Talk to the founder of almost any local startup, and they won’t hesitate to sing the praises of the River City as an entrepreneurial home. But within Richmond’s startup ecosystem, not every enterprise has been born and bred on the banks of the James.
What exactly enticed entrepreneurs who started up elsewhere to uproot themselves and start up once again here?
Certain features of Richmond have always made it attractive to business. Not only is the city a state capital, giving entrepreneurs access to statewide decision-makers, but it’s also a mere 100 miles south of D.C., located in the state where the internet got its start, and close to some of the nation’s most important transportation arteries. Eight Fortune 500 companies call the River City home, and in a report on entrepreneurial activity in 2017, Richmond innovation network Activation Capital found that “capital raising continues to be on the upswing.”
Not to mention, cost of living is noticeably lower than in major metros like San Francisco and New York City, and Richmond’s high quality of life has been spotlighted repeatedly by national media over the past five years.
But the decision to move is sometimes as much a matter of how a place feels as dollars and miles.
To Joe Belsterling, founder of MajorClarity, an educational startup launched in D.C. and New York that helps students try out possible careers through digital interfaces, Richmond offered “a high degree of strategic synergies” and “a really great ecosystem to lean on for support.
“To me, Richmond presented a unique opportunity, because if you build a successful company in Richmond, it’s a little bit easier to have a significant impact on the ecosystem,” he said.
Belsterling’s decision to relocate MajorClarity to the River City in fall 2017 was also aided by his prior experience in the Lighthouse Labs EdTech accelerator in 2015, one of several programs cited by startup founders as a draw.
BJ Scott, co-founder of design and product development startup Hat Factory, which has expanded to Richmond from its roots in New York City, also pointed to his experience in a local incubator as a determining factor in his relocation decision. In his case, it was the i.e.* startup competition organized by the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce, in which he participated while a student at the University of Richmond, that gave him “an early taste of the type of support the community was building around technology startups.”
Sonia O’Malley, programs and support services coordinator at Startup Virginia, also pointed to the local entrepreneurial community’s sense of camaraderie and collaboration as a selling point for Richmond.
“Everyone’s still willing to help,” she said. “It’s got all the benefits of a big city with the community of a small town.”
Furthermore, as Scott pointed out, that community is constantly being refreshed: “From a people standpoint there is always a great group of talent available to choose from,” he wrote in an email. “When you want to build a great technology company in Richmond you don’t need to look outside of the city to find excellent team members.”
Ultimately, he added, “there is a real sense of pride here that I think is unique and rare, and whenever I’m away and see that RVA sticker on the back of someone’s vehicle it reminds me where home is.”
