For a 3rd Year, Phoenix Tops Entrepreneur List
Phoenix has once again been designated the nation’s top entrepreneurial hot spot, according to a just-released report by Massachusetts-based Cognetics Inc.
That makes the third straight year that the booming desert city has topped the list compiled by Cognetics economic researcher David Birch, who coined the term “gazelles” to describe young, fast-growing, job-creating firms. According to Birch’s calculations, the Greater Phoenix area still boasts a higher proportion of “baby gazelles” in its overall business mix than any other major U.S. metropolitan area.
Salt Lake City, Atlanta, North Carolina’s Raleigh-Durham area and Indianapolis round out the top five on this year’s list.
Some critics have groused that Birch’s methodology naturally favors boomtowns over large, entrenched business centers. Sprawling Los Angeles, for example, generates more start-ups annually than Phoenix. But measuring that new activity against L.A.’s massive existing business base ranks L.A. a middling 32 on Birch’s list of the top 50 hot spots.
Birch defends his rankings as a leading indicator of what’s ahead for the economy. That’s good news for the Western U.S. Cognetics ranked Nevada, Utah and Arizona as the top three states for baby gazelle activity.
