groups that rival any of the world's best cities.  They just have a more interesting mix of conversations at your local coffee shop (less chatter about VC's and software than you might get in Google's back yard or SF City). Don't mistake the lack of conversations as the absence of them, there are more technology professionals in the Baltimore-Washington area than there are in the SF Bay area.  There are also things to do after 10pm in Baltimore, something that is a bit of a challenge in most of the middle/lower bay area towns like Palo Alto and Mountain View. Don't underestimate Baltimore. The Wire was a well produced show, it was created in Baltimore much like a lot of other things including software products and other stuff.

Sorry to say, they don't perceive of Baltimore or DC for that matter. Of US cities, I hear: SF Bay Area New York Austin LA Probably a tie for Portland/Seattle I hear London more than I hear LA and Berlin probably more than I hear anything in Washington state.

Sean - Very interesting question and although I don't meet the profile of the person you want to answer your question - I think I have a unique perspective.  As someone that started their Tech career in Baltimore and has spent the last 5 years living in the area but working elsewhere I have pondered this question and generally agree with Drew's answer.  I think other smaller cities not mentioned by Drew that are still considered more "Tech Startup"-centric than Baltimore including: Las Vegas, Denver/Boulder, Salt Lake City, Raleigh/Triangle Park. The fundamental question is why?  Baltimore has some big successes and great talent but hasn't gotten the props it deserves.  Is it too well known for other things (The Wire)?  Does it not have the tech-centric universities located in other cities?  Does it not have the perceived "extras" of these other cities (outdoor activities, culture, music scene, etc.)? Personally I think it is a combination of all of the above to some extent but am hopeful that groups like the GBTC and others will create a thriving network of Tech Startups in the city.

I worked for http://Advertising.com in Baltimore for 3 years and have worked for startups in the Bay Area for the past two years. Baltimore is nowhere close to being a startup hub. In Silicon Valley, it's seen as an interesting place to come from, along the lines of "how the fuck did you make it out of that place." It's that place you tell people you're from, because it makes you look cool, but then you stop talking about it because nobody gives a flying fuck. This has nothing to do with perception. Baltimore is solidly in the bush leagues when it comes to startups. When you have to include Underarmor... excuse me Underarmour... in a discussion about tech startups, you know you're grasping at straws. To put it bluntly, Baltimore fundamentally lacks the two necessary ingredients for producing a large number of exceptional tech startups: 1. A critical mass of talent Talent attracts talent. Talent appreciates talent. This defect cascades into a number of problems. Baltimore lacks a culture that values creativity and intelligence. In fact, I find Baltimore has a culture that fears creativity and intelligence, which is typical of most small American cities. Talent is not rewarded appropriately in Baltimore, both in terms of salary and status. Developers, designers, and even product managers are not the leaders here. Sales calls the shots, mostly because of a lack of investment (see 2.) Compounding the lack of investment, there's no talent run-off. There's no Google or Microsoft or Goldman Sachs that churns through doe-eyed Ivy League grads and spits out disgruntled wunderkinds that want to "change the world." http://Advertising.com kind of functions as this role, but it's clearly not enough to create a startup hub. There are also no great universities around Baltimore. Boston and Pittsburgh aren't exactly great startup hubs, but at least they can bamboozle some MIT and CMU grads into sticking around. Baltimore has JHU, which is tier 2 at best. Ask yourself this: if I were a top-grade software engineer, capable of leading a small team of people who will make a billion dollars out of thin air, why would I ever work in Baltimore? 2. Investors Nobody is looking for startups in Baltimore. Being a startup in Baltimore is like being the world's best runningback, except you go to Carnegie Mellon. Because of this, Baltimore startups are money-hungry, which sounds gangster as shit, but mostly results in problems. You're not able to scale as quickly and corner markets like a boss. You're less likely to pay the exorbitant salaries necessary for procuring talent. You are slaves to your customers. You almost certainly cannot make consumer plays. Most importantly, Baltimore startups are unable to take big risks. Facebook was cashflow negative until recently. How long can you stay cashflow negative as a startup in Baltimore? So yeah... I don't want to shit on Baltimore too much, because I do actually love the place. It's just not a profitable place to work for the best engineers, designers, and product managers. But hey... if you're a 10x drug dealer, Baltimore can be your Hypodermic Valley.

I heard a comment at our tech meetup tonight from a DC techie that Baltimore seems full of 1-5 person companies that make some noise but seem to lack real traction in the marketplace. I kind of agree. I know some distinct wins, Mindgrub included and too many DOD contractors, Millenial, Videology, Barcode, BillMeLater, Sylvan, etc., but think we need to focus on getting the myriad of 1-5 person, currently self-funded companies,to the next level. At the end of the day we are just at the second generation of tech companies whereas SF, NYC are at generation 4+ because their ecosystem is more mature - there are more exits and more investments. We do have some great schools (UMBC is the 4 year up and coming tech school in the US), but need to grow our ecosystem so our talent doesn't go hide out at Fort Meade, commute/move to DC, or move out of dodge alltogether to play in the bigger ponds. Our reduced cost of living and local talent should be a differentiator. Maybe all we need is for city taxes to come down, government to take more interest, attract more outside investment, retain our talent, and speed the whole cycle up.

Brutal, but so true.  Baltimore just isn't on the tech radar, that simple.  Example - this past March we made it to the final selection of the Microsoft / TechStars Accelerator Program for the Kinect.  They required in-person interviews for the top 25 (down from hundreds, maybe thousands of applicants worldwide).  They required the CEO/founders of the 25 firms to meet in one of 6 cities: Seattle, LA, Boston, Montreal, and Paris.  So obviously I flew to Boston for my meeting, not too bad.  I asked the guys - what do you know about the tech scene in Baltimore?  He confirmed - its not on our radar, we never think of Baltimore for technology.   End of story. As the founder and CEO of a 17-year old tech company in Baltimore, and perhaps the national leader in our technology field, and working very hard to spin out a new super cool high tech consumer-oriented business around 3D Scanning and 3D Printing - two of the hottest topics on the latest Gartner Hype Curve (see below), I too wish Baltimore had more talent, more financial resources, and frankly more respect, for those of us here now that are killing themselves everyday to maintain, much less grow, our businesses and number of employees, in a city that simply doesn't know much about technology in the first place.  End of story.

I grew up in Baltimore and have worked in startups most of my career, divided between San Francisco and Boston. Sad to say, I've never (at least before reading this question) heard of anyone, ever, even once, talking about startups in Baltimore.