It typically takes several million dollars in revenue for companies to develop meaningful data, so the challenge for entrepreneurs between the coasts is how to raise enough money to build a business that has a track record to interest outside investors.

“It’s a catch-22,” said Mr. Price. “Without a local source of capital to get start-ups over that hurdle, the big firms will never look at you.”

These new hubs are following the trajectory of Silicon Valley, which got its start in the mid-1950s. But Silicon Valley — and New York City and Boston, the other places where start-up capital is concentrated — have been victims of their own success. Real estate prices have soared, salaries have surged and competition at all levels has intensified. For a young person, it is now almost impossible to buy a house in Silicon Valley or New York.

Even Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, has said that he would not start a company in Silicon Valley these days. “The infrastructure exists for people to do stuff like this in more places,” he told a crowd in late January at a conference in Utah.

Tore Steen grew up outside of New York City and worked in Silicon Valley until the dot-com bust of 2001. After that he spent a few years in Atlanta before deciding with his wife that they wanted a less stressful lifestyle. They moved to Portland, and Mr. Steen, 51, worked at a website analytics company before the 2008 financial crisis interfered. “We made the tough choice not to pack up and scurry back to the Bay Area, because this is where we wanted to raise our boys,” he said.