In September 2015, a shiny bus idled in the parking lot of the Baltimore Museum of Industry. Out of the bus strode a well-coiffed tech executive.
Inside the museum, throngs of entrepreneurs and startup scenesters exchanged pleasantries. Hors d’oeuvres were passed and domestic beer was swilled. A stage was set for a cohort of entrepreneurs to present their new business ventures. It was a startup pitch competition, an event format that came into its own in the 2010s. The hundreds-strong crowd was part of a coalition led by that tech executive: Steve Case, who boasted the poise, confidence and silver hair of a movie star playing a politician.
The event was one stop of the Rise of the Rest bus tour, which rode a growing focus of urban economic development on so-called “startup ecosystems.” After the shock of the Great Recession and decades of declining entrepreneurship, civic leaders got interested in the systems that supported business creation and growth. Over the last decade, Case has been among the movement’s true leaders, and this week he launched a new book called “Rise of The Rest: How Entrepreneurs in Surprising Places are Building the New American Dream.”
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