An update on Technical.ly in Delaware

One of the great benefits of 15 years of reporting on tech and startup economies, culminating in our new national Map of Innovation Ecosystems, is a handle on how different places stack up.

Delaware is a special place, and one Technical.ly knows especially well after a full decade of reporting on its tech workforce, small business and economic development strategies. Still we’re always learning, especially about how we fit into the state’s changing landscape — which we were able to do thanks to a generous Longwood Foundation catalyst grant. 

What’s clear is we need to change. Effective Feb. 15, we’ll consider Delaware a “satellite” market of Philadelphia. That means we’ll reduce the amount of reporting we’ll dedicate to the First State, and we’ll put our weekly newsletter on hold —though we’d love your help in changing that. Any reporting from Delaware will look more like our reporting on places like Pennsylvania’s Montgomery County, an important tech employment hub, but not an independent one.

The reason involves money, yes, but that relates to the facts on the ground in Delaware too. 

Post-pandemic, we better understand that Technical.ly’s work is most supported in states and regions interested in developing and telling their innovation stories, both at home and outside of it. At present, this isn’t happening in Delaware — though we expect that to change and hope to be part of it. What other local storytellers in Delaware lack is either expertise on economic change or audience outside the state (or both).

When just about every place has a story of entrepreneurship and tech workforce, the only differentiation is how to tell that story. And so storytelling is in demand. 

Across the country, local economic development leaders recognize that booming entrepreneurship, remote work and in-demand tech skills requires an investment in narrative. A year ago, the Delaware Business Roundtable released its Investment Agenda, specifically citing the state’s need to tell its innovation and entrepreneurship story. We remain excited to take part in that plan. A year later, though, not much has changed, and so we’re taking a step back to focus where the investments are, elsewhere in the country. 

That may yet change, with a new governor and the rapid pace that other states and regions are investing in storytelling: look at the Maryland Marketing Partnership focused on economic development and the New Economy Collaborative in Pittsburgh. If in the 20th century, regional economic leaders sought to attract physical capital, here in the 21st it is about human capital. That takes a storytelling approach. 

For a full decade, we at Technical.ly have been believers in Delaware’s story. Back in 2010, Technical.ly was first to tell the story of Delaware’s first-ever coworking space, then called coIN Loft. Its founders were young, Wilmington-based creatives exasperated that state leaders were not taking seriously that local economic factors were rapidly changing. Years later, one coIN Loft founder left Wilmington for Wisconsin’s brainy mid-sized college town Madison, and told us he hoped that was starting to change. Unfortunately as other states and regions invest in telling a new regional story, Delaware isn’t yet. 

In our freshly released second annual State of the Delaware Tech Economy report, we called out much that was working in the state. But we warned that too few local leaders are serious about being competitive against peer states and regions — though there are clear exceptions, and this can change. Technical.ly will still report on Delaware, so we’ll be on the lookout for investments in telling the state’s story. (Drop me an email if you’re working to change that).

For now, we look back at the lessons from AmazonHQ2, when the state’s own sitting senator put it plainly: Delaware has a story to tell, and it is part of a broader region.