In this week’s featured video, Axios’ Dan Primack questions the sincerity of venture capitalists who have recently taken tours of the Midwest to explore investment opportunities, likening the experience to going on vacation:
The way I think about it was, I took a ski trip with my family 2 weeks ago, and I remember saying to my wife at one point, many I could live here, this seems great, and then we drove home. And that’s kind of what this is. We’ve seen no actual movement of venture capitalists into the Midwest from either coast, and I don’t think we’re going to.
I think Primack brings up a fair point: If you really want to get venture capitalists to invest in the Midwest, it will take more than a three-day trip. But, how else do you get venture capitalists to give Midwest investments a chance?
Further cooperation is necessary, but it’s not clear yet what a successful model looks like. Rise of the Rest has begun hosting annual summits to ensure venture capitalists, ecosystem builders, and entrepreneurs are meeting regularly to discuss what’s working in their tech community and what isn’t.
When I spoke with Rep. Tim Ryan — whose “Rust Belt safari” was the subject of Axios’ video — he said that the goal was to encourage participants to continuously speak with some of the organizations they visited with on the trip, perhaps by video conference every month.
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However, in order for this to work, venture capitalists will truly have to see the Midwest as a source of valuable deal flow — and not just a place to go when they want to escape from Silicon Valley for a few days.
As always, thanks for reading, and please send me your thoughts via email.
Anna Hensel
Heartland Tech Reporter
Featured Video
P.S. Please enjoy this video from Axios, “Is Silicon Valley over?”
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