My adopted hometown of Franklin, TN (a suburb of Nashville) has made Business Week’s list of best cities for entrepreneurs to start-up businesses.
Here is what one local entrepreneur had to say about Franklin:
“It’s a very vibrant, growing community with a good education system and with people who are very attuned to the importance of quality of life, family time, and balancing that with careers and business. Once you identified a top candidate and bring them here, any negative perception that they may have had about coming to a small town in Tennessee is really overcome once they’re here and they see the community and they get the feel for the quality of life.”
-Sam Lynch, founder and CEO, biotech development company BioMimetic Therapeutics
I would agree. In choosing to move here almost six years ago it was the entrepreneurial culture of the area that, in large part, drew us to Nashville. (Not to mention golfing almost year around).
While doing research for a business project I was interviewing a business owner in Nashville and they mentioned that Franklin was their original candidate for their location. Franklin was identified as a great place for new businesses because of the great community that was still fresh and growing. Franklin was described as the new money area. Unfortunately for him/her, many others knew that too and the prices were too costly to launch in Franklin, so Nashville was chosen. It was interesting to read that Franklin was chosen to be put on this list, although I’m certainly not surprised.