ULYANOVSK, Russia—A growing number of Russian entrepreneurs are eschewing Silicon Valley and even Moscow, drawing instead on often-remote towns, including Russia’s network of Soviet-era hubs of scientific research.

Ruslan Fazlyev launched his first startup to impress his future wife—when he was nearly broke and living in Ulyanovsk, a town more than 500 miles east of Moscow, known for producing cars and as the birthplace of Vladimir Lenin. More than a decade later, the 35-year-old’s second startup, Ecwid, has a second office in San Diego and boasts clients in 150 countries.

“Today Ulyanovsk is a little town with a lot of [information technology] talent,” said Mr. Fazlyev.

Ecwid, a rival to virtual storefront creators such as Shopify , isn’t the only startup outside the Russian capital. A few thousand tech startups have appeared across Russia in recent years, and industry experts estimate that a few hundred are successful.

Russia’s economic crisis, which began in late 2014, has been an unexpected boon, industry experts say. The country’s economy was hit by a rapid weakening of the Russian ruble, a sharp decline in oil prices, as well as Western sanctions on major Russian companies following the government’s annexation of Crimea in March 2014. The price of imports has skyrocketed.