What’s Delaware’s tech hub superpower?

When the Tech Council of Delaware hosted its launch event in March, the underlying theme that “Delaware is a Tech Hub” felt like both a declaration of a truth ignored by the rest of the world and a collective willing it into reality.

Seven months later, at the inaugural Tech Ecosystem Conference, an invite-only event bringing together some of the Delaware tech ecosystem’s most influential members, the state has already positioned itself as a leader in the biotech space with representation in both the Mid-Atlantic CleanHydrogen Hub and the Greater Philadelphia Region Precision Medicine Tech Hub.

Some may say there’s still a long road until Delaware stands alone as a tech hub. If being an island is the goal, that might be true, but our regional collaborators would be worse off for it.

Either way, tech is Delaware’s future. But then, tech is every city’s future. What makes Delaware a unique tech hub?

Technical.ly CEO Chris Wink asked that question in a breakout workshop at the conference, where groups of tech and economic development professionals brainstormed with Post-it notes and whiteboards.

Wink pointed out that qualities like relative affordability, proximity to a large city, good colleges and universities, and workforce development programs can be ascribed to any number of small cities across the country.

So what do we do differently, according to ecosystem players?

Access to power

The big thing is Delawareans’ accessibility to local, state and national officials. We may joke about being so used to seeing the mayor, governor or U.S. Senators around that we don’t bat an eye, but it’s not common to have that kind of small-town familiarity up to the Capitol. In a country where a third of adults can’t name their state’s governor, according to a 2018 study by Johns Hopkins University, familiarity and access to officials is a big deal.

New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer,  a candidate for Governor of Delaware in the 2024 election, was on hand at the event to talk about the state’s tech ecosystem in Delaware as a technologist himself. If Meyer becomes governor, he would be one of few governors with a computer science degree (currently, only one governor, Greg Gianforte of Montana, holds a CS degree).

“What’s interesting now is that if you graduate with software skills, you can go anywhere in the country, anywhere in the world,” Meyer said. “And you can go into any industry, because back then [in the ’90s] when I graduated, there was a software industry [in Northern California]. Now, every industry is a software industry.”

“Built on a legacy of being first”

Other unique strengths that were discussed include:

• Business-friendly tax structure — Wilmington is the Corporate Capital of America, and no other city can say that. The challenge is that while corporations like to register here, most don’t even consider operating here and contributing to the local economy (to be fair, millions of companies are incorporated in Delaware, so they can’t all live here).
• Proximity — Many small cities are near one or two large metropolitan cities, but Delaware is uniquely situated within a few hours of New York City, DC and Baltimore while being a part of Greater Philadelphia.
• Diverse population — Delaware’s diversity is typical of most East Coast cities, but if you look at the whole country and compare Wilmington to other cities of its size (around 50-100K), it’s markedly more diverse than small cities like Lincoln, California or Newark, Ohio.
• Access to nature — Beautiful parks, rivers and trails are near every part of Wilmington. Plus, consider Delaware’s piece of the Brandywine Valley with its rolling hills, downstate farmland, bays and beaches. (Granted, most places have some kind of nature nearby, but Delaware’s is pretty great and underrated).
• Forward-thinking policy — Delaware is squarely Democrat with some Republican state legislators. Policy is both progressive and business-friendly.

What do you think makes Delaware a uniquely strong tech hub? Let us know by emailing holly@technical.ly.