Mayor Bloomberg at last night's Shorty Awards. (Photo credit: Ben Weitzenkorn)

It appears ex-Wall Street wantrepreneurs may make good entrepreneurs after all. The Varick Street Incubator, a collaborative project between the City of New York and NYU-Poly, announced today that it will have graduated 22 companies by the end of July, supporting more than 300 jobs in the process.

“New York City is a magnet for the top entrepreneurial talent in the world, and Mayor Bloomberg is committed to accelerating the development of our start-up sector by encouraging promising new companies at the City’s network of incubators,” said Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Robert K. Steel in a press release. “We’re not only confident in the future of today’s graduating companies but also in the long-term trajectory of New York City’s innovation-driven economy.”

The incubator was launched in 2009 as a way to establish New York as a technology hub through low-cost office space, training and network opportunities. The initiative is one of many formed by the city to encourage entrepreneurship and create jobs around compelling technology ideas.

Despite the fact that the project was designed to buoy New York's reputation as a growing bastion of technical innovation, the city's initial attempts to woo the tech elite kicked up some tension. But as the number of incubators has multiplied, and the NYCEDC has begun to fund grassroots efforts like the General Assembly, whatever controversy that initially cropped up has largely died out.

Considering how many ex-Wall Street suits are now full citizens of Startupland, we can kind of see why.