These Are the 50 Best Places in America for Starting a Business

ewalsh • December 19, 2018

For full  Inc.com  coverage and related content, please click  here.

Whether you’re an entrepreneur plotting to launch a startup or a CEO strategizing where to put another office, knowing where the next hot city is would be a game changer. Should you expand to  Raleigh ? Would you attract better talent in  Austin  or  Atlanta ? With the new Surge Cities Index, Inc. and innovation policy company Startup Genome crunched the data to score and rank the top 50 metro areas in the U.S. on seven key indicators–from early-stage funding metrics to job creation. Finally, here’s the smartest way to answer the age-old question: Where should you go next?

No. 46
HARTFORD
Hartford gets its groove back by doubling down on manufacturing–and social impact startups.
Despite years of state budgetary woes, the Hartford area is on an upswing–thanks, in part, to a rebound in manufacturing. Aerospace company Pratt & Whitney can’t keep up with jet engine orders, and Otis Elevator does over $12.3 billion in net sales. Pioneering accelerator ReSet, which has a social impact focus, has graduated 100 area companies over the past five years. Toolmaker Stanley Black & Decker recently launched a manufacturing accelerator with Techstars. And Hartford–the “insurance capital of the world”–was named one of the state’s four Innovations Places, making it eligible for $2 million in matching funds, part of which it’s putting toward an accelerator aimed at insurance startups. –Hannah Wallace

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CLOSED--Thank you for your interest

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