A Covid silver lining for one part of the country

INC. THIS MORNING A Covid silver lining for one part of the country Good morning, Over the past year, something has changed in the Midwest and South: access to a deeper pool of startup funding. Venture capitalists who once spurned Indianapolis because they couldn't get there and back from the West Coast in a day are now airlifting cash into the city--not to mention Atlanta, Miami, Denver, and other towns that were never on their shortlist before. "When you have a total and absolute moratorium on physical travel, yet those dollars are being deployed, almost overnight things change," Kristian Andersen, co-founder of Indianapolis-based venture studio High Alpha, tells Inc. "We've been breaking down this legacy venture capital model." That's exactly what America Online co-founder Steve Case, the CEO and founder of Washington D.C.-based VC firm Revolution, has been doing for the past six years. Case started Revolution to fund innovative startups but kept running into the same problem: Too many VCs lived on the coasts, meaning that firms in Boston, New York City, and Silicon Valley were sucking up 75 percent of the VC money. Out of that experience came Rise of the Rest, a campaign that kicked off in 2014 to bring atten­tion to the heartland via a splashy annual bus tour. Investment is only part of the plan. Case thinks more cities need to replicate the Silicon Valley ecosystem, in which new companies attract new talent and not only create new products but also spew out more new companies. Since Covid-19 hit, more and more VCs have started to agree with him. Read our story to [learn how cities formerly known as investment deserts are becoming startup hot spots]( what might come next. Note: Join us at the virtual [Inc. Vision Summit]( which starts today. Steve Case will share his insights on the future of tech and work on Thursday. JOIN US: The first ever Inc. Vision Summit, a gathering of entrepreneurial thought leaders, will seek to help founders and C-suite executives from fast-growth companies looking for answers to today’s most pressing business challenges. The Inc . Vision Summit is open to all business leaders looking for resources, inspiration, and insight to future-proof their companies. - March 24 and 25, 2021 - [Reserve your spot.]( HERE'S WHAT ELSE I'M READING TODAY: Five years ago, Lissy Hu sold her health tech startup. Last year, she sold it again for $1.3 billion. [Here’s how](. --Inc. To make great branded content, follow the “[Super Bowl rule]( --Inc. [Robinhood]( has filed confidential paperwork to pursue an IPO, adding to a whirlwind year for the financial services startup. --CNBC Philadelphia-based delivery startup [goPuff]( just raised a new $1.15 billion in funding, bringing its valuation up to $8.9 billion. --TechCrunch Startups across the country are capitalizing on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s [recent rule change]( on crowdfunding. --Inc. ONE MORE THING: To gather information about their competitors, [these three CEOs got creative](. --Inc. --Cameron Albert-Deitch Reporter, Inc. How are we doing? Send me ideas and feedback at [calbertdeitch@inc.com](mailto:calbertdeitch@inc.com?subject=), and [sign up for daily text messages]( from me. Become an [Inc. Unlimited subscriber](. [Click here]( to forward to a friend. This email was sent by: Mansueto Ventures 7 World Trade Center, 29th Floor New York, NY, 10007, [Unsubscribe]( • [Update Profile]( • [View in Browser]( • [Privacy Policy](