According to a new study published by Startup Genome, Toronto ranks as eighth most favourable city towards start-ups. 

Using data from a variety of sources, including interviews from 50 of the world’s leading entrepreneurs and venture capitalists and feedback from almost 500,000 start-ups from spread across the world, researchers at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, attempted to rank and rate global start-up ecosystems. The study placed each city or region according to the following criteria:

• Start-up Output: The total activity of entrepreneurship in the region.
• Funding: How active and comprehensive the risk capital is in a start-up ecosystem.
• Performance: The performance and performance potential of start-ups in the region.
• Entrepreneurial Mindset: The degree to which founders are visionary and resilient.
• Trendsetting: The speed of adoption of new technologies, management processes, and business models.
• Support: The quality of the support network, including mentorship, service providers and types of funding 
• Talent: Based on the key characteristics of founders.

Based on that criteria, researchers arrived at the following ranking: 

Not suprisingly, Silicon Valley came out on top. From a local standpoint, however, it’s interesting to see Toronto rate highly in several areas. For instance in terms of “Performance” and “Support,” the city placed among the top three. However, in terms of “Mindset,” Toronto was towards the bottom, ranking at 15 – the need for Toronto to embrace it’s own start-up identity is something well-known venture capitalist Brad Feld touched upon in a recent StandardTalk.

More data and research will be required before a more comprehensive and systematic of rating start-up communities is develop. Nonetheless, this is a good first step. And the data presented in this study is exactly this kind of information that businesses and governments will be able to use to encourage and grow start-up communities within their respective regions. [Atlantic CIties]    

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Igor Bonifacic is a writer working for the Toronto Standard. You can follow him on twitter at @igorbonifacic.