Where is the center of gravity for US startups outside California and New York?

ChatGPT

If you exclude California and New York, the U.S. startup landscape doesn’t have one obvious replacement center. But there is a fairly clear hierarchy.

Boston is the strongest overall center of gravity, especially if you're measuring venture capital, startup density, talent, and ability to fund companies through later stages. In Carta's 2025 data, Boston captured 6.6% of U.S. startup capital, making it the #4 U.S. ecosystem overall behind the Bay Area, NYC, and LA. It was particularly dominant in biotech, taking 26.2% of U.S. biotech venture dollars.

Carta

After Boston, I'd think about the map like this:

Metro Relative position Particular strength

Boston/Cambridge #1 outside CA/NY Biotech, health, AI, deep tech, university spinouts

Austin #2 Software, AI, hardware, defense, founder migration

Seattle #3 AI, cloud, enterprise software, technical talent

Washington, DC / Northern Virginia Next tier Defense tech, cybersecurity, govtech, AI

Denver/Boulder Next tier SaaS, climate, aerospace, founder lifestyle

Miami Next tier Fintech, crypto, LatAm-facing companies

Chicago Next tier Fintech, B2B, logistics, marketplaces

Atlanta Emerging/next tier Fintech, payments, cybersecurity, B2B

Salt Lake/Provo Emerging/next tier SaaS, bootstrapped-to-VC companies

Carta's early-stage data puts Boston in Tier 2 alongside NYC and LA, with Austin, Seattle, DC, and Denver in Tier 3, and Dallas, Miami, Chicago, Salt Lake/Provo, and Atlanta in Tier 4.

Carta

The interesting wrinkle is Austin vs.…

Trimmed here; the full answer is in the viewer.

Named: Boston, Austin, Seattle, Washington, D.C., Denver, Miami, Chicago, Atlanta, Salt Lake City, New York City, San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Dallas, San Diego

Sources cited: carta.com, news.crunchbase.com, nvca.org

Claude

Austin, Texas is generally considered the leading contender for that title, but a handful of others are close behind depending on how you measure it.

Austin has the strongest overall claim — it's attracted a steady wave of founders and operators leaving SF and NYC over the past several years, with real depth now in fintech, AI, and crypto, plus infrastructure like local VC firms, accelerators, and a growing base of relocated tech companies.

Miami has emerged as a serious rival, especially for fintech and crypto, and has become a landing pad not just for coastal transplants but for Latin American founders using it as a US base.

Beyond those two, a few other cities are carving out real niches rather than trying to be general-purpose hubs:

Washington, DC — has actually delivered the best VC returns of any US market in 2026, posting an 11.7x MOIC through early August, well ahead of the Bay Area's 3.74x and New York's 3.18x, driven partly by defense tech, govtech, and cybersecurity.

PitchBook

Denver/Boulder — strong in SaaS, clean energy, and outdoor/wellness tech, helped by talent migration from California.

Atlanta — the Southeast's dominant tech hub, anchored by Georgia Tech and a large fintech cluster around its "Transaction Alley" payment-processing corridor, and it produces more fintech startups per capita than most US cities outside New York.

GrowthList

Raleigh-Durham, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Nashville, San Antonio — smaller but fast-growing hubs, each specializing in…

Trimmed here; the full answer is in the viewer.

Named: Austin, San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, Miami, Washington, D.C., Denver, Atlanta, Georgia Tech, Raleigh-Durham, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Nashville

Sources cited: pitchbook.com, growthlist.co

Gemini

Outside California and New York, the primary center of gravity for U.S. startups is Greater Boston (Massachusetts), followed by high-growth regional hubs in Texas (Austin) and Washington (Seattle).

Region / Metro Hub Primary Tech Specialties National VC & Startup Ecosystem Standing

Greater Boston (MA) Biotech, Life Sciences, Deep Tech, AI, Robotics Consistently ranks #3 nationally in venture capital deal value behind CA and NY, anchored by MIT/Harvard research and top-tier venture firms according to PitchBook-NVCA data.

Texas (Austin / Dallas / Houston) Hard Tech, Defense, Energy Transition, Enterprise SaaS Ranks #4 nationally in VC deal volume and capital deployed, fueled by high-profile corporate relocations and strong engineering talent as tracked by SSTI.

Seattle (WA) Enterprise SaaS, Cloud Computing, Infrastructure, AI Holds the #2 spot in overall state economic strength behind Massachusetts, leveraging massive software engineering density from Amazon and Microsoft as noted by the Bellevue Chamber.

Miami (FL) Fintech, Crypto, LatAm Cross-Border Tech Acts as one of the fastest-growing emerging hubs for capital allocation and dual-HQ founder relocations according to OpenVC.

Chicago (IL) B2B SaaS, Logistics Tech, Healthcare IT Serves as the Midwest's primary anchor for enterprise tech, venture funding, and corporate innovation, as cataloged by Venture Capital Tracker.

Why Boston Remains the Dominant Non-CA/NY Center

Venture Firm Density: Massachusetts houses top-tier…

Trimmed here; the full answer is in the viewer.

Named: Boston, Austin, Dallas, Houston, Seattle, Miami, Chicago

Sources cited: nvca.org, ssti.org, bellevuechamber.org, openvc.app, venturecapitaltracker.com, time.com, wallethub.com

Perplexity

There isn’t one single replacement for California and New York. If you mean the largest, most durable startup center outside those states, the best answer is Greater Boston/Cambridge—especially for biotech, life sciences, robotics, AI research, and enterprise software. If you mean the broadest next tier of startup markets, it is a cluster: Boston, Los Angeles, Seattle, Austin, and the Washington, D.C.–Northern Virginia corridor.

news.crunchbase

+1

The short ranking

Tier Metro / region Why it matters most

Leading alternative Boston–Cambridge Exceptional university, hospital, and lab network; deep life-sciences and technical-founder ecosystem; major global startup ecosystem standing. Boston returned to Startup Genome’s global top five in 2025.

startupgenome

Largest broad-market hubs Los Angeles and Seattle LA combines consumer tech, media/creator economy, aerospace, defense, and climate; Seattle has elite cloud, AI, enterprise, and engineering talent. LA and Boston were the next-largest seed-investment hubs after the Bay Area and New York in 2025.

news.crunchbase

Fastest scaled challenger Austin A lower-cost operating base, University of Texas talent, corporate migration, and strong software/semiconductor/defense activity. Austin reportedly finished 2025 fifth nationally for VC investment, with more than $8 billion in funding.

linkedin

Policy and regulated-tech hub Washington, D.C.–Northern Virginia Federal customers, cybersecurity, defense, govtech, national security,…

Trimmed here; the full answer is in the viewer.

Named: Boston, Los Angeles, Seattle, Austin, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Denver, Raleigh-Durham, Miami, Salt Lake City, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, New York City, San Francisco Bay Area, San Diego, Houston, Detroit

Sources cited: startupgenome.com, news.crunchbase.com, linkedin.com, nvca.org