D.C.-based investment giant Revolution announced Friday that its next Rise of the Rest bus tour will spend a week in Florida and Puerto Rico to highlight their emerging startup ecosystems.
Starting April 29, the bus tour will stop in Orlando, the Space Coast, Tampa Bay and Miami before heading to Puerto Rico for the final day. In each city, the Revolution team will meet with entrepreneurs, local business and government leaders and startup ecosystem builders.
The $150 million seed fund was launched in December 2018 by AOL co-founder Steve Case and Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Vance.
The company said Florida warranted a tour visit because of its geographic and demographic diversity, its unique position for startups in the Latin American market, and successful startups already operating in the state including Magic Leap, Park Jockey, Chewy and JetSmarter.
“It feels like there’s momentum building to reposition it from a tourist-centric sunshine state to an entrepreneurial startup state,” Case told Inno in an interview Friday.
He said that Bill Gates’ and Jeff Vinik’s revitalization of Tampa Bay, the strong gaming industry in Orlando, Miami’s startup ecosystem and the aerospace industry all contributed to ROTR’s decision to tour Florida.
In Puerto Rico, local entrepreneur Jose Andrés and the Revolution team will visit companies and startup support organizations that are helping Puerto Rico move from disaster relief to long-term recovery and growth.
“The general perception is more about hurricane recovery and people aren’t aware that there’s a strong startup community,” Case said.
He said that since more than 80 percent of food in Puerto Rico is imported, innovations in sustainable agriculture are promising, and a history of pharmaceutical manufacturing gives it significant expertise to build on.
The tour is also planning daily fireside discussions and a pitch competition in which $500,000 from the ROTR seed fund will be invested in five startups throughout the week. The group typically receives 80-100 applications per city, from which eight startups per city are chosen to pitch.
“It comes down to, ‘What are they trying to build, is it interesting, is it differentiated, do they have a strategy to help them break through, and do they have the beginnings of a team that will drive them forward?’” Case said.
In a small twist of the usual format, Case said any U.S. startup in the space or aviation industry can apply to the Space Coast pitch competition, for which they’ll be flown in by Revolution. Applications, found here, are open until March 11.
The ROTR seed fund is also backed by a group of entrepreneurs and investors including Meg Whitman, Howard Schultz, Mike Bloomberg, Jeff Bezos, Eric Schmidt and Sarah Blakely.
