TYSONS, Va.–Thetop U.S. cities for veteran entrepreneurs have been identified as part of a study conducted by the PenFed Foundation’s Veteran Entrepreneur Investment Program (VEIP).
That program supports veteran-owned startups and businesses through access to networks and capital. The study was conducted in partnership with Edelman Intelligence.
According to the 2022 study, for the second year in a row, Washington, D.C., New York, and Seattle proved to be the top cities for veterans to start their businesses. The top emerging cities, or those that made the most progress since the PenFed Foundation’s 2021 study, include Sioux Falls, Tampa, Cincinnati and Rapid City, the foundation said.
According to the foundation, the study analyzed four main categories for each city: livability, economic growth, support for veterans, and ability to start a business.
“As the nation navigates the economic impacts of inflation, the study focused especially on how inflation impacts cities differently,” the foundation said.
The full study results can be found here.
‘Resilience is Invaluable’
“The military community’s resilience and entrepreneurial spirit is invaluable for our nation’s business sector. That’s why PenFed is proud to commission this study for the third year in a row highlighting the cities that are making strides to support veteran businesses,” said, PenFed Credit Union President/CEO and PenFed Foundation CEO James Schenck. “We want to help cities across the United States understand which environments are best suited for military veterans to start and grow businesses and inspire city leaders to take the actions needed to support veteran entrepreneurs.”
“Additionally, veteran-owned businesses often hire more veterans, so supporting veteran entrepreneurs provides more jobs and opportunities for the greater military community, who have served as PenFed’s base of membership since 1935,” added Schenck.
The Top Cities
According to PenFed, the top 20 cities for veteran entrepreneurs with (changes since the 2021 report) include:
Other cities include:
- Washington –Arlington –Alexandria DC-VA-MD-WV Metro Area ( - )
- New York –Newark –Jersey City NY-NJ-PA Metro Area ( - )
- Seattle –Tacoma –Bellevue WA Metro Area ( - )
- Dallas –Fort Worth –Arlington TX Metro Area (+1)
- Houston –The Woodlands –Sugar Land TX Metro Area (+7)
- Austin –Round Rock TX Metro Area (+7)
- Sioux Falls SD Metro Area (+13)
- Cleveland -Elyria OH Metro Area (-1)
- Rapid City SD Metro Area (+12)
- Boston –Cambridge -Newton MA-NH Metro Area (-4 )
- Raleigh NC Metro Area (-2)
- Tampa –St. Petersburg -Clearwater FL Metro Area (+12)
- Madison WI Metro Area (+4)
- Kansas City MO-KS Metro Area (-6)
- Minneapolis –St. Paul –Bloomington MN-WI Metro Area (-9)
- Chicago –Naperville –Elgin IL-IN-WI Metro Area (-12)
- Columbus OH Metro Area (-1)
- Cincinnati OH-KY-IN Metro Area (+11)
- Jacksonville FL Metro Area (-4)
- McAllen –Edinburg -Mission TX Metro Area (+6)
According to the foundation, the top four emerging cities for veteran entrepreneurs are:
- Sioux Falls SD Metro Area (+13)
- Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater FL Metro Area (+12)
- Cincinnati OH-KY-IN Metro Area (+11)
- Rapid City SD Metro Area (+6)
Custom Scoring
The foundation said that to paint the full picture of veteran support, city characteristics and entrepreneurship ability across the US, the study used a custom scoring algorithm based on a robust set of quantitative data from existing PenFed partners and openly available data sources. 390 metropolitan statistical areas were evaluated.
Three-Pronged Approach
According to the organization, VEIP has a three-pronged approach to create a robust network for veteran-owned startups and businesses, including:
- Education through virtual and in-person workshops
- Preparation through the Master's Program, a yearlong fundraising accelerator, and Ignition Challenges
- Investment of seed capital, providing access to other capital investment programs and connecting entrepreneurs to funders.
Since 2018, the PenFed Foundation VEIP has accelerated more than 350 veteran-owned startups and helped educate over 4,700 veteran and military spouse entrepreneurs, the organization said.
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