THE LARGEST CITY IN ALABAMA, Birmingham was founded in 1871 at the intersection of two important railroad lines. In its first several decades, the city produced so much steel it was known as the Pittsburgh of the South, and it grew at such a “magical” pace it earned another nickname: The Magic City. When the steel industry crumbled, health care and finance took its place. Today the city hopes its burgeoning tech industries will cause a new moniker to stick: The Silicon Valley of the South.

“Tech has always been a part of Birmingham,” says Jon Nugent, vice president of innovation and technology for the Birmingham Business Alliance. “When Birmingham was a steel city, steel was technology.”

Health care naturally spurs innovation and technology, Nugent points out, but since the 1980s — and especially in the last decade — the city has seen a significant uptick in cutting-edge businesses. He attributes it to the University of Alabama at Birmingham, a Tier One research facility, which attracts talented undergraduates, graduate students, professors and researchers to Birmingham. Many come for an education and decide to stay; quite a few, even as students, begin their own businesses.

Weida Tan is a prime example. A foreign exchange student from China who came during high school, he returned to UAB for his undergraduate and graduate degrees. As he pursued his Ph.D. in computer science at UAB, though, he saw a need in the computer peripherals sector and founded Fledging. Tan believes he couldn’t have started Fledging anywhere else, citing the support of UAB, Birmingham Business Alliance and the city itself, according to Nugent.

XpertDox offers a similar story. The UAB medical doctors who developed XpertDox, a resource to help patients find experts specializing in their disease, came to Birmingham because of the university. After founding XpertDox, they chose to stay in Birmingham because they didn’t want to get lost in a big city. “They knew they could get the attention and resources they need here,” Nugent says.

The mother-daughter team behind Mixtroz, a social networking app that helps meeting planners facilitate large events, actually moved from Nashville to Birmingham for the same reason. At a conference during Birmingham Innovation Week in June 2018, cofounder Ashlee Ammons explained they made the move because of the support they could receive, telling the audience, “It took us, in Nashville, a year and a half to make the same progress we made here in Birmingham in 13 weeks.”

Birmingham doesn’t limit itself to technology-based startups, though. In fact, quite a few have little or nothing to do with technology at all. For example, Alabama Sawyer creates sleek furniture using reclaimed wood from the city’s fallen trees, while Big Spoon Creamery churns out some of Alabama’s best small-batch artisan ice cream. Both companies are located in MAKEbhm, a makerspace in the Avondale neighborhood.

However, the city wouldn’t have the tech or startups it does without the Innovation Depot. Housed in an abandoned Sears in downtown Birmingham, it is one of the nation’s leading business incubators, with more than 100 member companies. Over the last five years, those companies have had an economic impact of $1.66 billion and created more than 1,000 new jobs, according to the Innovation Depot’s latest annual economic impact report.

“Birmingham today is a more exciting version of Silicon Valley because there are more companies here with different focuses,” Nugent says.

He believes Birmingham has other advantages over the original Silicon Valley. For one, it’s affordable — the cost of living is 90 percent of the national average cost of living — something that makes the city very attractive to entrepreneurs starting new businesses. It’s also vibrant, filled with young, highly educated professionals.

Birmingham also offers much in terms of quality of life, says Vickie Ashford with the Greater Birmingham Convention and Visitors Bureau. It features several world-class museums including the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, highlighting the civil rights efforts within the city, and the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum, which displays more than 900 motorcycles. For those who prefer the outdoors, Birmingham offers great hiking and mountain biking opportunities.

Dolester Miles holding her famous coconut pecan cake © CARY NORTON

Additionally, the city has recently become a foodie destination, especially since Highlands Bar & Grill won the 2018 James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurant and its pastry chef, Dolester Miles, won the 2018 James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef. Many of the downtown storefronts have been converted into restaurants and its abandoned department stores and office buildings into lofts.

Nugent expects 10 years from now many of today’s tech businesses and startups will play a major role in Birmingham’s economy, much as internet-based delivery service Shipt does now. The company was recently sold to Target for $550 million on the condition it remain in Birmingham. If today’s startups follow Shipt’s lead, Birmingham may very well become the Silicon Valley of the South.

SCENIC DRIVES

Nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, Birmingham is surrounded by postcard-worthy scenery. The Talladega Scenic Drive lies about an hour east of Birmingham on SR 281, winds 26 miles through the lush Talladega National Forest and features Cheaha Mountain, the highest point in Alabama. The drive takes about an hour, but spend the $1 per person and enjoy Cheaha State Park while in the area.

The Selma to Montgomery March Byway includes Selma civil rights landmarks such as the First Baptist Church and Brown Chapel and retraces Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his followers’ route to the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where they met physical opposition on March 7, 1965. The drive continues to Montgomery, where King delivered his speech “How Long, Not Long” after successfully attempting the march again three weeks later. In addition to its history, the 54-mile drive passes through beautiful Alabama countryside.

For a daytrip, take US 20 east to Atlanta. The 2.5-hour drive crosses Logan Martin Lake, goes through Talladega National Forest just north of Cheaha Mountain and passes Sweetwater Creek State Park just before entering Atlanta. Explore Atlanta for a few hours and easily return to Birmingham in time for dinner.