College degrees are increasingly leaving graduates questioning whether the time and money were worth it as underemployment, unemployment, and an uncertain job market cloud their career prospects.
But rather than waiting for the right job opportunity to come along, some young people are taking matters into their own hands—and turning to entrepreneurship. New data shared exclusively with Fortune by GoDaddy finds that microbusiness activity is growing across college communities nationwide, with several smaller university towns emerging as particularly strong entrepreneurial hubs.
Stanford, Calif.,—home to Stanford University—has long been an entrepreneurial hotspot and led the ranking with 20.2% growth in microbusiness activity between July 2025 and June 2026. But smaller college communities weren’t far behind: Warrensburg, Mo., home to the University of Central Missouri, saw 16.1% growth, while Newark, Del., home to the University of Delaware, recorded 16% growth. Elon, N.C., and Cortland, N.Y., rounded out the top five, with growth of 15.5% and 14.6%, respectively.
“What surprised me is the diversity of schools and towns that made the top 10,” Alexandra Rosen, economist and head of GoDaddy’s Small Business Research Lab, told Fortune.
“They range from the more high-tech hubs, with Stanford coming in first place, but also with rural areas like two SUNY schools being in the top 10, showing that entrepreneurship really is growing everywhere.”
The study identified college towns by combining GoDaddy’s city-level microbusiness data with U.S. Census and federal education data. To qualify, a community needed a population of at least 10,000, a college or university with at least 5,000 students, and at least 20% of its residents enrolled in college or graduate school.
AI is lowering the barriers to entrepreneurship—and college towns are seeing a surge
While the GoDaddy data isn’t exclusive to students or recent graduates, it offers a broader snapshot of entrepreneurial activity in and around college communities. A microbusiness could belong to a professor publishing a book, a local resident opening a coffee shop, or a student testing a business idea—and it speaks to the entrepreneurial energy universities can help cultivate in the communities around them.
“The optimism of opportunity and making an impact on the world—in college towns, you’re encountering the real world and probably asking, ‘What is your place in that world and what are you going to do with it?’” Rosen said.
College towns have long been breeding grounds for innovation, producing some of today’s biggest companies. For example, Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook (now Meta) while attending Harvard University, and Michael Dell founded what would become Dell Technologies from his dorm room at the University of Texas at Austin.
But a new wave of technological change is something of a double-edged sword for aspiring entrepreneurs. On one hand, AI is transforming the job market and raising questions about which entry-level opportunities will remain available to young workers. On the other, AI tools are lowering the barriers to starting a business, making it easier for aspiring founders to develop business plans, build websites, test ideas, and get a venture off the ground without the same resources they might have needed in the past.
Overall, Rosen said entrepreneurship offers young people a way to “take the reins or to bet on yourself,” rather than wait for an employer to give them an opportunity.
Universities themselves have been a major source of making the process less intimidating. According to business school accreditor AACSB, the number of undergraduate entrepreneurship programs increased by nearly 25% between 2017–18 and 2019–20.
“It is inviting more students to feel it more accessible and less scary, and as a more likely outcome or potential path forward,” Rosen said. “It feels less risky because it’s more familiar. Everybody knows somebody that has a small business now.”
CEOs see a golden opportunity for Gen Z entrepreneurs—but Jeff Bezos says don’t skip the experience
Some of the world’s most prominent business leaders are also urging young people to take a closer look at entrepreneurship, arguing that rapid technological change is creating an unusually fertile environment for aspiring founders.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang called it “absolutely the single greatest time to start a company,” during a conversation earlier this year with Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan.
The 63-year-old even said he was “jealous” of the opportunities ahead for young founders. For those intimidated by the changes in the world, he encourages entrepreneurs to approach any challenge with one simple question: “How hard can it be?”
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman sees a similar opening for young people willing to take advantage of the AI revolution. Speaking to Stanford students earlier this month, he argued that entering the workforce during a period of rapid change can give ambitious people an advantage.
“If you’re heading into the world right now to work on something, I think you want to start your career at a time of the greatest change, when the playing field is most open,” Altman said.
“I think people with high potential, drive, ideas, a new way of looking at things, and new skills tend to do relatively well when the ground is shaking the most.”
Still, not every billionaire business leader thinks young people should rush to strike out on their own. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has cautioned against treating well-known college dropouts as blueprints for success.
“It is possible to be 18, 19, 20 years old, drop out of college and be a great entrepreneur,” Bezos said on stage at Italian Tech Week 2025. “We have famous examples of that working, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, etc. But these people are the exception.”
Bezos, now the world’s second-richest person with an estimated $355 billion fortune, graduated from Princeton University in 1986 and didn’t launch Amazon until nearly a decade later. That extra time gaining work experience, he said, improved his odds of success.
“I started Amazon when I was 30, not when I was 20, and I think that extra 10 years of experience actually improved the odds that Amazon would succeed,” Bezos added. “So that would always be my advice: I finished college, and I think it’s been helpful to me.”
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
