Location Advantages

Entrepreneurs and innovators are coming and will come to the Norfolk Innovation Corridor to get what they need (a good deal of which is already here and some of which we are going to make happen):

• An enhanced ability to recruit and retain talented, skilled workers from diverse backgrounds who want to live, work and play in a Corridor marked by a vibrant nautical, recreational, cultural and arts scene right outside their door
• Access to advanced technologies, research and innovation occurring on our anchor academic and health care campuses
• Help from mentors, researchers and professional advisors based Downtown and on the campuses of our anchor institutions
• Due to enhanced connectivity and visibility in the Corridor, a better opportunity to raise capital and gain access to grants (which should get bigger and more numerous as our anchor institutions regularly collaborate in the mutual development of the Corridor)
• A “collision economy,” where cross-fertilization of ideas with nearby entrepreneurial peers happens
• Proximity to influencers for the promotion and marketing of their resilience products, services and technologies
• Ultra-high-speed internet service at a competitive price (pending)
• Incentives and other practical support from an appreciative City government
• A workforce stimulated by a steady stream of Corridor programming aimed at supplying them with state-of-the-art business information while enveloping them in a buzzing community of innovative friends and colleagues
• Use of shared labs and other facilities that might otherwise be unavailable to them (pending)
• A first look at the pipeline of future talent to be generated by coding academies; a cyber defense virtual camp; undergraduate and graduate programs; computer science, computer engineering, and software engineering graduate programs (offerered in-person and/or online) by our participating anchor colleges and universities
• An opportunity to be a more valued and involved member of the Norfolk community than they could ever hope to be in New York, Boston, Northern Virginia or Silicon Valley