For the past few years, the prestigious Kauffman Index of Startup Activity has ranked Wisconsin at dead last for new business creation. It’s gotten so bad that some economic development officials have taken to calling it the “Coffin Report.”

But that study is flawed, data guru Tom Chapman of the Startup Champions Network told a “Madwaukee Talks” event Wednesday afternoon at the Foley & Lardner office in Madison. Chapman also runs a consulting firm in Omaha and teaches at the University of Nebraska.

“The Kaufman Index says Wisconsin is 50th, but I don’t think that’s correct,” he said.

But he added Dane Stangler, the person who came up the index, isn’t entirely wrong.

“He’s really smart, but it’s just that he used a small segment of data from unemployment surveys. And it has gaps,” he stated.

Chapman was skeptical of the Index, so he created what he believes is a more accurate model. This model surveyed every SBA loan in the country for the last eight years. He then compared it to Badger State figures.

When he crunched the numbers, Wisconsin ranked sixth nationally from 2010 to 2017, creating $1.4 billion more than expected within the SBA program.

“That is awesome and definitely not 50th in startup activity,” he said. Read the full story here.