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Digital Media & Film 0 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 Computer systems design Internet & telecom Engineering services R&D and testing labs Measuring & control instruments 92 Doing Business in Connecticut | 2014 "ere is a tremendous pent up oppor- tunity for growth" in the tech sector, Carlson said. The big guys While GoECart and SeeClickFix aspire to be giants in the state's tech industry, they are following in the footsteps of others in the industry who have established themselves as leaders. For example, there's Norwalk-based Priceline.com, an online site for book- ing travel deals, which has more than 400 employees in Connecticut. It was founded in 1998 at the start of the dot-com boom by Paul Walker and soon stood out due to its "name your own price" system of selling airline tickets, hotel rooms and other travel services. Priceline later became part of e Priceline Group, which has more than 9,000 employees spread all over the world, and includes other web properties such as Book. com, Kayak.com and Rentalcars.com. Priceline's neighbor in Fairfield County is Gartner, a technology research powerhouse, with 1,900 employees at its corporate head- quarters in Stamford and 6,000 employees globally. Gartner, which reported nearly $1.8 billion in revenues in 2013, provides technolo- gy research and consulting, helping businesses stay on top of ever-changing tech trends. e reason why Stamford is an ideal location for Gartner's headquarters is the skilled workforce in the state, according to Christopher Lafond, the company's CFO. "ere's just an unbelievably high qual- ity talent pool here," he said. "We hire a lot without having to spend money to relocate people here … at's why we continue to feel like this is great place to be." And Gartner is committed to Connecti- cut, as shown by its decision to renew the lease on its three-building headquarters, which also underwent a multi-million renovation. e space now includes more collaborative work areas, an updated cafeteria and a gym. Venture capital funding is also flow- ing into the state's tech sector. e soware sector in the state received a total of $44.5 million in VC investment in 2013, according to the PricewaterhouseCooper's MoneyTree Report. at's nearly double the $23.6 million invested in that sector in 2012 and the high- est level of support since the pre-Great Re- cession days of 2004. e state's IT services companies have also fared well, bringing in more than $29 million in VC cash in 2013. Alongside the state's VCs is oen Con- necticut Innovations, the quasi-public state agency that makes equity investments in Connecticut startups. CI will invest between $500,000 to $5 million in qualified startups and always partners with private venture capitalists. "We do provide funding, but we also are very focused on working with other private funding ventures," said Claire Leonardi, CI's CEO. "We are part of the catalyst." Recently, CI has become more aggres- sive in its support of the state's startups. "We are much larger than we were two years ago," she said. "We've more than doubled our investments." In fact, CI is now the sixth most active seed/angel investor in the United States, according to Pitchbook, a private equity and venture capital database. at influx of public capital in the pri- vate sector bodes well for the tech sector, ac- cording to Chowdhary of GoECart, because it will help fund the development of more world-class tech companies that attracts a world-class talent pool. "e best way [to accomplish that] is to fuel the private sector to encourage more of these companies to build and grow here in Connecticut," he said. q ' ere's just an unbelievably high quality talent pool here. ' — Christopher Lafond, CFO, Stamford-based Gartner Industry sPOtLIGHt › Technology manish Chowdhary started his tech business, GoeCart, from his dorm room at the University of Bridgeport. He plans to hire 10 employees in 2014. Top tech jobs in Connec cut Source: TechAmerica Foundation Cyberstates Report > Continued from page 87 PHOTO/COUrTeSY