The burden is on Midwest startups to innovate and go out and grab the attention of one of these major companies. Take technology’s Big Five — Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Apple and Facebook — which make up roughly two-thirds of the market cap of NASDAQ’s top 20 market caps. The Big Five tech companies are all competing against one another in one way or the other, and each wants to bring on the best and brightest. In years past, a big factor in whether a large company would acquire a startup was the startup’s growth and financials. All of these characteristics are attractive to tech leaders — as well as leaders in other industries — but you have to solidly and uniquely hit all three for the Big Five to take serious notice.

Source: Forbes April 10, 2019 10:52 UTC