Odd Lots · Friday, September 18, 2026
Research from the data set created for 'The Everywhere Millionaire' indicates that growing up in an area with a strong entrepreneurial presence, like Salt Lake City, triples the probability of becoming a business owner compared to areas like Mississippi. This suggests that an entrepreneurial environment fosters future business creation.
“So one of the cool data things, you know, to go back to the very beginning, when we built this data set that for the first time linked owners to businesses and their workers, we could track every single new firm in America since 2000. So we have the best data on entrepreneurs that has ever existed.”
“And we can say, you know, how many people are going to start businesses if they're poor, if they grow up in Salt Lake City versus Mississippi. So Salt Lake, the probability you start a star business. Meaning the top 10% of revenue or employment is three times higher than if you grew up in Mississippi.”