16 Small Towns Where Big Businesses Got Started

Successful businesses don’t always happen in the Big Apple or Los Angeles. Sometimes, it’s a garage, a pharmacy, or a push-cart in the rural parts of the country. Small towns in the United States remain the backbone of the nation for more than their agricultural, cultural, and historical value — these places are hotbeds of innovation and jumping-off platforms for some of the biggest business names in the world.

Dozens of businesses have found their start in small-town America. Keep reading to discover the 16 small towns where massive enterprises got their start. Some companies even kept their headquarters there.

1. Kohler, Wisconsin

The Kohler company, a well-known manufacturing company known for its plumbing, tile, generator, and furniture products, finds its history in the small town of Kohler, Wisconsin. At just over 2,000 residents, the small village of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin remains home to the Kohler company’s headquarters. Though the company’s founding took place four miles east in Sheboygan in 1873, Kohler founder John Michael’s son, Walter J. Kohler developed the village as an industrial community.

Kohler is one of the nation’s first planned communities. Today, residents and visitors can enjoy the Destination Kohler resort, the Kohler Design Center, boutiques, shops, and more.

2. Marceline, Missouri

Mickey Mouse may have grown up on the silver screen in Hollywood, but Walter Elias “Walt” Disney spent his formative years in Marceline, Missouri.

Disney’s parents moved the family from Chicago, Illinois to Marceline, Missouri in 1906. Walt used his childhood experiences, like seeing Peter Pan live on stage, his first motion picture, and his school days, as inspiration for the entertainment he’d soon create for the world.

Marceline is also special for its appearance. Both Main Street U.S.A. facades at Disneyland and Walt Disney World use Kansas Avenue as prime inspiration. Today, Marceline’s population hovers just over 2,100 residents who proudly claim Walt Disney’s heritage and enjoy the friendly, magical atmosphere apparent in every street.

3. Roseland, New Jersey

The small town of Roseland, New Jersey is home to a globally-recognized online payroll solution: ADP.

Founded in nearby Paterson, New Jersey in 1949 by two brothers, ADP grew explosively over the next 50 years — expanding from simple, manual payroll processing to a suite of intuitive software that allows businesses to grow their revenue, pay taxes, and process salaries, benefits, and more to their employees.

Today, Roseland remains a small town of around 6,000 residents. The global ADP headquarters building exists on 1 ADP Boulevard in the town.

4. Hapeville, Georgia

This small suburb of Atlanta has made a massive presence in consumer goods. Not only is it the location of the very first Chick-fil-A location (called Dwarf House®), but it also serves as a headquarters for Delta Airlines and Porsche’s North American division and experience center.

In 1946, Truett Cathy established a diner called the Dwarf Grill in Hapeville. For 20 years, he worked on finding the perfect chicken sandwich recipe to provide customers. In 1964, he settled on the recipe with two pickles on a toasted butter bun — the same served today as Chick-fil-A’s Original Chicken Sandwich. Forty years after Dwarf Grill’s establishment, the first free-standing Chick-fil-A opened on North Druid Hills in Atlanta.

Residents of Hapeville today enjoy an eclectic small town with just over 7,000 residents and a passion for the arts.

5. Scotts Valley, California

In 1997, two men from Scotts Valley conceptualized the idea that would revolutionize the way people watch movies.

Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph sent themselves a DVD through the mail — and it stayed intact. A year later, they figured out the kinks and established a DVD rental and sales online store called Netflix.com. In less than five years, they launched a nationwide subscription service and garnered over one million subscribers. Today, Netflix competes with Amazon Prime Video, Max, and Disney as the top market share in subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services in the United States.

For residents of Scotts Valley, California, life remains wholly unchanged. The city has beautiful nature, an active community and senior centers, a Historical Society, and more.

6. Hershey, Pennsylvania

Without reading, you may already know the company that started in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Milton S. Hershey incorporated the Lancaster Caramel Company in 1894, creating the Hershey Chocolate Company as a subsidiary of it. After his apprenticeship with a local confectioner in Lancaster, Hershey returned to his hometown of Derry Church to build a chocolate plant. The town of Hershey opened for the plant’s workers to live, work, and play between 1903 and 1905. It’s grown steadily since, and the Hershey Company continues to employ thousands of residents.

The town of Hershey runs on chocolate today. Not only does the city house the headquarters for the Hershey Company, but it also provides the community with the Hersheypark amusement park, the luxurious Hotel Hershey, the historic Hershey Lodge, the Milton S. Hershey School, the Hersheypark Arena, and much more.

7. Austin, Minnesota

The nationally recognized Hormel brand of food got its start in the small town of Austin, Minnesota in 1891. George A. Hormel founded his meat packing business in the hamlet, finding great success with its fresh pork products. It began to grow from Austin into Minneapolis and beyond, introducing the world’s first canned ham, SPAM®, and more. The headquarters of the company, as well as the company’s largest manufacturing plants, remains in Austin, Minnesota.

Residents of Austin work and live near the Hormel plant. The company and its holdings are active in the community, providing events and activities at dedicated spaces like the Hormel Historic Home.

8. San Carlos, California

In 2003, two Silicon Valley engineers — Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning — incorporated the electronic vehicle giant Tesla is today. Named after Nikola Tesla, the company sought to create sustainable transportation and revolutionize electric cars. The initial headquarters of the company was located on Industrial Road, but the city sold the buildings after Tesla relocated to Fremont.

Today, San Carlos is a vibrant and diverse neighborhood built for families. It’s a pet-friendly community with farmer’s markets, active residents, and inclusive events. San Carlos is part of the Bay Area and is known as the City of Good Living.

9. New Bern, North Carolina

One of the world’s biggest food, snack, and beverage corporations got its start through humble beginnings in North Carolina. Now headquartered in New York, PepsiCo was founded in New Bern, North Carolina in the late 1800s when drugstore owner and pharmacist Caleb Bradham operated a soda fountain. He created the soft drinks himself, and the most popular by far was “Brad’s Drink.” By 1903, Caleb rebranded the drink and sold it as Pepsi-Cola.

PepsiCo’s diverse holdings demand a larger headquarters, but the company hasn’t forgotten its roots. In 2023, New Bern remains the home of the Pepsi store and “The Birthplace of Pepsi-Cola.” Visitors can get a Pepsi from the working soda fountain in the store or browse through merchandise.

10. Menlo Park, California

Chances are, you searched online to find this article. You may have even used Google — as the search engine retains over 80% of the search engine market share in 2023. If you did, you can thank Larry Page and Sergey Brin who created Google in a small garage in Menlo Park, California.

Susan Wojcicki, a marketing manager for Intel at the time, rented the garage to the two Stanford PhD students for $1,700 a month. Wojcicki didn’t know the incredible, revolutionary effect her garage and two students would have on her career trajectory and the world. At the time, she was just worried about paying rent.

Today, Google owns the home and garage where it started. It’s opened the space several times since acquiring it in 2006 for media and company events and even created a virtual version of the garage for people to tour in celebration of the search engine’s 20th anniversary.

11. Wayne, Pennsylvania

In a small suburb of Philadelphia, the creators of Free People and Urban Outfitters (Richard Hayne, Judy Wick, and Scott Bellair) hit another home run with Anthropologie in 1992. It combined linear designs with feminine and artistic vibes to curate an apparel and home goods store with unique items. Since its founding, the company has attempted to create a “one-of-a-kind” destination for shoppers with a passion and zest for life.

Though the original location is now closed, there’s a nearby location in Devon at which to shop.

12. Holyoke, Massachusetts

The widely beloved candles from Yankee Candle Company had humble beginnings in Holyoke, Massachusetts, when 16-year-old Mike Kittredge didn’t have enough pocket money to buy his mom a Christmas present.

Instead of waking up empty-handed on that Christmas morning, Mike melted some old crayons he had to make a candle. His mother loved it — and so did their neighbor. Mike’s mom and their neighbor requested another candle and Mike made his first sale. Four years later, the candle-making business became a company of 12 employees and moved into an old paper mill in Holyoke. For the next several years, the company experienced massive growth and opened many new stores.

Though the headquarters moved away, Holyoke remains a historic and vivacious city.

13. Woonsocket, Rhode Island

Pharmacies remain an important part of the nation’s health. One of the modern industry leaders began its reign as a health and beauty retail store, adding pharmacies after four years of business.

The first CVS — originally known as Consumer Value Store — sold health and beauty products in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1963. It found massive success and added pharmacies into the branches by 1967. After it was sold to the Melville Corporation in 1969, it doubled in size with acquisitions of other stores and needed a support center. Enter Woonsocket, Rhode Island, and the first CVS Store Support Center.

Woonsocket is still the headquarters of business operations for CVS. You can find the CVS Health Corporate Office at 1 CVS Drive.

14. Battle Creek, Michigan

An industry leader in breakfast products got its start in a Michigan sanitarium in the nineteenth century: Kellogg’s.

Brothers W.K. Kellogg and John Harvey Kellogg served a high-grain, vegetarian diet to patients. However, a patient broke a tooth on a biscuit served to her, and W.K. knew he needed to invent a different way to feed the sanitarium’s residents. So, he tried smashing the biscuits into smaller bits. When a batch of dough was left out in 1898 and began to ferment, W.K. had another idea — roll it into thin sheets and bake it in the oven. After a bit of experimenting, he invented Corn Flakes. Soon, W.K. established his own company, the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company, and made his cereal a national name.

Battle Creek was known as “Cereal City” for a time, with 100 real and dummy cereal companies registered as being founded within the limits. Kellogg’s influence remains strong in the town today, with residents working at nearby plants and Kellogg’s manor as a staple tourist attraction.

15. Bentonville, Arkansas

One of the nation’s largest retail corporations, Walmart, has its home in mid-America Arkansas.

In the 1960s, Sam Walton sought to establish a retail store that had the lowest prices of products anytime, anywhere. On July 2, he opened the first Walmart store in Rogers, Arkansas. The idea stuck because five years later the company had 24 stores throughout the region with almost $13 million in sales. In 1970, it became a publicly traded company with shares starting at $16.50. Bentonville became the new home office and first distribution center site in 1971, ushering in a wave of expansion. In 2016, a new space opened in Bentonville: Walmart’s Culinary & Innovation Center, where the company tests new products.

Bentonville, Arkansas remains home to The Walmart Museum (which is undergoing significant renovations for an extended period) and the company’s new home office.

16. Marietta, Georgia

Though Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank came up with the original idea of the Home Depot in Los Angeles, they got started on their dream in Marietta, Georgia. The two men, who’d been fired from Handy Dan Home Improvement Centers in 1978, decided they’d create their superstore for DIYers like themselves. Customers would find a variety of merchandise with knowledgeable employees who could walk you through a project’s steps, not just help you secure the materials.

Today, the Atlanta suburb of Marietta, Georgia remains a DIY center for all levels of home improvement enthusiasts. It’s also a historic town with six different museums, an innovative city that uses technology like the Waze app for its citizens’ well-being, and a tight-knit community with a lot of heart.

Summary of the 16 Small Towns Where Big Businesses Got Started

City Size Does Not Equate Success

Small-town America remains a vital, thriving part of the nation. Even the smallest cities — which aren’t cities at all, but are incorporated as villages — can make a big splash on the world stage. Kohler and The Walt Disney Company dominate their respective industries, yet the birthplace of both has less than 5,000 residents.