
No. 1 state for female entrepreneurs is Texas: Study - amyjess
https://www.dallasnews.com/business/business/2019/01/15/texas-no-1-us-forfemale-entrepreneurs-new-study
======
burlesona
Not too surprising. The major cities in Texas are very diverse, dynamic
places, with a lot of bootstrapping/entrepreneurship in the culture.

I lived in Houston for a bit, and one thing I noticed is people there never
ask “where do you work?,” they ask “what do you do?” It was incredibly common
for someone to answer with something like: “I’m a carpenter and I’m building
up my furniture-design business. I’m also working at a bank for now while I
get that going.”

Underrated place.

~~~
vertline3
Diversity may be a piece of the puzzle, but there are other diverse places, so
possibly more is contributing?

~~~
reaperducer
No income tax helps.

~~~
mywittyname
The gov't still get their money through higher property taxes. This has been a
problem recently, as property values and accessed values have gone up
dramatically in the past few years. Lots of this money gets funneled up to the
state to help pay for programs.

It's gotten bad enough that the state is looking to cap property tax growth,
much like California currently does. We have a good idea how that will turn
out. And it will likely stress budgets enough to require implementing state
income tax, or raising sales tax (maybe both).

[https://www.star-
telegram.com/news/business/growth/article21...](https://www.star-
telegram.com/news/business/growth/article213050609.html)

~~~
reaperducer
The Metroplex (North Texas) is not all of Texas.

------
exabrial
With low taxes, minimal regulation, state self-sufficiency, and no knee-jerk
reactions to "fix" every social problem through the government this shouldn't
come as a surprise.

~~~
xbryanx
I think you are oversimplifying.

Your conditions don't really account for Minnesota being #3 on the list. As a
Minnesotan I'd proudly describe our state as high-tax, having an appropriate
level of regulation (aka much more than Texas), community focused, with lots
of interest in finding smart government way to fix lots of social problems.
Just another way to get to being a better place for women entrepreneurs.

~~~
yostrovs
Nobody is moving to Minnesota, but hordes are going to Texas.

~~~
nafizh
Probably, the cold has something to do with that.

~~~
RickJWagner
Yeah, that probably has to do with the population decline.

But as for the rating, North Dakota is at #8, so I don't think cold weather is
hurting that.

------
Pigo
That is pretty interesting, Texas seems to be pretty business positive in
every aspect it can be. I continue to wonder how much Elizabeth Holmes and
Theranos has hurt the prospects of other female entrepreneurs in Silicon
Valley, and startups in Silicon Valley in general.

~~~
burlesona
Texas is also serious about keeping the cost of housing down. It helps that
there’s a lot of land, but as the major cities are now boxed in by as much
sprawl as people are willing to drive through (ala LA), they have lower
barriers to densification and redevelopment compared to most places. Austin
isn’t doing as well in that regard but the other cities have made it more of a
priority.

~~~
amyjess
As a Dallas native:

1) There are no natural borders in the Dallas area, so development can sprawl
forever and ever unlike in SV/SV and LA which are boxed in by mountains and
the Pacific Ocean.

2) Pretty much the entire metro area embraces the concept of edge cities.
Someone who lives in Frisco (an exurb) is more likely to commute to Plano (an
inner-ring suburb) than to Downtown Dallas. And people who live in Dallas
proper may even commute to the suburbs. For an example of the former, I have a
friend in McKinney (another exurb) who currently works in Frisco and is
interviewing for a position in Lewisville (I guess you could call it another
exurb). For an example of the latter, I personally live in Far North Dallas, a
very suburban section of Dallas proper, and I commute to work in Plano (and
I've had two jobs in the past where I've commuted to Richardson, which was a
lateral commute, as Richardson is due east of me while Downtown is due south
of me... though both of my jobs in Richardson have been _slightly_ north of
where I live).

Now, that's not to say that densification in the suburbs isn't a thing at all.
Just take a look at all the development at the Tollway & 121 in Plano or the
CityLine area in Richardson (I wish I could share pictures of the former, but
it's so new that half the development doesn't show up on Google Maps and even
less of it shows up on Street View). But it's not _necessary_ for continuous
growth thanks to our lack of natural borders and embrace of edge cities.

We also do a pretty good job with the street layout as well. We have six-lane
divided arterials on a one-mile grid that covers not only Dallas proper but
also the suburbs, making it easy to navigate across long distances. Compare
this to spaghettified messes like Silicon Valley or pretty much every suburb
in the eastern US (I'm thinking of NoVa and Atlanta here... and let's throw in
the Philly and NYC suburbs too), and it's heaven. It also makes the Dallas
area look like a waffle iron at night:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dallas_Metropolitan_Area_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dallas_Metropolitan_Area_at_Night.jpg)

~~~
existencebox
Let me defend the philly suburbs for a second here:

The actual philly grid extends _quite_ far out, ~hour drive outside city
center. On top of that, the light rail goes WAY outside in a bunch of key
directions, with rather impressive bus connections.

Don't get me wrong, as a now-seattlite I would be remiss to criticize robust
road transportation (god knows ours isn't) but I think you're looking at
Philly through the wrong lense. I never needed, wanted, or had any friends who
wanted a car while living there (especially since more modern tooling like
zipcar and now ridesharing), and I miss that greatly. I don't think I could
manage the commute I did via public transit alone in many cities other than
some of the NE hubs you mention. (I'd add boston in too, at least back when I
was there the T+Bus connections were great)

~~~
amyjess
It doesn't extend very far into the western suburbs, though. Example:
[https://goo.gl/maps/TZDgVrsLsbE2](https://goo.gl/maps/TZDgVrsLsbE2)

At the same zoom level here are some exurbs of Dallas (Frisco and McKinney to
be specific) which are pretty close to the edge of continuous development:
[https://goo.gl/maps/MsQBWBX9pH12](https://goo.gl/maps/MsQBWBX9pH12)

This part of the Dallas area is _much_ farther out from Downtown Dallas than
the first screenshot is from Downtown Philly.

(Also, this bit here isn't about Dallas vs. Philly, but here's a selection
that shows off why I love Dallas's grid so much --
[https://goo.gl/maps/1NEtE6WnYX42](https://goo.gl/maps/1NEtE6WnYX42) \-- it's
from Plano, an inner-ring suburb that was mostly built out in the '80s and
'90s and probably some of the '00s. Note that there are shopping centers at
almost every single intersection of arterials. Since arterials are on a one-
mile grid, this means that no matter where you live, you are never more than
sqrt(2)/2 mi. from a place to shop even though you're living in a very
pleasant suburban subdivision.)

~~~
existencebox
You're not wrong but I think that misses my point.

[http://www.septa.org/maps/system/](http://www.septa.org/maps/system/)

The rail offers great coverage way into the western parts where the grid
breaks down.

To avoid us talking past each other, recognize that to me the whole "Grid with
shopping centers on every arterial intersection" seems like the most horrific
implementation of corporate "pleasantville" I could imagine. Echoing what I
said before, what I found beneficial about Philly is being able to traverse so
many different areas and vibes with only public transit.

I bring this up exclusively to advocate for rail, because it often seems to be
subsumed under the "build better/more roads." (Which, again, I broadly
support, but the positive impact accessible rail had to my life cannot be
understated)

------
dmode
Almost all of these “studies” have an agenda, and usually it is to promote a
low tax state. So, I would take this with a huge grain of salt. Especially the
article states that Texas was propelled to #1 from #8, because of preventative
healthcare for women. What ?? What about very real restrictions to abortion
for women in Texas ? Also, just looking at raw VC numbers, Texas is far far
behind CA and NY when it comes to entrepreneurship. This almost sounds like a
study that started with a conclusion and wanted to apply “community adjusted
EBITDA”

------
gringoDan
The question here is how do the authors define "startup"? "VC-funded tech
company" has a very different implication than "new business".

~~~
clairity
it’s probably more on the “new business” end of the scale, but that doesn’t
matter. what matters is that we support small businesses, particularly those
led by women, for a more robust and just society.

(texas’s obsession with taxes is bemusing—-it’s like saying i’m sophisticated
because i shop at old navy! i kid, i kid... i don’t need any more avocado
toast thrown at me)

~~~
amyjess
We have an interesting relationship with taxes.

We have no state income tax, and our gas tax is low enough to force most new
highways into being toll roads, but our property taxes are sky high.

In fact, we have higher property taxes than California. Now, because property
is so much less expensive here than in CA, you still have cheaper housing
costs, but in Texas a much higher percentage of that is tax.

~~~
clairity
yah, the money has to come from somewhere and texas has a lot of roads and
schools (in a prior job, texas used my product in it's property tax
assessments).

i think the focus on low taxes is born of a frustration with corruption,
inefficiency, and unfairness. so let's hold elected officials to those
standards rather than focus on tax rates, which is both a proxy and a
distraction (also true of the 'small government' talking point).

------
amyjess
So, I was discussing this with a friend on Facebook last night, and one thing
that both of us agreed on is that the bro culture of Silicon Valley may be
driving women away. This is what my friend, who works in Dallas, had to say
about SV:

> I've read too many stories about "career advancing" sex parties and "favors"
> that need to be done to make me never want to work in that pile of dung.

------
amyjess
Archive link for those unable to view the article:
[http://archive.is/0KJyA](http://archive.is/0KJyA)

Also, I had to cut a word from the title to fit HN's length limit. I hope
that's OK.

------
mywittyname
This "study" is yet another in a long line which look at things they think
should drive business growth, rather than looking at actual business growth.
It's basically a list of states that have the most right-wing public policies.

The most relevant factor -- number of female owned business -- is only
weighted 25%. It mentions that 20% of businesses in Texas are woman-owned, but
it doesn't provide numbers for any other state for comparison.

Lucky for us, the National Association of Women Business Owners has
commissioned a more accurate study of the subject:

[https://about.americanexpress.com/sites/americanexpress.news...](https://about.americanexpress.com/sites/americanexpress.newshq.businesswire.com/files/doc_library/file/2017_SWOB_Report_-
FINAL.pdf)

There's some overlap, but there are also states like Ohio, which top the
linked study, but are at the bottom of the NAWBO study.

------
codemac
I wonder what they define as entrepreneur, and I wonder what the employment
statistics are in these states for women as non-entrepreneurs.

I know a lot of "business owners" in Ohio that are doing etsy stores, or in
worst case MLM stuff. Both market heavily towards women as Ohio doesn't have
great professional opportunities for women. Most companies they worked for had
little to no maternity leave, so it was a matter of necessity for their family
that they figured out something outside of traditional employment.

~~~
themagician
MLM is it’s own world of garbage, but what’s wrong having an Etsy store? How
does that make you less of a “business owner”?

I would very much consider someone with an Etsy store an entrepreneur, doubly
so if they can sustain themselves from that channel alone.

Most entrepreneurs don’t get 8-figure exits.

~~~
codemac
I didn't say it made them less of a business owner.. though I don't know any
that sustain themselves from that alone.

I was saying a lot of people I know do these things even though they'd rather
have a job as an employee. So I was curious what the employment stats for
women were in these areas and if they'd confirm this hypothesis.

But my coments on second read probably are my own misunderstanding.

