Austin has landed right at the top of another list, and it’s certainly a gold medal ranking that we’ll want to put on all of our marketing materials. CNBC recently ranked Austin #1 on their Metro 20: America’s Best Places to Start a Business list.
CNBC tells readers to “Imagine having a business plan, the secured funding to start your own business and the option to choose anywhere in the country to set up shop. Where would you go?”
That answer — is Austin.
From CNBC:
Using private and government data, we looked at the 20 key criteria business owners should evaluate before choosing a business location, including tax and regulatory climate, workforce strength, access to capital and the cost of living.
They go into way more detail regarding how they came up with their final rankings, but the end result left Austin at the top of the list of 20 with Texas neighbors Dallas at #8 and McAllen at #12.
Trumpeting that “the top start-up mecca in America is far from Silicon Valley,” the CNBC article cites factors like Austin as an office location for tech giants like Google, Facebook, and Amazon and headquarters of Whole Foods. It also mentions the great lifestyle and weather of Texas, along with how business-friendly the state is and that, comparatively speaking, Austin still has much lower taxes and cost of living rates than other cities like San Francisco and New York (neither of which made the list).
The well-educated workforce that comes from the University of Texas and other local universities is also a key draw for employers and a big factor in business growth.
Now if you combine CNBC’s national ranking with Expert Market’s recent global ranking, you’ve got Austin sitting at a #1 national and #2 global spot for its startup ecosystem. Not. Too. Shabby.
Featured photo from Pixabay, Creative Commons licensed
