Eleven Things for the NJ Tech Community to Be Thankful for this Thanksgiving

Please add your thoughts to the comments section. What are you thankful for?  This is just a partial list.

1.     Our tech meetup community is exploding. It is easier than ever to find the cofounders, developers, marketing gurus you need. It’s also easier than ever to learn from top notch tech leaders and founders or learn a particular technology or skill at a workshop.

2.     A community of volunteers and community leaders is evolving to create the tech entrepreneurial ecosystem needed in the state to bring our startup energy in line with New York and Philadelphia. They run meetups, meetings, conferences, hackathons, Startup Weekends and Lean Startup Machine workshops.

3.     Our coworking opportunities have expanded. We have thriving established coworking communities all over the state, many of whom cater to tech and we have new ones such as =Space in Newark, the Domain in Cranbury and Summit Coworking in Summit.

4.     We have a great network of business incubators in the state that house and nourish tech companies.

5.     There is a strong N.J industry association in the form of the New Jersey Tech Council that is turning its attention to creating new opportunities for tech companies in New Jersey and that has, over the past 18 years, had the back of the tech industry here.

6.     Many of the established tech companies in the state are doing very well and are hiring and creating jobs here! They are also reaching out to the community with programs and hackathons.

7.     The New Jersey Economic Development Authority is providing more opportunities than ever for startups to be matched with investors and is providing more incentives than ever for investors to put money into tech startups. Established companies can also take advantage of EDA programs that help them grow jobs.

8.     The TechLaunch accelerator and Tigerlabs keep on developing new companies, many of whom decide to stay here.

9.     Our universities and colleges– Princeton, NJIT, Stevens, Rutgers, Montclair State, Kean, Fairleigh Dickinson, Rowan, Monmouth,  The College of New Jersey, Seton Hall to name a few as well as our community colleges –are all rallying to make tech or tech entrepreneurship a priority.

10.  Some very high profile individuals have decided to create startups here within the last year. Many national and international companies have run hackathons or contests here. This can only raise the state’s visibility in the national tech community.

11.  We are constantly amazed at the amount of good work the NJ Tech community does– from fundraising to volunteering in efforts like Hour of Code to cleaning up beaches or working with Habitat for Humanity to providing STEM scholarships or reaching into N.J. schools with innovative programs–individuals, organizations and companies are making a difference here. Thank you!