Stanford, Warrensburg and Newark Top GoDaddy's First College-Town Ranking

Stanford, California posted 20.2% year-over-year microbusiness growth, the fastest rate of any college town in America, according to GoDaddy's inaugural Most Entrepreneurial College Towns ranking released October 30 from Tempe, Arizona. The bigger surprise sits below it: Warrensburg, Missouri and Newark, Delaware took second and third place with growth of 16.1% and 16.0% respectively, ahead of far better-known entrepreneurship centers.

The GoDaddy Small Business Research Lab found that 80% of the towns on the list lie beyond traditional startup hubs. GoDaddy defines a microbusiness as a company employing fewer than 10 people — the coffee shop owner, dog walker or plumber serving a campus community.

"When we think about college towns, we often focus on the schools exclusively, but there's an entire small business economy anchored to the school," said Alexandra Rosen, GoDaddy's small business economist. She added that "Entrepreneurship is accelerating across the country in communities of all sizes and demographics, and the microbusiness growth we're seeing in college towns is a testament to that."

What does the full top 10 show?

Every town in the top ten recorded double-digit year-over-year microbusiness growth during the previous calendar year. The ranking measures growth in the geographic area including the college, not the performance of the university or its entrepreneurship programs alone.

1. Stanford, CA — Stanford University — 20.2%
2. Warrensburg, MO — University of Central Missouri — 16.1%
3. Newark, DE — University of Delaware — 16.0%
4. Elon, NC — Elon University — 15.5%
5. Cortland, NY — SUNY Cortland — 14.6%
6. Martin, TN — University of Tennessee at Martin — 14.3%
7. Morgantown, WV — West Virginia University — 14.2%
8. Oneonta, NY — SUNY Oneonta — 13.7%
9. Conway, SC — Coastal Carolina University — 13.4%
10. Jacksonville, AL — Jacksonville State University — 13.3%

The spread between first and tenth place is under seven percentage points. Growth, in other words, was broad rather than concentrated in one standout region.

Where is the growth coming from?

Several universities in the top-ranked communities run what GoDaddy calls applied entrepreneurship programs, where students run real businesses before graduating:

• University of Central Missouri (No. 2): Students work with community partners to plan, launch and operate a small business as part of their degree requirements.
• University of Delaware (No. 3): The student-operated UDairy Creamery connects coursework with practical experience in product development, supply chain and storefront operations.
• Elon University (No. 4): Creativity and innovation centers incubate student-founded ventures into active local vendors.

Still, the ranking does not identify business owners by generation or student status. The claim that students drive this growth is plausible but unproven by GoDaddy's own data — the company concedes as much.

Why does Gen Z matter here?

GoDaddy frames the college-town growth against a generational shift. Gen Z leads all generations in new business creation, up 66% year-over-year, according to data the company cites. Separately, 43% of current college-aged adults plan to start or run a business before graduation, using microbusinesses as an equity-building tool while still enrolled.

Those figures come from GoDaddy's own research apparatus, and the ranking itself cannot tie them to specific towns. What the data does establish is where microbusiness density is rising fastest.

How solid is the underlying data?

The GoDaddy Small Business Research Lab analyzes more than 20 million online businesses with a unique domain and an active website. Most employ fewer than ten people. Since 2019, the program has surveyed more than 70,000 entrepreneurs, which GoDaddy says makes it a leading source on microbusiness trends.

The sample has a built-in bias: it counts only businesses with a web presence on GoDaddy's radar. A plumber working entirely off word-of-mouth never appears. Growth rates are therefore growth in digital-first ventures, not all small business.

For local leaders, GoDaddy positions the ranking as a starting point for conversations about supporting business owners on and off campus. The company calls this broader trend the "Empowerment Economy" — more people having more options in their livelihoods and the freedom to define success on their own terms.

If next year's edition repeats the pattern in Warrensburg and Newark, the geography of American entrepreneurship will look meaningfully less coastal.