By Alicia Cormie • College Times

Arizona may be in the desert, but it’s fertile ground for entrepreneurs looking to launch their business.

Arizona had the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity in the nation last year, according to a recent Kauffman Foundation report.

In 2011, 520 adults for each 100,000 created a new business in Arizona per month — beating the national average of 320. While Kauffman research fellows caution that year-to-year changes may not be significant, the results mark an upward trend for Arizona, suggesting a startup friendly environment is coming to fruition in the desert.

“There have been so many positive changes in the entrepreneurial environment in Phoenix over the last two years,” said Fred von Graf, who runs the co-working space and tech accelerator LaunchSpot in Tempe. “The right people are in the right positions making really good changes.”

Von Graf started LaunchSpot in 2010 as a way to leverage his business connections and knowledge to make a difference in the community. LaunchSpot hosts rapid pitch events, offers free co-working space and plans to start an accelerator program for tech companies. By the end of the month, LaunchSpot plans to open at new location on Mill Avenue to pool from Arizona State University’s talent.

He hopes to fuel the entrepreneurial fire and produce more jobs for Arizona. Startups are the key to job growth since companies that are less than five years old create the most new jobs, according to the Kauffman Foundation.

But LaunchSpot isn’t a lone soldier in the quest for entrepreneurial support.

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