I came across this article that I thought was relevant to our class generally. This article talks about how 80% of venture capital investments go into 3 states—California, New York, and Massachusetts—and places like the Mid-West are “locked out” of the economy. As many of you know, the Mid-West is also known as the “fly over states” and tend to be forgotten. The article talks about how VCs and lawmakers attempted to solve this issue by taking a “tour” of cities in the Mid-West—namely, meeting with local businesses, elected officials, and community leaders so that the VCs can learn about potential investments that they can make here.
I think this study could benefit from data that shows startup founder’s perceptions of location and networking potential vs. reduced overhead benefits from being in smaller cities. Without that, it seems that even the article’s author would be pressed into a situation of having to agree that the price for exposure is costly, but worth it. if there were more concrete data to disprove that, then the representatives might have an easier time persuading VCs and startups to go to/stay in the midwest
The statistics presented in this study are interesting. It is important that such a movement is important because there is so much potential in Midwest states. However, do you think this strategy is effective enough?