Gen Z doesn’t think their degrees will land them work anymore, so they’re becoming their own bosses instead—and these college towns are thriving

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........

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