Tech companies are feeling the weight of rising costs in cities like San Francisco and New York City. More and more people are leaving the coasts in favor of opportunities in less expensive areas. Meanwhile, many cities across middle America are experiencing huge economic booms alongside still-recovering real estate markets, making them attractive to startups and job seekers alike. Amazon’s short-list of locations for its second headquarters (which includes Nashville and Columbus) also indicates that interior regions are ripe and ready for serious growth.
In December, AOL’s Steve Case launched the Rise of the Rest seed fund, which initially secured more than $150 million to invest in startups based in emerging technology hubs across America’s heartland. Case is aiming to work with entrepreneurs in emerging startup ecosystems with the vision that high-growth companies can start and grown anywhere, not just in the Silicon Valleys of the world. Case has rallied technology A-listers around this effort, and the fund has already made initial investments into at least nine startups.
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