The data journalists at FiveThirtyEight show that the St. Louis startup scene – alongside three other cities in Missouri – is actually the hottest in America right now, bucking the long slide of business startups since 1970.
Why is St. Louis such a fertile field for new business? Real estate costs for workers and businesses is 25% less than the average and considerably below hotspots such as Boston and San Francisco. Also important is a group of local institutions from T-Rex to Venture Café to ArchGrants that attract and support a culture of new business.
Also interesting is the list of the top 20 cities overall, featuring unexpected metro areas such as Burlington, Vermont, where new business is coming from the tech and renewable energy sectors.
