CHARLOTTE – The Queen City has a new crown – and its tech community is quite proud of the recognition.

CompTIA on Tuesday published the rankings of the best places for IT professionals to live and work, looking at hundreds of cities across the United States, and it was Charlotte that came in ranked at the top.

Charlotte was named the #1 technology town, despite having not been named a finalist for Amazon’s HQ2.  Raleigh was ranked #2 with the Durham-Chapel Hill metropolitan area ranking #15.

“We’re not surprised by today’s news ranking Charlotte #1 for best places for IT Pros to live and work,” said Michael Praeger, CEO and co-founder of AvidXchange.  “The numbers we see today demonstrate the years of hard work, not just in Charlotte which leaders have positioned as the Silicon South, but across the state of North Carolina to drive innovation.”

Report: Charlotte tops nation, Triangle as No. 1 ‘Tech Town’

The privately held fintech firm is a shining example of the Queen City’s emergence as a technology hub, given its rise to “unicorn” status as a venture capital-backed emerging company with a valuation topping $1 billion.

Charlotte also boasts two other unicorns – Red Ventures and Tresata, which topped the $1 billion valuation earlier this month.

What it means for Charlotte

But there’s much more to Charlotte’s tech scene than AvidXchange and the unicorns.

CompTIA graphic

Breaking down Charlotte’s tech statistics

“This ranking confirms what we see every day,” said Holly Eskridge, entrepreneurship and small business development manager for the City of Charlotte.  “Charlotte’s tech community is one of our strongest assets. It’s great to see our tech companies and their employees get the recognition they deserve.”

“Those of us in Charlotte’s tech community have certainly had the feeling that this market was developing in a positive manner,” said Greg Brown, fund administrator for the Charlotte Angel Fund.  “But to have ranked #1 in this study is indeed unexpected.”

“Charlotte is ripe with change makers catalyzing an innovative and fast-evolving tech ecosystem,” said Hannah Levinson,  founder and managing director of Lahayim Cooperative and entrepreneurship faculty at Queens University of Charlotte.  “This report is a keen reflection of our diverse community: corporate innovators, collaborative entrepreneurs and nimble, creative leaders working to evolve the public and philanthropic sectors.”

“What I would expect to see as the next step in this evolution is for talented individuals from that talent pool to eventually their way into Charlotte-based technology startups,” added Brown.

It’s a shared perspective: being ranked at the top of a list like this is a good recruitment tool for companies, whether they are large financial institutions, Charlotte’s unicorns, or local startups gaining traction in the marketplace.

“The Charlotte community is excited to be ranked #1 in an index that takes into account the opportunity costs of working and living,” said Devin Collins, executive director of Ventureprise at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.  “Certainly the index will be leveraged by local startups and companies to continue to attract IT talent.”

“We are a software economy!” declares an excited Terry Cox, executive director of Gaston TechWorks and president and CEO of Business Innovation & Growth (BIG).  “We now need to unleash some of that corporate tech talent for the benefit of the startup community.”

 OUT OF TRIANGLE’S SHADOW

The Tech Town ranking also soothes some of the angst about the Research Triangle region getting most of the tech attention in the state.

“We always hear about what’s going on in the Triangle’s tech scene,” said Juan Garzon, executive director of StartCharlotte.  “The fact is, many of our largest employers – especially those in the fintech sector – are ramping up their hiring.”

But not everyone sees a rivalry.

“I see both Charlotte and the Triangle as part of the same region,” said Sterling Scott, Founder of Fliqr, “or as the same tech town. When viewed through that lens we go from being competitive regionally to being competitive globally.”

Scott wants angel investors and venture capitalists to take note: it is North Carolina’s technology companies that are home to many new and growth-stage startups that show potential.  Capital needs to be deployed in North Carolina, said Scott, “this way, the region continues to develop and thrive and we can have the next AvidXchange, MapAnything, and Stratifyd.”

“We’ve known of the immense tech horsepower that exists in Charlotte for a long time,” added  Ken Garcia, president and co-founder of PrecisionLender.  “It’s why we have two HQs–one in Charlotte and one in the Triangle in Cary.”

“What’s most exciting to me is that North Carolina, on the whole, continues to grow its tech chops,” said Garcia.

 HOW CHARLOTTE WILL BE KNOWN

“This is just the beginning for Charlotte as the city’s growth continues to activate the commitment and energy of multiple generations, new residents and growing companies committed to making a meaningful impact,” said Levinson.

“As our city continues to grow, I am certain we will be known for more than just our breweries,”  added David Jessup, founder of Digi-Bridge, which aspires to create a generation of well-equipped 21st-century learners, headquartered in the Queen City.  “Charlotte is absolutely a red-hot tech hub.”

“Based on the work that we do to increase the number of Black and Latinx women in tech, this makes me curious about the diversity numbers,” said Khalia Braswell, a founder and CEO of INTech Camp for Girls.  “At INTech, our goal is to work with education and industry partners in both Charlotte and Raleigh to ensure that girls in both cities understand the opportunities they have in their backyards so that they don’t have to move to California like I did.”

Braswell left Charlotte to pursue her dream of becoming a software developer and returned to her hometown, the Queen City, to help make her dream a possibility for more young people like her.

 AN EMERGING IDENTITY FOR CHARLOTTE

 “It’s clear that our community desires an identity that includes tech,” said Jessup.  “I believe intentional public, private and non-profit collaboration has accelerated our rise and will continue to do so in the coming years.”

This is due to a growing consensus among technology leaders and the innovation economy, which launched Innovate Charlotte as a central convener, organizer, and support organization.

“We have a vibrant, growing economy that is attracting folks to the city, and setting the foundation for future growth,” said Keith Luedeman, founder of Good Mortgage and interim executive director at Innovate Charlotte. “It’s not just jobs, it’s what you can do after work that is attractive to a lot of tech workers.”

“However, Charlotte is very hard on itself, typical of a growing city still establishing its identity,” said Luedeman.  “Glass half-empty or half-full–we still have water to drink.”

“A lot of us are proud and excited, but none of us are resting on our laurels,” Luedeman said.