In recent years, entrepreneurship has spread outside of hotbeds like the Bay Area, with vibrant startup communities emerging in unlikely cities such as St. Louis, Atlanta, and Denver.
Still, Steve Case, the former CEO of AOL, insists that Silicon Valley remains the most powerful player in the startup world.
“It is the leader of the pack and will continue to be the leader of the pack, the most vibrant startup ecosystem really in the world that will continue,” Case recently told Yahoo Finance. “We’re not talking about the fall of Silicon Valley, we’re talking about the rise of dozens of other cities to create this more dispersed innovation economy.”
The startup scene in Silicon Valley dates back the late 1930s, when Frederick Terman, the dean of Stanford University began encouraging the school’s faculty and alumni to start their own companies, which included Hewlett-Packard. Physicist William Shockley also played a critical role started Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Mountain View, California. In the late 50s, eight of Shockley’s top researchers resigned and founded Fairchild Semiconductor, the company that built the first integrated circuit, a key a key component of modern electronic devices that helped establish the Bay Area as a tech innovation hub.
In his book “The Rise of the Rest: How Entrepreneurs in Surprising Places are Building the New American Dream,” which was released in September, Case profiles 30 innovative new companies from unexpected places. For instance, he writes about Catalyte, a software company based in Baltimore that uses AI to find and train software engineers. He also spotlights Appharvest, a sustainable food company in Kentucky that offers a more efficient alternative to traditional agriculture companies.
“It really is remarkable what’s bubbling out there. And I really do believe over the next decade, it will accelerate,” Case said. “And, 10 years from now, we will recognize Silicon Valley is still the leader, but will have a much more diverse innovation. economy, much more inclusive innovation economy, which I think will be good for those communities and frankly good for the country.”
Case oversaw the merger of AOL and Time Warner in 2001 and became chairman of the board. He resigned from the position in 2003. Yahoo and AOL are both owned by the private equity firm Apollo Global Management.
Dylan Croll is a reporter and researcher at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter at @CrollonPatrol.
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