SAN DIEGO—San Diego wins over Silicon Valley when it comes to artificial-intelligence startups, according to the website Xconomy. The site recently quoted Olin Hyde, founder and CEO of Englue, as agreeing that only in San Diego can you find a vast pool of academic support, technical talent and a wide range of early-adopting business customers.

GlobeSt.com spoke with Mike Combs, research manager for San Diego Regional EDC, about how prevalent tech start-ups are in the San Diego market as compared to other large West Coast markets. His answers reveal how San Diego is truly ahead of many of these markets.

“Like any market with a strong tech and innovation economy, it is important that the San Diego region remains competitive in terms of the volume and quality of tech-related start-ups,” Combs tells us. “We've pulled together some data to help us draw conclusions about San Diego's standing as a start-up hub.”

According to Combs, San Diego offers some unique advantages for startups compared to other tech markets. “We are younger than other markets. The San Diego region has the highest percentage of 18-to-35-year-olds in the nation, among other major markets. Although a 'young' population is not a predicate for success, research from UNC Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School and US Census Bureau's Center for Economic Studies has shown strong links between youthful populations and emerging company success.”

San Diego also represents diverse industries, Combs adds. While many markets are focusing on consumer and social-media technology, San Diego offers diversity in the startup space. “Established companies in the biotech, medical-device and telecommunications fields anchor and elevate up-and-coming startups in these sectors. Emerging industries such as health IT, wireless health, mobile/app health and genomic analytics offer new frontiers for tech entrepreneurs.” He adds that proximity to industry giants like Qualcomm, Illumina and Thermo Fisher Scientific offer entrepreneurs in this emerging tech space access to new communication and health technologies as well as opportunities for successful collaboration.

The region is also attracting funding for startups. “San Diego may not be attracting 'Silicon Valley-level' funding, but that's OK,” says Combs. “Historically, the majority of San Diego's VC funding has gone to biotech and med-device startups. However, so far in 2015, we're seeing more funding head to other tech-related startups in industries such as software, consumer products, online retail and other tech services. In the first half of 2015, the San Diego software-related startups (not including biotech, med devices and other hardware categories) received about $200 million in venture capital. That's the best first half of funding in the region since 2007, according to PWCMoneyTree Report.”

It's also clear that San Diego is innovating, and while patents aren't unique to startups, Combs says they are still an important measure of the pulse of the innovation economy. “After all, they represent the intellectual property—the bread and butter—of most companies. And when it comes to patent intensity, San Diego is third in the world. To put that in perspective, the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland CSA (which includes Silicon Valley) ranked 11, and was the only other US region to break the top 20 list.”

For more information, about where San Diego stacks up with its peer cities (including its West Coast “competitors”), check out San Diego Regional EDC's research dashboard by clicking here.