Read Original Article HERE
For the past four years, AOL cofounder and entrepreneur Steve Case has been focused on an investing approach and seed fund he calls “Rise of the Rest,” which aims to finance companies located outside the major startup hubs to show Americans that startup culture shouldn’t be reserved for Silicon Valley, New York City, and Boston.
Through his DC-based venture-capital firm Revolution, Case launched a $150 million Rise of the Rest seed fund to help emerging startup ecosystems scale.
Case has since led seven Rise of the Rest bus tours with “Hillbilly Elegy” author and former Valley investor JD Vance, who oversees the seed fund. In each city, Case and his team visit new startups, meet with local entrepreneurs and political leadership, and host a pitch competition with a $100,000 prize.
At IGNITION this December, Case will discuss entrepreneurship and highlights from the Rise of the Rest tours. He’ll be joined onstage by several of the entrepreneurs he’s invested in, including Craig Fuller, the CEO of FreightWaves, the largest provider of news, content, data, and analytics for the freight and logistics markets, as well as Tye and Courtney Caldwell, the cofounders of B2B beauty-tech platform ShearShare.