i'm packing my bags--
Forbes.com
By Betsy Schiffman
Madison has been anointed the Best Place For Business in the U.S. in 2004 by Forbes magazine. Its favorable ratings in ? among other things ? income and job growth, low cost of doing business, available labor pool, quality of life and a university that has spawned a lot of biotech companies make it a fine city in which to live and prosper.
One of the truly great things about the United States is that, with enough intelligence and determination, people can get rich almost anywhere. Whether it's from owning chains of dry-cleaners in Queens, car dealerships in Chicago or oil wells in West Texas, for hundreds of years fortunes have been made in every state in the Union. There are some places, however, where the chances of creating wealth are much greater than others.
That is the reason, after all, why so many people who hope to strike it rich move to places like Manhattan or Palo Alto. It's not because the cost of living is so low or the quality of life as a struggling entrepreneur is so high. Whether they want to start a software or a soft-drink company, entrepreneurs know they have to go where the money is.
So where should they go?
by the numbers Best places to get rich
? 1. Menlo Park/Palo Alto, Calif.
? 2. San Francisco
? 3. Waltham, Mass.
? 4. Boston/Cambridge, Mass.
? 5. Redwood City, Calif.
? 6. New York, N.Y.
? 7. Lexington, Mass.
? 8. Cupertino, Calif.
? 9. Princeton, N.J.
? 10. Wellesley, Mass.
In order to identify the best places to get rich, we looked at five criteria: the number of investments made by local venture capital firms, the number of active venture capital firms in the area, education level of the work force, proximity to a major university or research center, and, in the belief that like follows like, the number of local billionaires in the area.
First, we followed the money ? which led us to narrow down our list to the 42 places with the most active venture capital firms. Many of the firms that made the most-active list invested in over 25 companies during the course of the year, and one ? New Enterprise Associates ? invested in 73 private companies. In total, about $18.2 billion in venture capital was invested last year, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers' quarterly-venture capital study, the MoneyTree Survey. That money doesn't travel far, either, acording to the study's director of research.
"In general, venture capitalists tend to invest in companies nearby. If a VC is based in Colorado, he's probably going to invest in companies based in Colorado," says Austin, Tex.-based Kirk Walden, National Director of Venture Capital Research of PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Top Ten Best cities to do business
1. Madison, Wis.
Population: 443,000.
Job Growth: 1.5%.
Income Growth: 4.3%.
Big Employers: University of Wisconsin, University Hospital & Clinics, American Family Insurance, Meriter Health Services, Mutual Group.
Additional info: In Madison 41% of the adult population has a college degree--almost twice the national average. Per capita income is growing quickly. All that helps create a tight labor market: At 2.7%, unemployment is the lowest of any of the 150 largest metro areas.
2. Raleigh-Durham, N.C.
Population: 1,268,000.
Job Growth: 1.1%.
Income Growth: 2.4%.
Big Employers: Duke University & Medical Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, IBM, North Carolina State University, Health Care.
Additional info: Research Triangle Park in Raleigh-Durham is home to nearly 40,000 employees at more than 130 companies, including SAS and Cisco. Total job growth is expected to rise 14% in the next five years.
3. Austin, Tex.
Population: 1,349,000.
Job Growth: 1.7%.
Income Growth: 3.5%.
Big Employers: University of Texas, Dell, Motorola, IBM, Seton Healthcare Network.
Additional info: Last year's top-ranked metro area, Austin has been hurt by tech's slowdown. But things are looking up. Apple and AMD recently expanded operations there. And patent issuance was up 10% last year.
4. Washington, D.C.-Northern Va.
Population: 5,162,000.
Job Growth: 2.1%.
Income Growth: 4.3%.
Big Employers: Verizon Communications, Safeway, Marriott International, Inova Health System, US Airways.
Additional info: The District of Columbia itself makes up only 12% of the population of the total metro area, which includes parts of Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. It ranks among the top regions for educated work force, income growth and culture and leisure. Only high costs keep it from ranking first overall.
5. Atlanta, Ga.
Population: 4,386,000.
Job Growth: 1.1%.
Income Growth: 2.9%.
Big Employers: BellSouth, Delta Air Lines, Kroger, Emory University, Publix Supermarkets.
Additional info: Business costs in Atlanta are the lowest of any area with a population of more than 4 million, and 6% below the national average. Two other plusses: It has the most industrial diversity within the top-rated areas; Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport has the second-greatest number of flights of any airport in the world.
6. Provo, Utah
Population: 388,000.
Job Growth: 1.5%.
Income Growth: 2.1%.
Big Employers: Brigham Young University, Utah Valley State College, Health Services, Convergys, Novell.
Additional info: Low costs keeps Provo on the radar for companies looking to relocate or expand. Business expenses are 7%lower than the average in the U.S. Per capita income is only $19,300 compared with the national average of $30,400. Helping to feed the labor force is one of the highest birth rates in the country.
7. Boise, Idaho
Population: 465,000.
Job Growth: 2.5%.
Income Growth: 1.9%.
Big Employers: Micron Technology, Mountain Home Air Force Base, St. Luke's Regional Medical Center, Albertsons, Hewlett-Packard.
Additional info: While not exactly a transportation hub, Boise continues to attract people from all over the nation thanks to low costs and job growth that has risen more than three times the national average during the past five years. Boise's net migration rate ranks fifth overall at 2.0% a year.
8. Huntsville, Ala.
Population: 354,000.
Job Growth: 1.2%.
Income Growth: 0.1%.
Big Employers: U.S. Army Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville Hospital System, Cinram International, NASA, Boeing.
Additional info: What Huntsville lacks in size it makes up for in brains: 31% of the population has a college degree (U.S. average: 24%). Pentagon contracts account for 25% of the region's nominal GDP in 2002, the highest rate in the U.S.
9. Lexington, Ky.
Population: 490,000.
Job Growth: -0.1%.
Income Growth: 1.8%.
Big Employers: University of Kentucky, Toyota Motor, Lexmark International, St. Joseph Hospital, Central Baptist Hospital.
Additional info: The horse capital of the world has the second-lowest business costs, after Albuquerque, N.M., of any area with a population greater than 200,000, and they're 19% below the national average.
10. Richmond, Va.
Population: 1,023,000.
Job Growth: 1.0%.
Income Growth: 3.2%.
Big Employers: Capital One Financial, Philip Morris USA, HCA, Wal-Mart.
Additional info: A metro area for all seasons, Richmond is the only area to rank in the top half of our list for each of the nine criteria we examined.
Austin Ventures, for example, was one of the ten most active venture capital firms last year, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. It invested in 42 companies over the course of 2003, but its portfolio is largely filled with Austin-based companies, including such software businesses as Active Power, Motive, Tivoli ? which is a subsidiary of IBM ? Vignette and WaveSet Technologies, which was recently acquired by Sun Microsystems. Although venture capital is scattered and concentrated in various regions of the country (mainly in Silicon Valley, New England, New York and Texas), each region tends to invest within the region.
Getting capital is just the beginning of the story, however. Entrepreneurs also need to have smart people around them to help execute a business plan. In order to determine which of the venture capital hubs have the most educated local work force, we averaged in the education rankings taken from the Forbes list of the Best Places For Business ? which measures the number of PhDs per 100,000 residence.
We also looked at the proximity of a city to a major university or research center. It was not surprising that the majority of the places we selected were near schools like Harvard, M.I.T. or Stanford, or Massachusetts's famous technology corridor Route 128. These schools and facilities serve as incubators for many of the biggest ideas in areas like software development and biotech. It's no coincidence that Stanford has always been an important part of the Palo Alto business community.
Forbes.com
By Betsy Schiffman
Madison has been anointed the Best Place For Business in the U.S. in 2004 by Forbes magazine. Its favorable ratings in ? among other things ? income and job growth, low cost of doing business, available labor pool, quality of life and a university that has spawned a lot of biotech companies make it a fine city in which to live and prosper.
One of the truly great things about the United States is that, with enough intelligence and determination, people can get rich almost anywhere. Whether it's from owning chains of dry-cleaners in Queens, car dealerships in Chicago or oil wells in West Texas, for hundreds of years fortunes have been made in every state in the Union. There are some places, however, where the chances of creating wealth are much greater than others.
That is the reason, after all, why so many people who hope to strike it rich move to places like Manhattan or Palo Alto. It's not because the cost of living is so low or the quality of life as a struggling entrepreneur is so high. Whether they want to start a software or a soft-drink company, entrepreneurs know they have to go where the money is.
So where should they go?
by the numbers Best places to get rich
? 1. Menlo Park/Palo Alto, Calif.
? 2. San Francisco
? 3. Waltham, Mass.
? 4. Boston/Cambridge, Mass.
? 5. Redwood City, Calif.
? 6. New York, N.Y.
? 7. Lexington, Mass.
? 8. Cupertino, Calif.
? 9. Princeton, N.J.
? 10. Wellesley, Mass.
In order to identify the best places to get rich, we looked at five criteria: the number of investments made by local venture capital firms, the number of active venture capital firms in the area, education level of the work force, proximity to a major university or research center, and, in the belief that like follows like, the number of local billionaires in the area.
First, we followed the money ? which led us to narrow down our list to the 42 places with the most active venture capital firms. Many of the firms that made the most-active list invested in over 25 companies during the course of the year, and one ? New Enterprise Associates ? invested in 73 private companies. In total, about $18.2 billion in venture capital was invested last year, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers' quarterly-venture capital study, the MoneyTree Survey. That money doesn't travel far, either, acording to the study's director of research.
"In general, venture capitalists tend to invest in companies nearby. If a VC is based in Colorado, he's probably going to invest in companies based in Colorado," says Austin, Tex.-based Kirk Walden, National Director of Venture Capital Research of PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Top Ten Best cities to do business
1. Madison, Wis.
Population: 443,000.
Job Growth: 1.5%.
Income Growth: 4.3%.
Big Employers: University of Wisconsin, University Hospital & Clinics, American Family Insurance, Meriter Health Services, Mutual Group.
Additional info: In Madison 41% of the adult population has a college degree--almost twice the national average. Per capita income is growing quickly. All that helps create a tight labor market: At 2.7%, unemployment is the lowest of any of the 150 largest metro areas.
2. Raleigh-Durham, N.C.
Population: 1,268,000.
Job Growth: 1.1%.
Income Growth: 2.4%.
Big Employers: Duke University & Medical Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, IBM, North Carolina State University, Health Care.
Additional info: Research Triangle Park in Raleigh-Durham is home to nearly 40,000 employees at more than 130 companies, including SAS and Cisco. Total job growth is expected to rise 14% in the next five years.
3. Austin, Tex.
Population: 1,349,000.
Job Growth: 1.7%.
Income Growth: 3.5%.
Big Employers: University of Texas, Dell, Motorola, IBM, Seton Healthcare Network.
Additional info: Last year's top-ranked metro area, Austin has been hurt by tech's slowdown. But things are looking up. Apple and AMD recently expanded operations there. And patent issuance was up 10% last year.
4. Washington, D.C.-Northern Va.
Population: 5,162,000.
Job Growth: 2.1%.
Income Growth: 4.3%.
Big Employers: Verizon Communications, Safeway, Marriott International, Inova Health System, US Airways.
Additional info: The District of Columbia itself makes up only 12% of the population of the total metro area, which includes parts of Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. It ranks among the top regions for educated work force, income growth and culture and leisure. Only high costs keep it from ranking first overall.
5. Atlanta, Ga.
Population: 4,386,000.
Job Growth: 1.1%.
Income Growth: 2.9%.
Big Employers: BellSouth, Delta Air Lines, Kroger, Emory University, Publix Supermarkets.
Additional info: Business costs in Atlanta are the lowest of any area with a population of more than 4 million, and 6% below the national average. Two other plusses: It has the most industrial diversity within the top-rated areas; Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport has the second-greatest number of flights of any airport in the world.
6. Provo, Utah
Population: 388,000.
Job Growth: 1.5%.
Income Growth: 2.1%.
Big Employers: Brigham Young University, Utah Valley State College, Health Services, Convergys, Novell.
Additional info: Low costs keeps Provo on the radar for companies looking to relocate or expand. Business expenses are 7%lower than the average in the U.S. Per capita income is only $19,300 compared with the national average of $30,400. Helping to feed the labor force is one of the highest birth rates in the country.
7. Boise, Idaho
Population: 465,000.
Job Growth: 2.5%.
Income Growth: 1.9%.
Big Employers: Micron Technology, Mountain Home Air Force Base, St. Luke's Regional Medical Center, Albertsons, Hewlett-Packard.
Additional info: While not exactly a transportation hub, Boise continues to attract people from all over the nation thanks to low costs and job growth that has risen more than three times the national average during the past five years. Boise's net migration rate ranks fifth overall at 2.0% a year.
8. Huntsville, Ala.
Population: 354,000.
Job Growth: 1.2%.
Income Growth: 0.1%.
Big Employers: U.S. Army Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville Hospital System, Cinram International, NASA, Boeing.
Additional info: What Huntsville lacks in size it makes up for in brains: 31% of the population has a college degree (U.S. average: 24%). Pentagon contracts account for 25% of the region's nominal GDP in 2002, the highest rate in the U.S.
9. Lexington, Ky.
Population: 490,000.
Job Growth: -0.1%.
Income Growth: 1.8%.
Big Employers: University of Kentucky, Toyota Motor, Lexmark International, St. Joseph Hospital, Central Baptist Hospital.
Additional info: The horse capital of the world has the second-lowest business costs, after Albuquerque, N.M., of any area with a population greater than 200,000, and they're 19% below the national average.
10. Richmond, Va.
Population: 1,023,000.
Job Growth: 1.0%.
Income Growth: 3.2%.
Big Employers: Capital One Financial, Philip Morris USA, HCA, Wal-Mart.
Additional info: A metro area for all seasons, Richmond is the only area to rank in the top half of our list for each of the nine criteria we examined.
Austin Ventures, for example, was one of the ten most active venture capital firms last year, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. It invested in 42 companies over the course of 2003, but its portfolio is largely filled with Austin-based companies, including such software businesses as Active Power, Motive, Tivoli ? which is a subsidiary of IBM ? Vignette and WaveSet Technologies, which was recently acquired by Sun Microsystems. Although venture capital is scattered and concentrated in various regions of the country (mainly in Silicon Valley, New England, New York and Texas), each region tends to invest within the region.
Getting capital is just the beginning of the story, however. Entrepreneurs also need to have smart people around them to help execute a business plan. In order to determine which of the venture capital hubs have the most educated local work force, we averaged in the education rankings taken from the Forbes list of the Best Places For Business ? which measures the number of PhDs per 100,000 residence.
We also looked at the proximity of a city to a major university or research center. It was not surprising that the majority of the places we selected were near schools like Harvard, M.I.T. or Stanford, or Massachusetts's famous technology corridor Route 128. These schools and facilities serve as incubators for many of the biggest ideas in areas like software development and biotech. It's no coincidence that Stanford has always been an important part of the Palo Alto business community.
