GoDaddy Ranks Stanford First for 2025 College-Town Microbusiness Growth

GoDaddy’s first U.S. ranking of college-town microbusiness growth put Stanford, California, at the top for 2025, with the fastest rate among the listed communities at 20.2%.

Warrensburg, Missouri, ranked second at 16.1%, followed by Newark, Delaware, at 16%. Elon, North Carolina, placed fourth at 15.5%, and Cortland, New York, ranked fifth at 14.6%.

The remaining five communities were Martin, Tennessee, at 14.3%; Morgantown, West Virginia, at 14.2%; Oneonta, New York, at 13.7%; Conway, South Carolina, at 13.4%; and Jacksonville, Alabama, at 13.3%.

The percentages compare year-over-year microbusiness growth during calendar 2025. They describe activity across the geographic communities that include the colleges, rather than growth limited to campuses or university programs. A town’s position reflects its growth rate in the ranking; it does not show how many microbusinesses the community had in total.

That scope also limits what the results reveal about who started or ran the businesses. The ranking does not separate student-owned businesses from others, identify owners’ ages or employment situations, or measure whether university programs contributed to the growth. It also does not track AI use, so the figures cannot establish that Gen Z drove the gains or that job concerns or AI caused them.

A microbusiness has fewer than 10 employees. The data cover online businesses with a unique domain and an active website.

“When we think about college towns, we often focus on the schools exclusively, but there's an entire small business economy anchored to the school,” said Alexandra Rosen, GoDaddy’s small business economist.