Sure, there are plenty of startups within a short hop of Fstops in DUMBO and the Flat Iron districts, but there are even more in F-free Soho and Union Square.
The island can be reached from Manhattan on the F train, only three stops after Rockefeller Center, but according to a 2009 report on the island's infrastructure conducted by the department of urban affairs and planning at Hunter College, the subway was even then running at full capacity.