If you handed someone $10,000 and told them to back a local business, not a stock, not crypto, not real estate, who would they choose?
That’s exactly what we asked over 3,000 people in the U.S. in a recent survey.
The results paint a revealing portrait of what we value most in our backyards - be it healthcare, flavor, clean energy, or simple convenience.
Here are a few standout insights we took away from the data:
Key Findings:
Greenville is punching way above its weight.
Not one but two Greenville-based businesses (in South Carolina and Delaware) landed in the national top 10 - Big Money Retirement Solutions and Nurturing Angels Home Care.
Two very different sectors, but the same takeaway: trust and community connection count.
Food wins hearts - and wallets.
Haven Hot Chicken in New Haven came in at #8 overall, and with good reason. It’s grown a sizzling 2,287% in just three years.
In an era where many food trends flame out fast, this one has proven staying power - and stoked investor imagination.
New York shows its range.
Three NYC-based companies made the top 15: a digital agency, a corporate gifting startup, and a high-end architecture firm.
Each represents a different flavor of growth - creative, corporate, and crafted - but together, they reflect the city’s enduring pull.
Healthcare and wellness are quietly leading.
From Life Dental Group in Mississippi to Best Practice Medicine in Montana, mission-led medical and health-adjacent services aren’t just growing – they are being noticed.
These aren't just businesses; they’re trust-based community anchors.
Solar isn’t just hype in Hawaii.
Sunspear Energy’s 814% growth, plus its position in the national top 10, suggests locals aren’t just warming to renewables - they’re ready to invest in them.
It’s a strong signal that clean energy has moved from “nice to have” to “put your money on it.”
Fintech that solves real problems wins.
Tampa Bay-based Branch has grown by over 500% by letting employees access their pay early, with no fees.
It’s not a buzzword-heavy crypto play. It’s just practical, everyday financial tech - and that simplicity seems to resonate.
Montana is quietly becoming a healthcare training hub.
Bozeman’s Best Practice Medicine and another local standout, AdvicePay, both reflect a regional trend: helping professionals deliver better care, smarter.
The fact that a town of this size produced two nationally admired firms is telling.
Arizona made three appearances - all very different.
Phoenix’s YellowBird (risk management), Scottsdale’s Your Tax Coach, and Mi-One Brands all placed in the top 75, showing the state’s small business scene is thriving across wildly varied industries.
Final Thoughts
What unites this list isn’t just growth - it’s relevance. These businesses aren’t abstract ideas or Silicon Valley moonshots.
They’re solving problems you can see, taste, or feel. They’re improving care, speeding up paychecks, adding flavor to local food scenes, or helping families navigate retirement.
That’s the kind of impact you don’t need a pitch deck to understand.
Methodology
Online panel survey of 3,011 respondents based on age, gender, and geography. Internal data sources are used to obtain population data sets. We used a two-step process to ensure representativeness through stratified sampling and post-stratification weighting.
Respondents are carefully chosen from a geographically representative online panel of double opt-in members. This selection is further tailored to meet the precise criteria required for each unique survey. Throughout the survey, we design questions to carefully screen and authenticate respondents, guaranteeing the alignment of the survey with the ideal participants.
To ensure the integrity of our data collection, we employ an array of data quality methods. Alongside conventional measures like digital fingerprinting, bot checks, geo-verification, and speeding detection, etc. each response undergoes a thorough review by a dedicated team member to ensure quality and contextual accuracy. Our commitment extends to open-ended responses, subjecting them to scrutiny for gibberish answers and plagiarism detection.
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