Turning Tulsa into a tech hub

Tulsa, Oklahoma, probably wasn’t on your bingo card for the next big tech hub. But don’t write it off just yet—it’s on the way to becoming a solid contender for one of those coveted spots, according to an impact analysis conducted by Tulsa Innovation Labs (TIL).

TIL’s mission is to “catalyze an inclusive innovation economy” in Tulsa, the nonprofit’s founder and managing director, Nicholas Lalla, told Tech Brew, and was founded with funding from the George Kaiser Family Foundation. It takes a narrow approach to tech-hub development that involves building on the city’s existing assets and legacy industries, Lalla said.

“You can’t boil the ocean,” Lalla said. “Every city everywhere has assets to build on…they need to find that sweet spot.”

TIL is betting Tulsa’s tech sweet spot is in four key sectors: virtual health, energy tech, advanced air mobility, and cybersecurity. Its 14 initiatives include an energy tech mentorship program and a cyber skills center, which provides a part-time, 24-week upskilling program designed for groups that are traditionally underrepresented in tech.

TIL tapped McKinsey to conduct an analysis of the nonprofit’s impact, assessing the projected economic impact of its initiatives across five metrics: Jobs created or placed, public and private investment, jobs accessible without a college degree, average wage of created jobs, and companies attracted to the Tulsa region.

According to the report, Tulsa appears well on its way to building its innovation economy. The report found that TIL is “on track to ensure that over half of jobs (53%) created or placed through TIL initiatives are accessible to those without a bachelor’s degree,” and the projected average wage for those roles is $67,000, which is more than the Tulsa average, the report states.

The nonprofit’s initiatives are projected to create around 500 direct tech jobs and 1,300 jobs total (including tech-adjacent positions) annually. If that trajectory holds, Tulsa would see a 5% increase in tech job growth each year.

But there’s still room for improvement, Lalla said. One key takeaway: Scaling Tulsa’s tech workforce needs to happen faster.

“We need almost an unlimited supply [of experts in cyber, data, and engineering] for Tulsa to truly make the transformation we’re looking for,” he said. “We need to upskill our existing workforce faster…and we’re going to need to continue to attract new talent to the city.”

TIL isn't shy about sharing what it's learned in Tulsa: In 2022, TIL teamed up with the Aspen Institute to create “The Economy Forward Framework: How Midsized Cities Can Achieve Inclusive Growth in the Knowledge Economy,” a guide for midsized cities to follow in Tulsa’s footsteps.

But TIL’s goal isn’t to turn Tulsa into Silicon Valley.

“We’ve seen the pitfalls of tech economies in coastal cities, particularly in New York and San Francisco,” Lalla said, pointing to “rising cost of living, increasing risk to entrepreneurs, gentrification, lack of inclusion in tech for women and people of color in particular.”

TIL’s goals include “anticipating some of the side effects and getting out in front of them,” he added. “We’ve seen what’s happened in other tech hubs. We want to grow in a different way.”