Your Guide to the Innovation Economy
Regionalism in innovation isn’t one size fits all. Yes, tech ecosystems share many similar qualities, but the range of needs and unique challenges between various cities can be significant.
Florida has a large community of high net worth individuals and plenty of available capital, but its investors are not familiar with the tech market and as a result are less likely to put their money to work in local startups.
Iowa has an established community of IT, software and biosciences companies, but is having a hard time getting them all to think outside their silos and work together as an ecosystem.
Texas is very capital rich but, like Florida, that money isn’t finding its way to startup founders, while Connecticut has money but no functional startup community to invest in.
Massachusetts has a wealth of resources of all types available, but they’re all centered in Boston instead of being spread across the state.
The foundations of what have become Screw the Valley were laid in 2015 with the publication of my first book, conveniently titled “Screw the Valley.”
My idea then (and now) was to step back from the Silicon Valley hype machine of the time and take a clear eyed look at the innovation that was happening all over the country in those days. Hubspot was coming up in Boston, Groupon was becoming a player in Chicago, and here in Colorado email provider SendGrid was gearing up to eventually become one of the state’s largest tech success stories of the 2010s.
Since those days my career has moved on to different things and I now run a content marketing agency focused on working with financial services companies and VCs… but my interest in the Screw the Valley thesis hasn’t subsided.
I still follow what’s going on in these regions, still keep in touch with many of the innovators and investors I met in those days, and still get a little thrill every time I see a big exit or other accolade from the “rest of the country.”
This newsletter exists so that I can share what I’m seeing with the world.
An inside look
My intention here is threefold:
Spotlighting innovators: There are many, many innovative companies today working away on big problems like scaling agriculture production, extending digital infrastructure and more that fly under the radar in most of the business press. I see them, and I will share their stores here.
Encouraging support: A mentor of mine always likes to say that what every startup really needs isn’t help, it isn’t money, it’s a customer. A paying customer to help them validate their ideas and improve product-market fit. This newsletter will introduce readers to all sorts of new and interesting companies from all over the country. Maybe one day you’ll be a customer for one of them.
Generating investment interest: At the end of the day, disruptive innovation comes with a price tag, and it’s usually far more than most founders can handle on their own. We’ll dive deep into the best and most interesting investment opportunities we can find in the startup space.
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