Taking a look at the local startup scene.

The Orlando Sentinel staff took a hard look at the region’s startup scene recently, in a 20-minute feature video that’s part of our new Snapshot series.

The video tackles Orlando’s ranking for startup activity, how we compare to other cities across the country, and fascinating things entrepreneurs are doing here. Examples include a company called EASE that provides photo and video updates during surgery to loved ones, and cool work being done at Factur maker space on Virginia Drive.

Orlando’s startup community has exploded with options in recent years and moved up on the Kauffman Foundation’s national metrics for startup activity, but big challenges remain. We note that Orlando moved up a few notches last year on Kauffman’s startup activity ranking, from No. 33 to No. 21.

Check out the video online at OrlandoSentinel.com/Snapshot.

New in the last three years in Orlando: Canvs and Catalyst coworking spaces downtown, Venture ScaleUp accelerator program, FireSpring Fund for seed money, Florida Angel Nexus venture capital group, Guidewell Innovation Center in Lake Nona, Canvs Winter Park coworking space, and more.

And there have been some big success stories, including tech company Pentaho, which was bought by Hitachi for $500 million in 2015.

Among 40 metro areas, Orlando still ranks in the bottom half for three major metrics: Startup activity, main street companies or mom-and-pop stores, and high-growth businesses.

The real weakness in Orlando is in the high-growth companies. We have startups here, but they tend to not grow as well as in other regions. Kauffman ranked the Orlando area No. 34 out of 40 last year for rate of startup growth.

Renter’s challenge

The problem of high rents in Orlando is getting worse, according to new data from Zillow.

Orlando ranks in the top five for cities with the biggest anticipated rent increases compared to income.

“For a long time now, renters have faced an affordability crisis when it comes to housing, and renters in some hot markets will still need significant raises just to keep up with rising rents,” said Zillow Chief Economist Dr. Svenja Gudell. “Incomes have a ways to go to bring rental affordability closer to historical levels, but recent gains are being met with slowing rent appreciation, a welcome sign for renters.”

Zillow says Orlando renters would need a $672 annual raise to keep up with predicted rent increases.

The current median monthly rent is $1,396. Over the next year,