No MO: Kansas City, St. Louis drop off Inc list of ‘50 Best Cities for Starting a Business’
January 6, 2020 | Startland News Staff
Shots fired. A new ranking by Inc. magazine claims startup powerhouse Austin, Texas, is “leading the nation in job creation and high-growth company density — and delish BBQ.”
Kansas City? Not even on the list.
Inc.’s Surge Cities index — detailing what founders can learn from the 50 Best U.S. Cities for Starting a Business in 2020 — totally omitted KC from its latest ranking after putting the City of Fountains at No. 40 in 2019.
St. Louis (ranked No. 33 in 2019) also dropped from the index.
Austin, Texas
The report considered such elements as job creation, population growth, net business creation, rate of entrepreneurship, wage growth, high-growth company density, and early-stage fundraising deals — all areas where Austin excelled, editors said. (The Texas capital city also ranked No. 1 in 2019.)
“Austin is one of the few markets that is able to support a full range of kinds of startups — like Silicon Valley or New York,” said Joshua Baer, the founder of Capital Factory, the city’s dominant startup incubator, in the Inc. report. “It’s because we have a diverse set of strengths in our background.”
In contrast, Kansas City’s business ecosystem is dominated by the health care industry, which accounts four of its top five private sector employers, according to Inc.
Other peer cities on the list: Boise (No. 5); Nashville (No. 11); Oklahoma City (No. 39); Minneapolis (No. 40); Columbus (No. 44); Tulsa (No. 47); Des Moines (No. 48); and Indianapolis (No. 50).
Click here for the full list of Inc.’s 50 Best U.S. Cities for Starting a Business in 2020.
2020 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
KCultivator Q&A: Donald Hawkins chews on sage advice, blood sausage, ‘circle of giving’
Editor’s note: KCultivators is a lighthearted profile series to highlight people who are meaningfully enriching Kansas City’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Founders should rally around Kansas City’s startup ecosystem like fans rallied around the Chiefs, said Donald Hawkins. “If you look at a lot of the companies that have scaled — there’s a huge connection gap between…
‘Hardest deal is always the first one’ — Partnership adapts Motega Health tech for animal use
A new licensing deal with Simini Technologies has unleashed disruptive potential for Lawrence-built Motega Health, the company announced Thursday. “We are very pleased to be partnering with Simini and their team and are excited by the energy and creative thinking they are bringing to the commercial process in veterinary medicine,” said Dr. Blake Hawley, founder…
KC Tech Council: ‘No Coast’ aims to prove landlocked doesn’t mean limited for local tech industry
Kansas City has been “punching above its weight” since the days of covered wagons, said Ryan Weber, noting the tech industry specifically has an impact of almost $11 billion a year on KC’s local economy. “Nationally, our profile has risen so much,” said Weber, president of the KC Tech Council which works to support the…
