A Timeline of New York City Tech Exits
Notable NYTech Exits 2002 - 2017
The question of whether New York can create outsized technology startup exits comes up often in discussing startup ecosystems. In order to answer this question — with a resounding yes — for the record, I put together a timeline of the New York Tech’s outsized tech exits since 2002. A couple things:
- Applying geographic boundaries to any industry or a community is arbitrary always. In tech, people tend to say that a company not founded within the five boroughs is not attributable to NYC. However, as Silicon Valley now encompasses some 400 square miles of west coast California, NY Tech = the New York metropolitan area.
- So, welcome to the team Jet.com (HQ in Hoboken, NJ) and Indeed.com (founding biz-ops office in Stamford, CT)!
- Chicagoans might take issue with Seamless.com and Trunk Club appearing on the timeline. Trunk Club was founded in NYC. Regardless of which restaurant delivery startup took the post-merger name, Seamless.com drove the growth explosion of that business.
- I’m obviously biased here and so is everyone who talks about this subject. Contrary to popular belief, there is not an accurate, comprehensive database for this type of private company data. Acquisition amounts are often announced amid bullish speculation. Deciding which companies are tech startups is a slog through subjective grey area and mind-numbing mutual inclusivity.
- New York Tech is amazing and none of the above are an impartial stretch.
ps. the actual line of the timeline is also the $1 Billion exit amount threshold; events listed are either IPOs or acquisitions; I made an eyeball attempt to place events relative to a total dollar amount Y-axis. The X-axis time is laid out on four-year intervals with exponentially increasing spacing to accommodate the higher volume of events since 2010.
Thank you Richard Kerby, marissa, Jeff Tierney, Justin Lintz, Elizabeth Devane, Neil Wehrle, ewu, John Exley for your help!