The Top 10 Rising Cities for Startups

Last week, we gathered together more than 90 CEOs from Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund portfolio in Chicago for our third Rise of the Rest Summit. They came from more than 50 cities across the country to listen to Fund Limited Partners such as Dan Gilbert, Ted Leonsis, Eric Schmidt and Brad Keywell discuss the future of innovation outside of Silicon Valley. They came to participate in workshops to help scale their companies. And they came to be with a community of like-minded founders — to take advantage of the network density we were able to create with so many founders in one place for two days.

When we were all together, I was reminded of the myriad experiences I’ve had over the last five years touring startup ecosystems. It has been remarkable to see how each startup community is leveraging the unique history, culture, and resources of their city to innovate for the future.

And it is because of the distinctive advantages — and challenges — that exist in each city that we have always been reluctant to create a list that orders or ranks startup communities. But we also recognize that a big part of supporting emerging startup ecosystems is telling their stories and celebrating their successes. In fact, that’s the main goal of our Rise of the Rest Bus Tours — to be a megaphone for entrepreneurial ecosystems across the country. So when our partners at Forbes approached us about releasing a snapshot of startup community success, we thought there was no better opportunity to applaud what’s working to attract innovators to 10 great American cities. And as a result, today we are announcing the Forbes 2018 Top 10 Rising Cities For Startups with Revolution’s Rise of the Rest.

It is our hope that one day lists like this won’t be necessary. That there won’t be anything exceptional about a tech startup putting down roots outside of Silicon Valley or New York. But until then, we will continue talking about our experiences and our investments in cities from Detroit to Des Moines, from Pittsburgh to Pikeville, Kentucky, and everywhere in between.