For AANHPI entrepreneurs, the best place to take the leap and start your dream is in the San Francisco Bay Area, according to a study by Smart Asset, an online site offering consumer-focused financial information and advice to consumers and financial advisors.
With one-in-four businesses owned by a person of AANHPI descent, California's San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley metro area ranks first for the prevalence of Asian-owned businesses and new business success, based on the study.
As a whole, California, with its large AANHPI population making up 15% of the population, landed five of the top 10 desirable regions for AANHPI business startups.
After the Bay Area, Texas took the next two spots. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington and the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land at Nos. 2 and 3, respectively.
However, California remained golden for AANHPI business people with Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad and Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom wound up in the fourth, sixth, seventh and tenth spots, respectively.
The New York-Jersey City-Newark area, although located in the financial center of the U.S., came in 17th.
Among Smart Asset's Key Findings
- California and Texas metro areas are most conducive for Asian American entrepreneur success. Seven of the top 10 metro areas are located in these two populous states including the No. 1 metro area, San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley. All seven places cracked the top 20 metro areas in two of the three categories we considered: the prevalence of Asian-owned businesses and new business success.
- Despite moderate Asian-owned business growth nationally, some metro areas saw large upticks. Nationally, the number of Asian-owned businesses grew by 4.60% from 2017 to 2019. However, in 13 areas in the Smart Asset study, the number of Asian-owned businesses grew by more than 10% during the same time period.
BEST PLACES FOR AANHPI ENTREPRENEURS
What makes the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley metro area so conducive for business success for AANHPI entrepreneurs?
AANHPI have a long history and a strong presence in the area starting with the 1849 Gold Rush and the thousands of workers brought in to build the trans-continental railroad. The adventurers and fortune-seekers created a culture of risk-taking that continues and reinforced by today's influx of immigrants and refugees from Asia, who make up the majority of the region's AANHPI population
Today, 27% of Bay Area residents, (defined as a nine-county area) – or just over two million people – identify as Asian American, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander (AANHPI), the second largest percentage only to the Honolulu metro area. The Bay Area’s Asian community is among its fastest-growing groups and is also incredibly diverse, representing dozens of different ancestry backgrounds and a multitude of cultures. according to the Bay Area Equity Atlas.
The Smart Asset study found that there are roughly 28,400 Asian-owned businesses in the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley area (ranking third-best in the nation), meaning that just over one in four businesses in the area are Asian-owned (26.82%, to be exact). California is home to the highest startup survival rate (81.83%) and in San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, 30.62% of new businesses are Asian-owned.
The wealthiest Asian American at the moment is reportedly Jensen Huang, the founder of NVIDIA, which designs and sells GPUs for gaming, cryptocurrency mining, and professional applications, as well as chip systems for use in vehicles, robotics, and other tools. NVIDIA is based in Santa Clara, just down the road from the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley hub.
Business startups is a demonstration of confidence in one's self and a product or service. Part of the reason is the desire to ensure the financial future for their families and the partly because it is a path with the least discrimination and xenophobia.
“It’s their only way to sustain themselves in a society where they would otherwise not be able to get a job,” she explains to Square. “So a lot of them end up having to create their own jobs by opening their small business in order to sustain a livelihood for their families.”
Nationally, AANHPI own 10% of all U.S. businesses; remarkable since these ethnic groups make up only 23 million, or, 7% of the country's total population, according to the 2020 Census.
Asian American-owned employer firms contribute $815 billion and 4.6 million jobs per year to the U.S. economy. Asian American-owned employer firms average 8 workers and $1.4 million in annual receipts.
Asian American-owned employer firms contribute $815 billion and 4.6 million jobs per year to the U.S. economy. Asian American-owned employer firms average 8 workers and $1.4 million in annual receipts.
 |
| Youtube founder Steve Chen. |
Besides the restaurants, groceries, spas, donut shops and nursing homes often associated with AANHPI ownership, here are some of the AANHP-owned businesses (Many of them based in the San Francisco Bay Area.) with the name of their founders:
YouTube: Steve Chen
LinkedIn: Eric Thich Vi Ly
Zoom: Eric S. Yuan
DoorDash: Tony Xu, Stanley Tang, Andy Fang
Peloton: Yony Feng and Hisao Kushi
Pinterest: Ben Silbermann
Yahoo!: Jerry Yang
Vera Wang Bridal: Vera Wang
Fitbit: James Park
Twitch: Justin Kan and Kevin Lin
LegalZoom, The Honest Company: Brian Lee
Old Navy: Jenny Ming
Fitbit: James Park
Twitch: Justin Kan and Kevin Lin
LegalZoom, The Honest Company: Brian Lee
Old Navy: Jenny Ming
Although the economic contributions of the AANHPI community to the U.S. economy and workers doesn't get enough attention, it is clear that the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well among the AANHPI communities.
EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.
No comments:
Post a Comment