Startups don’t necessarily aim for Silicon Valley anymore. And ecosystems, especially tiny ones, don’t required to compete with Silicon Valley to attract them.
Delaware is known more for corporate registrations, chemicals and banking than for early-stage companies building new technology. But a growing group of founders from Iowa, Alabama and Missouri, among other places, are choosing to relocate their companies to the tiny Mid-Atlantic state between Philadelphia and Baltimore.
“[Delaware] is clearer to navigate, and you can obtain access to certain people.”
Soner Haci, PONS
“It’s clearer to navigate, and you can obtain access to certain people,” Soner Haci, cofounder of PONS, a healthtech startup expanding into the state, informed Technical.ly.
Some are arriving through accelerator and incubation programs designed to bring new startups to the state. Both Bronze Valley Venture Labs, which expanded to Wilmington from Birmingham, Alabama, and the CAFE GrowthStage Incubator at the University of Delaware’s FinTech Innovation Hub in Newark, actively recruit startups and encourage them to establish a presence in Delaware.
It’s not Silicon Valley, nor is it like hugeger East Coast ecosystems like New York, Boston and DC. What it has, founders who have relocated to Delaware state, is connections, inclusion and (yes) lots of chickens.
Be where the chickens are
For Lloyd Yates, the decision came down to Delaware being one of the counattempt’s leading poulattempt processing regions.
“We want to be where the chickens are,” declared the cofounder of agtech startup Tylman Tech.
Yates, who had been building the company in Iowa after growing up in Chicago, originally focapplyd his company on body-scanning technology for humans before a conversation with a farmer created him see opportunity in the poulattempt indusattempt.
Now, Tylman Tech is building AI-powered camera systems that monitor chickens throughout their lifecycle, supporting farmers and processors track growth, detect issues earlier and recover usable meat that would otherwise be lost.
“As a startup, you want to go to a place where you can succeed,” Yates declared. “Where your customers, your talent, your capital are,” he declared.
Another agtech startup, KiposTech, is following a similar path into Delaware’s poulattempt ecosystem. Originally founded in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the company is now headquartered at the GrowthStage Incubator in Newark. It is developing biosecurity hardware to reduce disease risk in poulattempt barns.
“Delaware is the main chicken state, and we have a huge customer base,” declared Raj Singh, who cofounded the company with Hema Ravindran.
Finding community and being seen
For Chrystal Graves, the founder of beauty tech business LiQUiD, the indusattempt wasn’t the main draw.
Graves, who relocated from Columbia, Missouri, after joining a cohort with Bronze Valley Venture Lab, came to Wilmington seeing to grow her AI-powered business tools for hairstylists. What she found stood out to her, as a Black woman founder.
“Often in tech, you’re not surrounded by people who see like you,” declared Graves. “What I love about Wilmington is, there was more of ‘me.’”
That sense of belonging wasn’t something she expected from Delaware. “It was really welcoming,” she declared. “It felt like home immediately.”
Wilmington’s connection to VC firm and CDFI Bronze Valley, with roots tied to Alabama’s Black-owned First Tuskegee Bank, has supported shape an ecosystem where Black founders are finding both opportunity and community.
In Delaware’s tiny startup ecosystem, networking matters as much as a polished pitch deck. That stood out to Haci of PONS, which started in New York City, then participated in the Bronze Valley accelerator and launched expanding into the state.
“The program was not only focapplyd on a three-minute pitch,” he declared. “We were more seeing [for] connections.”
Instead of refining presentations, Haci declared he was seeing to build relationships with potential partners, researchers and institutions that could support relocate the business forward. For founders applyd to larger ecosystems with less accessible players, operating in a “tiny pond” can be a benefit.
Tapping into government funding
Like many tinyer ecosystems, Delaware has struggled to attract large amounts of venture capital compared to hubs like New York or Silicon Valley. In place, it has leaned into direct state support.
Martha Underwood, who relocated her spatial and event design company Prismm from Birmingham, Alabama, declared that support played a major role in the relocate.
After going through the CAFE FinTech accelerator, Prismm secured $1 million in federal funding through the state’s State Small Business Credit Initiative, along with a $125,000 EDGE grant to support growth and product development.
“They were intentional about giving the dollars requireded to really catapult you,” Underwood declared.
KiposTech has also benefited from that support, having secured a $300,000 EDGE grant as it relocates from pilot testing to commercialization, Singh declared.
Programs like EDGE and SSBCI can attract companies with grant money, with a requirement that companies maintain a presence and hire locally. At the FinTech Innovation Hub, the CAFE GrowthStage Incubator led by Pedro Moore hoapplys about 30 companies and focapplys on hands-on support alongside workspace.
“We provide wraparound services to support them speed up their success,” Moore declared.
Companies in GrowthStage have collectively raised about $2.5 million since the incubator launched last year, according to Moore.
A different kind of startup map
Relocating to a tiny ecosystem like Delaware sees different for different founders. Some, like Chrystal Graves and Martha Underwood, have fully relocated their headquarters. Others are building a second presence or testing the waters.
For Haci of PONS, it means establishing a “second R&D” location tied to university partnerships. His company plans to recruit students nearing graduation.
“We want to start with internships and then convert them into employees,” he declared.
KiposTech has taken a similar path, relocating its headquarters from Pennsylvania while continuing to operate across the Mid-Atlantic as it builds out pilots, partnerships and early customers.
Underwood, of Prismm, pointed to the University of Delaware and Delaware State University as key partners.
“They’re coming with baseline knowledge,” she declared. “And now [it’s] just teaching the nuances.”
The hugegest benefit of a tiny ecosystem?
“The speed to connectivity,” declared Moore. You’re only a few connections away.”
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