Resnick said that’s not to say that there have been positive developments in the state over the past three years. The burgeoning Badger Fund of Funds, a business created by the state to inject money into the realm of startup investment, is gaining momentum, having lined up four venture capital firms to partner with. There have been other signs of growth in places like Madison, said Resnick, where more sources of startup funding proliferating.

“I believe that Wisconsin is making inroads,” he said.

However, Resnick also said it could be years before those kinds of changes make a dent in the rankings.

The Kauffman index is formulated based on three metrics: The rate at which people in the general population become entrepreneurs; the proportion of entrepreneurs who say they started a business out of “opportunity” as opposed to out of necessity; and “startup density,” the percentage of all employer businesses that are startups.

Wisconsin fared poorly across all three categories, particularly with the “opportunity share” of its entrepreneurs.