By Dave Porter
Tech is big in Texas. The Lone Star state is already the best state to do business, and is now quickly becoming the top state for technological innovation, driven by many of our local innovators here in Central Texas.
From startups to the largest tech companies in the world, more than 17,500 tech-related businesses and over 200,000 tech employees call Texas home. In fact, Texas was ranked in the top three states to launch a technology start up.
The economic benefits these tech businesses are providing to both our state and our local communities are undeniable. But tech companies and their talent are also developing critical emerging innovations that will power our economy and manufacturing sector and streamline supply chains.
For example, the growth of domestic semiconductor manufacturing has brought several recent business expansions to Williamson County — most notably the recent $25 billion Samsung chip plant in Taylor, but also from companies critical to the semiconductor supply chain like KoMiCo Technology and Valex Corporation.
Expansions like these are becoming increasingly important as nations like China work to overtake America’s standing as the world’s leading economy. Already a close second place, China is investing in their own tech companies in an effort to overtake our nation’s innovation leadership.
That’s why it is so important to protect and promote our domestic innovation economy, which helped a small local startup in the 1980s called “PC’s Limited” evolve into the global powerhouse that is now Round Rock’s own Dell Technologies.
Promoting innovation not only has impacts on our larger economic output, but the technology it produces is also the foundation upon which our small businesses are growing and evolving into the 21th century and are able to compete in the global economy.
The more than 3.1 million Texas small businesses are the engine of our state’s economy, but the driving forces powering these entrepreneurs and employees are the digital tools and platforms which have changed the landscape and trajectory for small businesses.
The pandemic forced many businesses to “go digital” out of necessity, but that adaptation has opened a new world of possibility to expand beyond geographical bounds of their local towns and into the global economy. Instead of a necessity, it’s now a key strategic integration into long-term planning for small businesses. Leveraging social media, online advertising, digital marketing and communications has given small businesses in Cedar Park or Georgetown the opportunity to sell to someone scrolling on their phone in their living room in Maine.
A recent survey by the Connected Commerce Council found that 75 percent of small and medium-sized business leaders say digital tools (including software, platforms, apps, and the like) helped their businesses survive the last two years. The same survey also found that 65 percent of those leaders say digital tools specifically help them combat inflation through greater efficiency in the workplace.
As a leading advocate for Central Texas businesses, I have a deep understanding of the role our state plays in our nation’s overall technological edge and the importance of maintaining and increasing America’s tech leadership through smart policies. If we fail to put an emphasis on and create a good policy environment for our innovation economy, we will fall behind China, and the consequences would be devastating.
Washington can always learn a thing or two from Texas, but right now with the U.S. economy’s dependence on technology, we cannot risk passing any misguided legislation that could jeopardize this vital tool that is keeping us in the lead. We must protect the innovators here in Texas and across the nation who power so many other sectors of our economy.
Mr. Porter is the Executive Director of the Williamson County Economic Development Partnership, a joint effort between Williamson County and its encompassing communities to create a voice for the county in bringing new business development to the region.