When you read an article like this one, and when you’re part of a community that has an answer to the question, it’s hard to stay quiet. Joey deVilla gave Toronto a shout-out in his blog (and he has an awesome graphic to go along with it).
Although Providence wasn’t mentioned in the 37signals post like Toronto was, I think Providence is one of those cities where some similar stuff is happening/can happen. And even looking beyond our borders, some of the folks who’ve spoken at Providence Geeks manage teams that are spread out all over the world, so I think it’s not just a question of whether the city is good for building a team, but sometimes it’s whether the city is a fun and livable headquarters/underground lair for the benevolent dictator/evil genius running the company. But the really key point is you can start a company anywhere. I keep hearing about interesting, successful Rhode Island companies that are located well outside of Providence, down in my neck of the woods. Just check out the map on RI Nexus.