OPINION:
“America has become an entrepreneur’s paradise,” reports The Economist.
“America remains the best place in the world to start a company, to fund a company, and to build something that matters,” a venture capital association says.
“There’s no better place on earth to start a business, take a risk, dream big,” Axios says.
It seems there is no shortage of people and pundits calling America the best place in the world to start or run a business. But is it?
America is not the only democratic, capitalist society with a reliable legal system. Politically, we are pretty far down the list on the “freedom” scale.
Other countries have better infrastructure and broadband (a report clocks us in at 39). The taxes that our businesses pay — including federal, state, city and local, plus other government costs — are arguably similar to those of most other countries in the developed world. The Tax Foundation ranks us 82nd of 226 jurisdictions for corporate taxes.
So it seems to be a stretch to call the U.S. the “best” country for business. Yet U.S. News & World Report ranks us as the No. 1 country in the world to start one.
Maybe that is why Americans have been filing business applications at historically elevated levels. Then again, maybe many of those “new businesses” were created because people need extra money to make ends meet. Or they are doing a side gig and have no plans to hire anyone.
The reason the U.S. is such a solid place for startups is that we are a big place and smart entrepreneurs gravitate toward big markets and big money.
Our population ranks third in the world behind India and China. Among arguably more advanced, business-friendly economies, the next-largest country is Brazil, with more than 100 million fewer people (sorry, Indonesia, Pakistan and Nigeria; no one is rushing to you to start businesses).
Let’s be honest: Very few entrepreneurs want to risk their livelihoods, safety and/or wealth by starting businesses in China or Russia.
Even India does not compare to America’s advantages. America’s advantages include having a gross domestic product equal to the size of China, Germany and Japan combined and four states — California, Texas, New York and Florida — with GDPs the same size as or larger than those of Britain, Russia, Canada and Australia, respectively.
Our key industries — professional services, healthcare, energy, technology, manufacturing — are among the top in the world. We have 50 competing economies wrapped inside the world’s biggest rich-country market.
Thanks to America’s size, its economy also has an abundance of the three most important components for businesses to succeed: labor, capital and technology.
Our civilian workforce numbers 172 million (20% are foreign-born). Universities, colleges, trade schools, technical academies and training facilities proliferate.
Because of this, startups have more options. They can locate in beautiful Alabama, where the average wage is about $24 per hour, or beautiful California, where they will pay $32 per hour.
An employee can become a licensed cosmetologist in Louisiana after doing 1,500 hours of training. Or a business owner can set up shop in New York state, where the requirement is 1,000 hours.
Need engineers? Go to Austin, Boston or Silicon Valley. Manufacturing workers? Ohio, Michigan or Indiana. Finance? New York. Lower wages and costs? Pick from dozens of other markets.
Despite elevated interest rates, plenty of capital is available for both startups and growing companies. Want to understand why entrepreneurs come here? Follow the money.
In 2025, American startups attracted 70% of all venture funding worldwide ($328 billion). Four of the top 10 banks in the world are American. Our stock market is valued at more than $77 trillion (China is in second place, at $15 trillion).
Numerous private equity firms, institutional lenders, angel investors, community and independent banks and federal, state and corporate programs are targeted at funding small businesses and startups.
When my British wife and I got engaged, we discussed where to build our family and where I should build my business. It was not a difficult decision. Britain offered London; America, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Philadelphia and dozens of other sizable markets.
Thirty-plus years later, our children live in multiple cities and work for both large and small companies in various industries.
Now, this “entrepreneur’s paradise” is about to explode with countless new entrepreneurs. Why? Just ask Mark Zuckerberg.
In a recent blog post, he predicted that there will be more powerful tools to create businesses and the economy would become more entrepreneurial with more employment, not less, over time.
“Many ideas that would have been too hard or expensive to try before will now be possible,” he wrote. “This means we’ll see many more ideas and businesses.”
America has expensive healthcare, plenty of regulations, crumbling infrastructure and a tax system that no sane person would call simple. So why is it still the best place in the world to start a business? One word: big. We have more customers, workers, capital, cities and choices than almost anywhere else.
• Gene Marks, CPA, runs The Marks Group PC, a financial and technology consulting firm near Philadelphia.
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