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
We Create KC report: Startup investment soared to $540M in 2017
A startling statistic for those who think capital merely flies over the Midwest: Kansas City saw a 69 percent increase in startup investment from 2016 to 2017, according to KCSourceLink’s We Create KC report. All told, early-stage businesses classified by KCSourceLink as startups — typically defined as those with 20 or fewer employees — nabbed…
Hack Midwest offers coders freedom through 24-hour app creation competition
Technologists are often surprised by what they’re able to accomplish when they work together in a competitive format, Mike Gelphman said. That’s part of the reason Hack Midwest is returning this summer with the objective to inspire more techies to embrace their imagination, said Gelphman, founder of the competition, as well as KCITP, an area…
KCultivator Q&A: John Coler champions making a quick impact, packs of dolphins
Editor’s note: KCultivators is a lighthearted profile series to highlight people who are meaningfully enriching Kansas City’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Today Startland takes a closer look at startup ecosystem champion John Coler. Check out our features on Made in KC’s Tyler Enders, Hispanic business builder Pedro Zamora, ‘fashionpreneur’ Jordan Williams, Plexpod founder Gerald Smith, innovation coach Diana…
Backed by $4M round, Hilary’s Eat Well expanding organic food line, hiring 10-15 workers
Hilary’s Eat Well is growing its plant-based food line, company leaders said. The move to diversify the company’s offerings — as well as to more efficiently produce larger quantities of its free-from (dairy- and gluten-free) products — comes as the Lawrence-based operation moves its storage to an off-site facility, freeing up manufacturing space, said Lydia…