Madison Ranks High Globally For Startup Cities

When you think about startup hubs, cities like San Francisco or New York probably come to mind. But what about Madison?

A new report from the Center for American Entrepreneurship suggests it should. It ranks Madison 14th worldwide for venture capital deals per capita and 40th for venture capital dollars per capita.

Max Lynch says he’s not surprised. After he graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he stuck around and co-founded Ionic, a company that’s helped giants like Amtrak and AAA build mobile apps.

“Because UW-Madison is ranked worldwide, it’s a top public university, you get companies like us that start here because you have the right people, stay here because it’s working out and it’s a great place to build a company, and they feel no reason to leave,” said Lynch. “So it’s really all about the University.”

Entrepreneur-in-residence at StartingBlock Madison, Scott Resnick, named Lynch’s company among four of the city’s successes, along with the online food delivery service EatStreet, medical-device company Propeller, and gaming studio PerBlue.

“That whole group right there has raised right around $100 million dollars,” he said.

Resnick credited Madison’s lower cost of living, compared to other tech hubs, and its ample well-trained college grads as part of Madison’s startup success.

However, it seems contained to the city’s limits. The Kauffman Index consistently ranks Wisconsin low nationwide in entrepreneurship.