Steve Case - The Rise of the Rest: How Entrepreneurs in Surprising Places are Building the New American Dream

The New York Times Bestselling Author of The Third Wave

The Rise of the Rest

How Entrepreneurs in Surprising Places are Building the New American Dream

Steve Case

Founder of AOL

To the entrepreneurs I have met in every pocket of this nation, who are building companies, rebuilding communities, and providing hope and opportunity for America.

This is their story.

As I write this, I am looking ahead with anticipation to a date four years awayJuly 4, 2026, when America will celebrate its 250th birthday. Its a milestone I think about a lot. As the chair of the Smithsonian Institution, Ive been involved in planning for this celebration. And as the head of Revolution, a company investing in entrepreneurs from every corner of this great country, Ive planted a stake in creating the next chapter of our nations story.

I was just eighteen years old and fresh out of high school when I came to Washington, DC, to celebrate our nations 200th birthday. I felt proud, excited, and inspired. I remember visiting the Smithsonians new Air and Space Museum, which had opened that summer in celebration of the bicentennial. People gathered in DC from all across the country to commemorate our history and embrace the challenges and possibilities that lay ahead. The futurists were beginning to predict a technology revolution, but neither computers nor the internet were available to the public.

The technology revolution did happen, with America at its epicenter, and the speed with which it transformed business and society boggles the mind. America, which was just a fledgling startup nation in 1776, has continued to lead the world. Yet, in its early days, like many startups, it almost didnt make it.

There are a number of reasons for Americas success over nearly two and a half centuries, but much of the credit goes to the inventors, entrepreneurs, and innovators. Their tenacity, grit, perseverance, and creativity energized a new nation and saw it through many daunting challenges.

But today, as we head toward our big 250th birthday, some are asking whether that spirit is still alive. According to a Pew Research study, a majority of Americans are pessimistic about the future. They worry about the widening gap between rich and poor, a declining standard of living for the middle class, and the threat to jobs posed by automation. This demonstrates a disconnect between two different visions of progress.

Some pundits have concluded that Americas best days may be behind it. For them, the challenges within the country and the competitive threats around the globe are a harbinger of doom. I understand the concerns but see them as more of a warninga wake-up call that we must heed.

The strategic questions are clear: How do we continue to lead, inventing the technologies that can enable the industries of the future to flourish? And how do we figure out ways to create more opportunity, for more people, in more places, so the United States can develop a more inclusive innovation economy?

Part of the reason our country is so divided right now is that many people feel left behind in the new economy. When tech innovators in Silicon Valley boast about disruption, many in the rest of America see job losses in their communities. And while its true that new technologies often result in job losses, as tech solutions can indeed enable more to get done by fewer people, its also true that new business startups are the biggest job creators. We must be more thoughtful about backing startups in every part of the country to offset inevitable job losses with new opportunities and help more people participate in a growing economy.

People around the world are still largely envious and respectful of America. But that admiration is not a birthright. It must be earned continually. If we lose our way, it probably wont be because a rising power like China undermines us, although that is of course a risk. More likely it will be because we undermine ourselves.

This might sound like a familiar theme coming from me. In my first book, The Third Wave: An Entrepreneurs Vision of the Future, published in April 2016, I sounded a similar warning, that America was at risk of losing its lead as the worlds most entrepreneurial nation. That warning came months before the 2016 election, but the depth of the chasm between the tech world and the rest of the country was only fully revealed with the election of Donald Trump, which surprised many people on the coaststhough not most of the voters in the rest of the country.

The instinct of some to look toward Washington to fix the dysfunction in our nation seems misguided, especially when the two parties are resistant to working togethermaking collaborative, nonideological approaches to solving problems increasingly rare.

Government canand mustplay a role, but its clear that we cant rely solely on government to fix something thats wrong in the marrow of our communities. We need to lead from the grassroots, and we especially need the nations entrepreneurs to step up. My goal is to see that entrepreneurial dynamism happening all across the country, so we can create jobs, hope, and opportunity everywhere, and build a brighter shared future for America.

Before he died in 2007 at the age of eighty-four, futuristic novelist Kurt Vonnegut expressed dismay at the state of the nation and suggested that the country could use a new cabinet position: the secretary of the future. He was right, and its still true. We need an all-hands-on-deck effort to position America for the future.

So, what can we do to be sure the United States does lead? That question has been at the heart of my work over the past decade and is the underlying theme of this book. The Rise of the Rest means just what it says: a way to lift the prospects of the rest of the nationthose who live and work outside the coastal tech centers in California, New York, and Massachusetts. Currently, 75 percent of venture capital for startups flows to those three states, with the rest of the country left to fight it out for the remaining 25 percent.

Our effort to level the playing field begins to bring those who have been left behind into the center of the action. The deep anxiety, resentment, and despair in some parts of the country can be addressed in part through the economic and social engines of entrepreneurial ecosystems. The revival of American cities is the practice of the art of possibilitythe ability to see problems as opportunities, and focus not on what might go wrong but on what can go right. Its not just talking about the pitfalls but illuminating the visionsaying, What will this look like if it succeeds? Just as they helped build America in its first two centuries, entrepreneurs can once again help to lead the way.

Our nation has always called on every generation to invent the future anew, while drawing on the wisdom of the past. I come from Americas fiftieth state, Hawaii, which gained admission on my first birthday. So, in a sense I got here by the seat of my pants. I consider myself privileged to have been born in a place infused with a unique spirit, history, and culture.

Hawaii was very different from the mainland and had once been on the pioneering edge of our hemisphere. As a series of islands, with limited interaction with the rest of the world, it had to be self-sufficient and embrace novel approaches to lifes problems. Hawaiians were innovative by necessity, whether it was inventing new ways to move water to grow food or creating different strategies for navigating the seas.