When starting a business, having a great idea is just the beginning of the process. To bring that idea to life, you need to find market fit, consider funding or financing, and perhaps most importantly, to decide where you’ll set up operations to ensure that your business can thrive.

Take it from Alex Tyink, who moved back home to Wisconsin to start Fork Farms, a Green Bay-based business that created indoor, hydroponic technology allowing people and communities to participate in the fresh, local food movement.

The idea for Fork Farms was hatched in New York City, where Tyink had been drifting between art performance gigs.

Tyink began experimenting. He eventually found that using the right combination of grow lights and reflective surfaces, he was able to reduce the amount of total energy required to produce a pound of food by almost a quarter from the industry average, he says. Tyink applied for patents and soon realized he was onto something.

So why start his budding agriculture tech business 1,000 miles west in Wisconsin? There are four important reasons that Tyink says his business and so many others find opportunities for success in the Badger State.

[Adapted from: 4 Ways Startups Find Unexpected Opportunities in Wisconsin March 1, 2023 Entrepreneur]