Entrepreneurship is on the rise in Pennsylvania, cites a new report from Gust, a popular funding platform for the sourcing and management of early-stage investments. Hardly on their radar screen in 2015, Pennsylvania rose to fifth place on Gust’s top 10 list of start-up fund seekers in the second half of 2016.
Still, local entrepreneurs caution that it’s not time to start popping the champagne corks just yet.
For starters, a perusal of the top 10 list shows a huge gap between the front-running states — California and New York — and the rest of the pack.
Cali-Techsters claimed 20.6 percent of the bright-idea ventures posted on Gust (down from 22.1 percent in the first half of the year); New York brainstormers held firm with its 17.2 percent market share.
Florida came in third with 9.8 percent (up from 8.8), followed by Massachusetts with 4.5 percent, and then Pennsylvania with a 4.4 percentage share, up significantly from the prior, six-month representation of just 2.5 percent.
Also, being in the upper echelon of start-ups seeking funding (Gust’s barometer in this report) should not be confused with those ventures that actually get funded. Gust helped fund more than 1,800 start-ups globally last year, but lists for free (and doesn’t curate) tens of thousands of profiles on its website. With that kind of competition, it’s easy to get lost in the…