Beyond Entrepreneurship: The entreprenerd guide to discovering Arizona

by | Feb 14, 2018

Arizona natives may be a rare sight in our growingly diverse state, but one thing’s for sure: We love it here. We REALLY love it here.

Arizona is place where State Forty Eight gear can be spotted in every city, the cactus trend gives us pride and all our entrepreneurial wins are celebrated collectively, so our state can rise together. We’re collaborators, and as a coworking community in Arizona, we get amazing opportunities to collaborate with people from their first day in the state, onward.

As we celebrate Arizona’s 106th birthday, here are our tips for entrepreneurs who are ready to get involved in AZ:

Things you need to know

We’re home to the world’s most generous community for entrepreneurs. We call it #yesphx. The moment you and your business land in the Phoenix metro area, you’re welcome into our huge, supportive, tight-knit group of changemakers. Join the Facebook and Slack groups to start getting involved!


We don’t have Daylight Saving Time in our vocabulary. Why let an hour go to waste when you could be getting so much done? Whatever you do, don’t follow your instinct to set your clock. We won’t even think to warn you before you show up an hour late to work. We’re the place innovators are flocking to. Our entrepreneurs have won awards from CES. Our foundation gives young innovators a taste of the startup world. The companies leading the self-driving vehicle revolution flock to Arizona to perfect their technologies. Arizona State University is No. 1 in innovation (you’ll hear about this a lot).

Things you should know

We often forget how unnecessarily dramatic our weather is. It went from 50 to 80 degrees on February 10? The sun must have come out. Flash flood? It’s just monsoon season. Getting swallowed by a demonic cloud of dust? That’s your average haboob. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153820604203230&set=p.10153820604203230&type=1&opaqueCursor=Abr_Q_KlElF8CT8FDEWPsIepvRYyZxBx_964PCC_KhCyFQYPde4ujwpsPCJiH3J6-sX5rkUXFc1ftDnGU4ajW3Vqk_ejY9xCYEOPLL66EUi0sIGtpuvrgzW6QTfNTD6mkecwMCCck-QMi5OlgrB357yyWdOVTTdXNl-GTy84DbiTVxvfGoptyqRNZGxh1pDOn3tQklYFdU5ab1BvYAZGg7eMXUdaw-srtvYR41eNBX1_tR_5ZGP6QOmXBC9ybyeu4CcRR01cfWUY_mpYQTzASKZ_pD27L_pbkuW8L3HOTlDW4yUnLuXVcaAnCpf2tDoDz-RoEJMqXsKFKcgBqiyL3kcliP4AsnuXhY15w66omf0zP3md9JcWj0p2T3WOrNI8lQqM45jVtpBAV6Vy7UfM-I_3iSgUYVmHxhve6xPc1N1qrA&theater   We might as well have canned responses when talking about weather. “It’s dry heat.” “It’s a desert.” “Under 70 degrees? Wow, that’s cold.” We put our forks up or we bear down. Translation: You’re either an ASU fan or a UofA fan. There’s no in-between. The rivalry has an incredible backstory that brought to life the country’s oldest rivalry trophy and dates back to a time when Arizona wasn’t even a state.

Things we want you to know

We have all the biomes of the world in our state. From the San Francisco Peaks tundra to the arid desert everyone imagines we live in, diverse landscapes can be found all throughout Arizona – including one of the Seven Wonders of the World. No matter what day trip sights you’re looking for, we have a version of it with gorgeous sunsets year-round.

 

We’re home to the best pizza city in America. Phoenix earned the title in 2017 for promoting peace and respect for pizza of all forms, while Chicago and New York have yet to call a truce for the sake of our taste buds. At least, that sounds about right. We’re also pretty proud to be home to all locations of Pizzeria Bianco, owned by the nation’s best pizza maker.

We have REALLY good Mexican food, too. Living near Mexico has its tortilla-wrapped, salsa-smothered, spice-infused perks. Unfortunately, we become burrito snobs when we visit other states, but it’s all worth it when you can live and work right by places like PHX Burrito House and find ultimately authentic places like Ta Carbon.

We’re home to one of the top nine coworking spaces in the world. Oh wait, is that us? *Blushes.*