Dumbo: A Tour of NY's Startup "Silicon Beach"

What is known as Dumbo now was previously known as Rapailie, Olympia, or Gairville. Today, the business district is known for its media and digital companies. Names such as Digital Dumbo, NY Digital District, and now Silicon Beach (despite the fact that there are no circuits being manufactured here) are some nicknames for the Dumbo Historic District. According to Fortune, the area is home to 65 digital companies in Dumbo. They highlight “six of the hottest” ones.

Says the article: “For years real estate agents, always keen to coin inventive new neighborhood names, have been branding and rebranding a five-block radius in DUMBO as tech’s next big stomping ground, using any handle that might stick: the next Silicon Alley, Digital DUMBO, and more recently, Silicon Beach. While swimming on the shores of the East River is probably about as wise as sunbathing on Sand Hill Road, the designers, developers, and transplanted executives employed at the 65-plus tech companies in the neighborhood agree that the ‘hood is a sweet spot, not just for client opportunities, but for affordable office space a subway stop away from Manhattan.”

  1. Big Spaceship (founded 2000, staff of 50)
  2. Etsy (founded 2005, staff of 160)
  3. Carrot Creative (founded 2005, staff of 18)
  4. Huge (founded 1999, staff of 300)
  5. In8Mobile (founded 2007, staff of 10)
  6. Brooklyn Digital Foundry (founded 1999, staff of 9)

(Photos by writer/reporter JP Mangalindan)

{A tour of New York’s startup “Silicon Beach”, 29Nov2010, CNN Money/Fortune}