Tulsa Best In Country For Women Starting A Business

A recent survey puts Tulsa at the top for best city in America for women to start a business. The survey talked to 20,000 entrepreneurs across the country and found Tulsa at number one.

Tulsa is growing, and as it’s growing, it’s cultivating “girl bosses” - the new phrase people are using for women who are throwing convention out the window and instead of working the nine-to-five, they're creating it.

In the heart of the Brady Arts District in downtown Tulsa, you'll find a hotspot for local entrepreneurs.

36 Degrees North is considered a basecamp for people to start their businesses, and if you look around the office, you'll notice just as many women starting companies as men.

"If you would have asked me two years ago, as an entrepreneurship student, that was always my dream, but I didn't know that it was a possibility,” Kourtney Brooks said. “And so I just graduated this past May and I'm getting to pursue it full-time now, so it's incredible."

Brooks is a recent OSU graduate, developing a skincare line for women overseas called KB Skincare. Brooks is originally from OKC but came to Tulsa to start her company.

"The resources here were unbelievable, and something I couldn't get in Oklahoma City or really anywhere else across the country," she said.

Tammy Torkleson runs her own software engineering firm called Indigo. She's a corporate America veteran and could have gone anywhere to start her business.

"Even though I have a lot of contacts in Silicon Valley, because I've been working in that market for several years, I could not have done in the Bay Area what I've done here in Tulsa," Torkleson said.

She knows the challenges of being a "girl boss" and said Tulsa is a better bet for women starting their own companies.

And while these women have different dreams and different levels of experience, they say when it comes to being a woman building an empire, Tulsa isn't holding anyone back.

Resources for entrepreneurs in Tulsa:

• 1 Million Cups
• The Forge
• Tulsa Startup Series