These Cities Are the Most Business-FriendlyMeet the top 5 U.S. cities slicing regulatory burdens.

The incremental creep of federal, state and local business regulations is enough to halt a startup plan in its tracks. But there are cities out there that are trying to end the insanity and make it easier for companies to do business. Last October, Docady, a free smartphone app that lets small-business owners scan and manage their licenses, contracts and any legal documents through their smartphones, identified five cities in America that are working to make it easier to do business. "The biggest differentiator between cities' approach to regulations is the wait time involved in their bureaucratic processes," says Nadav Naaman, cofounder and CEO of Docady. "The best cities for entrepreneurs are the ones that are digitizing this process."

San Francisco