It may not be San Francisco or Austin, but there is strong evidence that Tulsa is becoming more of a tech hub in its own right.
It may not be San Francisco or Austin, but there is strong evidence that Tulsa is becoming more of a tech hub in its own right. Ask the people who moved their companies not only to Oklahoma, but specifically Tulsa.
“There is no booming industry more than the technology sector,” said Libby Ediger.
In fact the technology industry is growing so fast in Tulsa, it is difficult for many companies to keep up.
“There’s only about one in ten tech roles open here in metro Tulsa,” said Ediger, who is executive director of Holberton School Tulsa. “We are a software engineering school. We teach people how to code who have no previous coding experience.”
Holberton considers itself a vocational school other than college. Students can graduate from the program in one to two years with all the skills they need to earn a high-tech job.
The school operates a handful of locations around the globe. Before Tulsa, their only locations on US soil were in Connecticut and Puerto Rico.
Holberton moved into a state-of-the-art 9,000 square foot facility near Cheyenne and Archer in downtown Tulsa in early 2020. You might mistake the historic warehouse they turned for a modern startup company office. You won’t find anything like a traditional classroom.
Despite the fact that it started at the same time as the pandemic, there is more demand for the school. They are currently adding another 17.00 square feet to their building.
“What that space will allow us to do is house 400-500 software engineering students a year,” Ediger said.
The new space will be complete with a state-of-the-art virtual reality lab, among other innovative learning tools.
They are rapidly transforming the once empty block into a technology hub.
“We’re seeing game development studios and even some bars and restaurants and some very interesting developments in the technology space,” she said.
And they are not alone at home.
“Tulsa is the future of creators, Tulsa is the future of technology,” said Kelsey Davis, founder and CEO of tech startup CLLCTVE. “We recently moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma from Los Angeles.”
You read that right, LA to Tulsa.
“A lot of the Tulsa stakeholders were just able to come to us and say, hey, I know you guys have a higher vision for what you want to do in Tulsa,” Davis said. “I understand that you want to do for the creator economy, what can we do to help you.”
From afar it might seem strange, but for these tech leaders, Tulsa makes more sense.
“We truly believe that Tulsa is an environment where you can create the life you want,” Davis said.