Santa Fe Stands Out in Entrepreneurial Ranking

SANTA FE – City officials here are touting an announcement by the U.S. Census Bureau that gave Santa Fe a high ranking in the percentage of jobs created by new startups, part of the agency’s first-ever Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs.
The Census Bureau, based on 2014 numbers, ranked cities on jobs creation from start-up firms as percentage of total employment in the metro area. The bureau said 3.7 percent of Santa Fe’s jobs came from new companies, putting the City Different tied for the 13th highest percentage among 366 metro areas in the U.S. Tied with Santa Fe were Rapid City, S.D, Carson City, Nev. and Dover, Del.
Number one on the list was Midland, Texas.
Among other New Mexico cities, Las Cruces was ranked 101st Albuquerque was 159th and Farmington was 354th.
Mayor Javier M. Gonzales said in a news release, “These measures prove that our focus on building an entrepreneurial economy is working and that maintaining our leadership as a global center for the arts and artists pays dividends. It’s a reason to stay the course, and to continue increasing our investments in our artists and in our startup economy whenever we have the opportunity to do so.”
City Hall attributed the high start-up ranking to efforts and programs like the Santa Fe Business Incubator, a startup accelerator; MIX and bizMIX, designed to bring potential entrepreneurs together and provide funding and other help for startups ; Startup Santa Fe, and MAKE Santa Fe.
Andrea Romero, executive director for MIX, said, “High-impact accelerators like bizMIX inject both seed money and invaluable mentorship, so especially in a small city like ours they can have a major impact in job creation.”
She said bizMIX has creating more than 70 jobs at 11 companies in just a few years.”
Creative Santa Fe Executive Director Cyndi Conn said, “Nowhere in the world does art, culture, technology and industry come together the way it does here, and we should be doing everything we can to take advantage of that intersection.”
By: Mark Oswald (Albuquerque Journal)
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