Business View - December 2014 115
but offered an opportunity for reinvention and agility,
two characteristics Austin is quite proud to have in
spades. The chamber’s sustained efforts in prior years
to promote Austin as a hub of technology innovation
and research provided a strong foundation from which
to work. To bolster those efforts, in 2004 the cham-
ber conceived and launched Opportunity Austin (OA),
a five-county economic development initiative aimed
at fostering job-creating investment in Central Texas.
Initially, the goal of OA was to create 72,000 jobs and
increase regional payroll by $2.9 billion from 2004-
2008. OA far exceeded those benchmarks, creating
120,600 jobs and increasing regional payroll by $5.5
billion in that initial five-year span. Since its founding,
there have been 347 relocations to Austin that created
234,200 jobs, adding significantly to the early success
OA achieved.
OA continues to be a catalyst advancing Austin into an
internationally recognized hotbed of innovation and
economic growth. The startup culture and business
environment in Austin is welcoming and collaborative,
knowing that “a rising tide lifts all ships.” The region
is now more desirable than ever to startups, corpo-
rations, job seekers and investors. The Austin region
received more than $360 million in venture capital in-
vestment in the first half of 2014 and is home to 30 in-
cubators, accelerators co-working and maker spaces.
True to its successful beginnings, Austin’s advanced
manufacturing industry has remained a stronghold of
its economy. Fueled by Austin’s young, highly trained
workforce and partnerships between the region’s high-
er education institutions and the private sector, Austin
is a leader in semiconductor and electronics design
and manufacturing.
Total manufacturing employment in the region is
at 57,500, up by 12 percent from 2013. The region
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