Brooklyn
Entrepreneurs:
Makerbot

By: Calvin Chin

Brooklyn start-up MakerBot, a 3-D printer manufacturer, is being acquired by a strategic buyer for about $400 million. This transaction further cements Brooklyn as more than a growing consumer brand.  It is a bonafide hotbed of entrepreneurial activity and and new ideas.

As Manhattan becomes more overpriced for residents, start-ups, and share work spaces, future aspiring entrepreneurs and investors will branch out to more affordable venues. Brooklyn is the logical place with its base of creativity, boundless energy and experimentation and rich immigrant history.  The city government is trying to coordinate a new technology hub and the development of the old Navy shipyard and vast terminal space to provide a useful infrastructure to support an economic engine for decades to come. While this fledging base of entrepreneurial activity is logical and can be achieved, future civic leaders, entrepreneurs, and investors should open up their minds to places beyond Brooklyn – such as Queens, Staten Island, and yes even that undiscovered and much maligned borough to the north – da Bronx. Yes, just imagine.