Seven small college towns in the U.S. make the grade as standout tech hubs, according to a new list from SpareFoot, which operates the country’s largest online marketplace for self-storage units.
To compile this list, SpareFoot relied primarily on rankings of tech hubs in a 2013 report by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a Kansas City, MO-based nonprofit that promotes entrepreneurship. SpareFoot also looked at rankings of tech hubs by Techie.com, along with other economic accolades, population trends and livability factors.
SpareFoot examined only those college towns with a population of less than 150,000. SpareFoot used the population figure for the core town, not the entire metro area. In the case of Champaign-Urbana, IL, SpareFoot combined the population of the two towns. To make the SpareFoot list, a college town had to be home to a university with an enrollment of at least 10,000.
Here, in alphabetical order, is SpareFoot’s list of the Seven Top Tech Hubs Among America’s Small College Towns:

• Ames, IA
• Ann Arbor, MI
• Champaign-Urbana, IL
• Corvallis, OR
• Fort Collins, CO
• Missoula, MT
• Provo, UT

For details about each town on the list, visit The SpareFoot Blog.
Data sources: American Institute for Economic Research, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Inc.com, Livability.com, Milken Institute, Techie.com, The Atlantic Cities, The SpareFoot Blog, U.S. Census Bureau and local universities
Note: The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation said that for a small metro area, the presence of just a dozen tech companies could have been enough to land it on the foundation’s overall ranking of top U.S. tech hubs.
About SpareFoot
SpareFoot makes renting self-storage easy. Our free marketplace lets customers find and reserve storage units online. We have the largest inventory of storage units in the U.S., with a network of more than 7,000 facilities ranging from mom-and-pops to publicly traded REITs. We reach millions of people who need storage through exclusive partnerships with brands like SelfStorage.com, ForRent.com and Penske Truck Rental.
For more information, visit SpareFoot.com.