New York City’s economy is in the midst of a rapid transformation. The Internet, mobile technologies, social media, and big data have unleashed a wave of innovation that is creating thousands of new startups and also re-inventing New York City’s traditional industries as they rush to compete in the 21st century global economy. What was once thought of by policy makers, academics, journalists, economists, and others as New York’s “tech sector” or “Silicon Alley” has now expanded into a complex and yet to be fully understood “tech ecosystem” that is producing hundreds of thousands of new jobs, generating billions in taxes and economic impact, while creating new markets and redirecting New York City’s trajectory into the future.

To better understand the dynamics of these unprecedented changes as well as to help New York’s leaders and its citizens better understand the opportunities and the challenges our city faces, a coalition comprised of the Association for a Better New York (ABNY), Citi, Google, and the NY Tech Meetup (NYTM) have joined forces with HR&A Advisors to complete a new detailed analysis to define the components and characteristics of New York City’s “tech ecosystem” as it continues to grow and evolve.

We hope that the findings of this report will help policy makers understand why technologically driven innovation and infrastructure are key to the future success of New York City and all New Yorker's lives.

Special thanks to Althea Erickson of Etsy, Liz Elkiss of General Assembly, Rachel Haot, New York State Deputy Secretary for Technology, Scott Anderson of Control Group, Johnathan Bowles of Center for an Urban Future, Marissa Shorenstein of AT&T, John Cavaliero of Accenture, Jukay Hsu and David Yang of Coalition for Queens, Jeff Volk and Matthew Gould of MLB Advanced Media, Arun Sundarajaran of New York University, Andrea Moore of NYCEDC, Vivian Liao of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, and Sean Campion of NYCIBO for their generous support during the various work sessions and meetings leading up to the creation of this report. Thanks also to Rubenstein and Edelman for their assistance handling the release of this report. And thanks to Molly Young and Stephanie Wu of Warby Parker for web design, and Saron Yitbarek and Vinney Cavallo of NY Tech Meetup for web development.

Iva Benson, Rubenstein, ibenson@rubenstein.com, 212 843 8271