If social media is to be believed, Oregon is the best place in the universe to be an entrepreneur. Every few weeks, a new “report” comes out that ranks Oregon or Portland among the top places for entrepreneurship. And then those stories get shared ad nauseam on social media, aggregating thousands of likes and comments and reshares. And then, once that tempest in a teapot starts to die down, another “ranking” comes out. And it starts all over again.
There’s only one problem: It’s not true.
And yet, they get shared. And liked. And reshared.
Look. I get it. People are hungry for some positive news. We want that recognition and validation not only in our own pursuits but in the pursuits of organizations designed to support entrepreneurial activity. And the state that we call home.
We want to believe. And so, we latch on to these positive stories.
The part that confuses me is about this whole thing is that each and every one of these reports and rankings have an incredibly thin — almost laughable — facade. Where a brief look, a moment of consideration, a second glance makes it exceedingly obvious that they’re just puff pieces designed to drive clicks.
And it’s working.
I’m inextricably confused as to how can the selfsame community that lets out loud sardonic guffaws at politicians claiming to be able to “reduce medicine costs by 1500%” falls for the quintessentially similar sort of crap made-up metrics wrapped in idyllic flowery prose purporting false rankings designed to puff up our egos. How do these lies get over the transom…?
We want to believe.
And I mean, it’s hard not to, right…? These ranking are provided by such venerable and esteemed arbiters of entrepreneurial understanding as — checks notes — Bankrate, Booking.com, Business News This Week (whom you can contact at their Gmail address), DesignRush, Printful, and SimplifyLLC, among others.
No word on how many Pulitzers this crew has collectively amassed.
But you know who finds it hardest to swallow those imaginary rankings? Every Oregon founder I talk to every day. Every Oregon entrepreneur who tries to start something here. Every Oregon small business owner who wonders if this month will be the last. Every Oregon person who has wound down a business because the support infrastructure wasn’t there. Every Oregonian who is grinding it out, day after day, hoping to bring their vision to reality.
They know this isn’t the best place to be an entrepreneur. Far from it.
Even the state of Oregon, itself, recognizes its shortcomings in terms of entrepreneurship. They’re plowing nearly $4M into simply getting organized about the existing entrepreneurial and innovation resources in the state to make them easier to find for entrepreneurs.
You want to share something reputable…? Share this little tidbit from the State of Oregon’s 2024 Innovation Report (emphasis mine):
Entrepreneurship is a long game at the state or national level requiring consistent investment and injection of capital. For the most recent year of available data (2022), there was nearly $34 million invested into research and development in Oregon. That ranks Oregon 18th in research and development investments as a share of gross domestic product. However, this is an area where Oregon saw a significant erosion over the past five years. Compared to 2017, nominal research and development investments fell by 8.6%. Oregon was one of 19 states that saw research and development investments decline over the past five years. We see a similar trend when looking at venture capital investments for business in Oregon. We are just inside the top 1/3rd for venture capital per $1,000 of GDP; however, our growth in venture capital over the past five years was below the national average. This implies that we are missing out on potential investments into the state.
…
Business growth in the index is measured as the number of new businesses per 1,000 employed workers within the state. Between 2017 and 2022, annual business births increased in Oregon by over 5,100 (+37%). Over a typical five-year period, that would be considered a rapid growth in business births; however, when normalized by the size of the economy, Oregon’s growth in new businesses over the past half decade ranked 45th in the nation. Oregon’s annual rate of business births per 1,000 employed in 2022 ranked it near the median state. That means Oregon is adding new businesses at roughly the same pace as the average state, but that we are losing ground with slower growth in new business formation than the average state.
Oregon’s entrepreneurship rank out of “51 states and DC”…? 24th. Venture capital dollars invested into Oregon…? “Much lower than the national average.”
We’re not succeeding. We’re going backwards.
So please enjoy sharing the halcyon hallucinations about Oregon’s entrepreneurial environment if you must. But know that as you do, you’re sharing a false narrative that more likely hurts the hardworking and struggling entrepreneurs in our midst. It definitely doesn’t help.
All I’m asking is that you take a second to consider the validity of information you’re sharing. Or liking. Or reposting. And if that’s too much to ask, then I sincerely hope the dopamine hits from fake Internet points fills a void for you.
Long story short, until an actual Oregon entrepreneur or two says that Oregon is great for entrepreneurs and should be ranked as a top state for startups, it doesn’t fucking matter.
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