Virginia, the region's leader, ranked only 12th nationally in the number of PC software companies. The survey described an industry filled with smaller fry. Sixty percent have started their businesses since 1990. One-third of the entrepreneurs have started their businesses since 1994. They are independent.
Half are either sole proprietorships or partnerships.
Four-fifths operate out of a single location. The accuracy of these estimates depends entirely on the precision of the survey. Robert Damuth, Nathan's director of policy studies, said the firm located some 230,881 companies nationwide that fit its software description by using phonebooks, industry rosters and financial clearinghouse data. Nathan then surveyed a random sample of 3,000 firms nationally, and based on the results, drew its profile of the software world in each state. The margin of error is comparable to national opinion polls, Damuth said.