Draper Hero Institute Updates Monthly Draper Innovation Index US
States Compete to Land in Top Ten of Best Places to Launch a Startup

New Hampshire Jumps in DII US Top 10 While Arizona Falls
Iowa and Nebraska See Largest Declines
New York, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania Gain
California and Massachusetts Improve Slightly

Oakland, California – Bizworld announces the December 2023 update to the Draper Innovation Index U.S. (DII US), which evaluates each state’s innovation and entrepreneurship environment. Published monthly since 2021, the DII US provides the most well-rounded and up-to-date
look at state-level entrepreneurial climates. It reflects both traditional and emerging economic metrics, from taxes and regulations to cryptocurrency friendliness and blockchain investment.

“As you’ll see below, multiple states moved up and down the list due to strengths or weaknesses in new business formation,” said DHI founder Tim Draper. “To me, this is a welcome sign that our index does a good job of accurately measuring exactly what we want it to measure: entrepreneurship, investment, economic growth, and new job creation. And all of that begins precisely when an individual entrepreneur
or a small team decides to take a risk and start a new business.”

Top Takeaways from the DII US December 2023 Update:

• New Hampshire climbed from 9th to 7th in the DII US thanks to continued strength in
  crypto/blockchain-related investments as well as strong business formation.
• Arizona, on the other hand, saw no growth in crypto/blockchain-related investments as well as
  weakness in business formation statistics. As a result, it fell from 7th to 9th
• Similarly, with no crypto/blockchain investment growth and some of the worst business formation
  performance, Iowa fell by 5 places.
• Weak new business formation trends pushed Nebraska down from 36th to 41st
• Driven by growth in overall capital investment, crypto/blockchain related investments and decent business formation metrics, New York jumped from 41st to 37th
• Oklahoma saw the single largest increase in overall capital investments. This pushed the state up three places from 28th to 25th
• Supported by strong overall capital investments as well as above average performance in business formation statistics, Pennsylvania jumped from 39th to 36th
• California saw its ranking improve slightly, from 18th to 17th, primarily supported by overall venture capital investment growth.
• Massachusetts improved from 15th to 14th thanks to good performance in new business formation trends.

“Venture capital investment trends played a significant role in this month’s DII US ranking movements,” said DHI Chief Economic Advisor Dr. Wallace Walrod. “This underscores the importance of making any given state an attractive environment for investors willing to take a risk on new businesses, especially for tech startups. Without these early-stage investments, there simply is no entrepreneurial climate to speak of in state-level economies. And attracting investors can involve perception of a state’s overall identity or ‘brand’ as well as the reality of its actual economic numbers, so each state should think about leveraging what makes their state unique.”

The DII US will continue to post monthly update which can be accessed here.