In the Know: From AOL to America’s Heartland

Internet pioneer Steve Case made the phrase “You’ve got mail” a cultural obsession in the 1990s and early 2000s. At its height, Steve’s company, America Online, distributed disks (with a “k!”) with America Online software in the mail, in magazines, and even in cereal boxes. Steve’s brainchild changed the game, giving millions of early online users a chance to go online to chat, send messages, and share photos long before Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram became online titans.

Today, the former chairman of AOL-Time Warner spends most of his time delivering vital attention and funding to burgeoning tech businesses beyond Silicon Valley. In his new role as the founder of Washington D.C.-based investment firm Revolution, Steve travels the nation in a bus conversion to garner investment for businesses in areas far outside the influence of America’s major tech and financial centers.

When he’s not in business mode, he and his wife, Jean, travel in their 25-foot Jayco Melbourne Prestige Class C for fun—although Steve often scouts for fertile fields for tech business development during their RV trips.

Steve lays out his vision in the book The Rise of the Rest, which recently landed at No. 1 on The Wall Street Journal’s bestseller list. The book discusses innovators who’ve defied conventional wisdom and created groundbreaking tech businesses in unlikely places, from Detroit to Chattanooga.

Steve took time out of his busy schedule to chat with RV Magazine about RV travels, entrepreneurship, and the best places to go mountain biking in America.

RVM: Tell us about your experiences traveling across the US and how that led to writing the book about tech throughout the country.

Steve: It’s a story most people are unaware of. When people think about tech start-ups, they always think about Silicon Valley. It dominates the discussion.

The reason to write the book is now that we’ve spent the better part of the past decade traveling around the country, it’s amazing to see how many cities outside of Silicon Valley are on the rise and are on the move. Not just one or two, or three cities but in different states all around the country. It’s a more broad-based phenomenon. About 1,400 new venture capital firms have started in Rise of the Rest cities in America’s heartland. It’s now at a tipping point; there’s a real acceleration around what happens.

RVM: What upsides are enjoyed by start-ups located outside the traditional financial and tech centers

Steve: There are advantages to founding a company outside of Silicon Valley. Consider that 95 percent of the people in Silicon Valley are from some other place; this resulted in a brain drain from different parts of the country. A lot of people in the innovation economy felt they had to leave their homes to go to Silicon Valley.

Now we’re seeing the boomerang of some of the people returning. Outside of Silicon Valley, there are lower costs of living and operation; you can go two to three times further with the same investment. Some of the amenities of those cities, whether outdoor activities or other things, make it easy to live in. There are family reasons for moving there.

Many of these cities have expertise in certain industries and that can give advantages to entrepreneurs. In Chattanooga, there’s a company called FreightWaves, which is building a Bloomberg-like platform for the shipping industry. A lot of trucking and transport companies are located there.

RVM: When did you start RVing for fun?

Steve: My wife, Jean, and I were like a lot of people, curious about RVs. Almost 10 years ago, we took an RV trip in conjunction with a company at an exclusive resort. It was really an easy way to get started. Later, we bought an Airstream, and five years ago, we bought a Jayco Melbourne Prestige motorhome. We found it easier to get around, with no hitching and unhitching. It’s 25 feet long, which makes it maneuverable.

RVM: What do you like to do when you travel by RV?

Steve: Some of our travels are pure pleasure, like going to a state park, Montana State Fair. There are so many things to see and experience, enjoying vacation. Some of our travels overlapped with The Rise of the Rest. In Fargo, North Dakota, I met with a former software entrepreneur who was doing a lot of support start-ups in the city. So RV trips are more personal, but they do overlap into business.

RVM: What are some of your favorite places to visit?

Steve: On our longest trip, three years ago, we went across the country and back, every night, a different place. I like the fact that you can disconnect in a way that is not really possible when flying and staying in a hotel. In those other kinds of trips [airlines, hotels], you’re not meeting people. Plane and hotel trips are more structured but disorienting.

I like state parks: You can show up and pick a site right on a lake.

RVM: Do people recognize you when you’re on the road?

Steve: Occasionally, people might recognize me from when I was more visible, but it’s not an issue, particularly on a cross-country trip, stopping for one night.

RVM: You’ve mentioned a lot of business possibilities in the Midwest. How about some attractions that people might not know about?

Steve: There are a number of cities we’ve visited in our RV that are surprising to people. In northwest Arkansas, in Bentonville, for example, the Walton family (major shareholders in Walmart) has been catalytic in building business in that area.

Largely because of the Waltons, there are a lot of mountain-biking trails in that area. It’s become one of the mountain-biking capitals of the world. The investments they’ve [the Waltons] made over 10 to 15 years are an example of something happening under the radar. A lot of people who are vacationing in Bentonville come for mountain biking.