The Kansas City Star announced the Global Entrepreneurship Congress has ranked Kansas City in the top five places for entrepreneurship in a worldwide competition. People across the country have been flocking to Kansas City in the past couple of years as the area grew into a startup and entrepreneur hub, thanks in part to Google Fiber announcing the city as the first place for installation.
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Matt Henley, vice president of client service of Twentyseven Global in Kansas City, said, “When Google announced that Kansas City would be their first Fiber connected city, those of us in the tech community we very excited. But that excitement was tempered initially as we struggled to quantify what it would mean for our city. Now we’re starting to recognize the benefits.”
The Tennessean wrote a piece about how Google Fiber has changed the lives of everyone in Kansas City, especially the entrepreneur and startup community. They interviewed Rick Usher, assistant city manager for Kansas City, MO. He commented on the large amount of entrepreneurs and software developers who have moved to the area for Google Fiber but decided to stay for the community and that is exactly right.
Google Fiber has helped give this city a lot of attention, not only bringing people to the city but also allowing more room in spending and budget to help businesses flourish. Henley commented, “Competition amongst providers gives the area a better product for less money. Startups are able to focus their spend on their core product instead of transport, which continues to bring new companies to the area. All of this is helping our city be recognized nationally and internationally as an entrepreneurial hub.”
The Tennessean also gives some facts on how many people in the area have subscribed to Google Fiber. The service is rolling out very slowly to different cities in the metro, so the entire area does not yet have access to Fiber. However, in the limited areas it has been offered, 42 percent of people have subscribed. This is a huge number, forcing AT&T, Time Warner Cable and Comcast to compete.
The accomplishment of Fiber in helping expand our population of hardworking families, improving entrepreneur business success and growing our economy with healthy provider competition shows that investing in a community can do amazing things for the people that live there. Kansas City is recognized as an innovative entrepreneurial hub now. As Google Fiber spreads, more of the country will be improved in the same manner.
