Here’s One Venture Capital Metric Where Seattle Actually Beats Silicon Valley

There’s no question that Silicon Valley is the epicenter of the venture capital universe. 52 billion into companies in nearby San Jose-Santa Clara-Sunnyvale. 11.6 billion in Seattle-Bellevue-Tacoma companies for the same period — one of the reasons GeekWire last week took a deep look at some of the issues facing the region’s startup ecosystem. But raw capital invested is not the only way to measure a tech hub, and the folks over at PitchBook have compiled an interesting map showing another perspective.

They’ve analyzed what happens to the capital after it is invested, ranking top startup cities by the returns that venture capitalists receive in each market, known as multiple on invested capital or MOIC. This is calculated by exit value — typically through acquisitions or IPOs — divided by total venture capital raised.

In other words, what cities punch above their weight, Seattle certainly is one. It ranks second in multiple on invested capital with a 5.9 times return, behind number one Chicago with 8.5 times return. San Francisco ranked sixth, with a 4.6 times return, and Silicon Valley ranked eighth with a 4.2 times return. What does the data mean, This is a topic we’ve explored before, especially after New York venture capitalist dubbed Seattle a third tier startup city. Seattle area startup watcher Tren Griffin noted at the time that there’s “better funding discipline” and “fewer poseurs per capita” in the Seattle area.

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For nearly as long as there have been ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft, there have been apps that help riders compare fares and travel times. These aggregator apps allow riders to survey all the services in an area and check prices and wait times—an efficient version of what many do already.

There are always fresh versions of these apps popping up. The newest one, Bellhop, officially launched in New York this week. Bellhop allows prospective riders to compare 17 services offered by four companies—Uber, Lyft, Juno, and Curb—in New York, with plans to add more services and expand to more cities soon.

“There are too many ride-sharing apps and you don’t have transparency to make decisions,” CEO and cofounder Payam Safa told me—and he’s right. Pull Bellhop up on a Tuesday morning in July, and it will tell you that the cheapest way to get to the New York public library from my home on the Upper West Side is Lyft’s carpool product.

The fastest is Juno, as there’s a car just one minute away. Figuring that out on my own would take minutes of toggling back and forth between ride-share apps (and likely drumming up my fare in the meantime). With Bellhop, those calculations took less than a minute. Figuring that out on my own would take several minutes of toggling back and forth between ride-share apps. With Bellhop, those calculations took less than a minute. Bellhop is just the most recent service to try and forge this problem into a business opportunity.

Whipster, which was started by a Florida IT consultant and aggregates bikeshares and public transportation options as well as ride shares, launched officially last February. The oldest and most established is the Boston-based team behind RideGuru, which began as a taxi fare finder in 2006, three years before Uber launched. Add to that a list of abandoned attempts, ghost apps, and failed startups that includes: PriceRide, Ride Fair, Ridescout, Urbanhail, and Corral Rides, among others.

None of these apps have successfully transformed into the Kayak of ride sharing, but their continued emergence points to one of the ride-share industries most significant challenges. Ride-sharing companies aim to compete on brand and service, offering better experiences and increasingly more thorough transportation options, including bikes, scooters and even rental cars.