Engine is excited to announce that we will be hitting the road again this October for Revolution’s fifth Rise of the Rest tour. Rise of the Rest is a road show to highlight and support entrepreneurship across America. Over the past four tours, we’ve had the chance to see thriving startup ecosystems in places like Baltimore, Nashville, and Detroit.
This time around, we’ll be visiting five states west of the Mississippi, starting in Lincoln/Omaha and making our way through Denver, Salt Lake City/Provo, Albuquerque and Phoenix. Each stop will include conversations with startups and local business and community leaders, and culminate with a $100,000 pitch competition in each city.
As Revolution’s Steve Case put it, “Last year 75% of venture capital went to just three states – California, New York and Massachusetts – and we aim to change that. We know there are a lot of terrific entrepreneurs building great companies in those three states, but we also know – and want others to know – that there are also awesome entrepreneurs in the other 47 states, too. Our goal is to do what we can to help level the playing field, so any entrepreneur, anywhere in the country, has a real shot at the American dream.”
If you're an entrepreneur, a community organization, or a government leader and want to make sure we visit your startup or hear your story along the way, please visit the Rise of the Rest site or reach out to emma@engine.is. If you’re a startup interested in pitching, you can apply here. To RSVP for events in each of the cities, follow this link. Finally, check out some fun facts on each of the cities we’ll be visiting below.
Omaha is home to Silicon Prairie News, founded by serial entrepreneur Jeff Slobotski in 2008 to talk about fast-growing startups in the Midwest.
In 2015, 95 Denver tech startups were funded, raising a total of $683 million. Just a year earlier, 140 startups were finance, bringing in $758 million in investments. There were also 59 exits in 2015, which earned Denver tech companies a total of $2.7 billion.
Investment per-deal averages in Salt Lake City outpace Silicon Valley, New York City, and Los Angeles.
Albuquerque has access to some of America’s most innovative minds: New Mexico is home to Los Alamos National Lab and Albuquerque is home to Sandia National Lab.
Known as “Silicon Desert,” Phoenix was recently ranked No.1 for entrepreneurial activity by Fast Company.
Photo Credit: Simone Pittaluga
