Contact Information:

Meg Matthews

Public Relations Manager

City of Little Rock

mmatthews@littlerock.gov

(501) 804-4822

(501) 371-4421

Little Rock Ranked in Top 5 Under-the-Radar Tech Hubs

Capital City is #3 in Midsize Metro Areas

(Little Rock, AR – May 22, 2014)

Little Rock has is being touted as one of the top five cities in the United States for next generation companies to call home. The Sparefoot Blog lists Little Rock in its “Under-the-Radar Tech Hubs in the United States.”

With major accolades including Number One Great Places to Live by Kiplinger.com and Number 14 Best Cities for Young Adults by Forbes.com, Sparefoot came to the conclusion that Little Rock is a contender when it comes to attracting businesses that are on the forefront of technology.

“Our quality of life has proven to be a strong draw for many high tech companies,” said City Manager Bruce Moore. “Little Rock offers the amenities of a big city with the friendly sensibility of a smaller town.  Also, we have a work force that is educated and creative – our residents make this City a very inviting place for startups.”

To compile this list, Sparefoot looked at midsize metro areas (500,000 to 1 million residents) that appeared in a 2013 report from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a nonprofit that focuses on entrepreneurship. The report zeroed in on the density of tech startups in U.S. metro areas of all sizes. Their top five are as follows:

1. Boise, ID
2. Des Moines, IA
3. Little Rock, AR
4. Baton Rouge, LA
5. Portland, ME

SpareFoot is a tech startup headquartered in Austin, TX. The company was profiled as one of America's Most Promising Startups by Bloomberg Businessweek in 2011. It’s blog is edited by John Egan, a writer with more than 25 years of experience in journalism, communications and public relations.