Rise of the Rest Ecosystem Discovery Tour
Map a regional startup ecosystem by convening, observing, and investing
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 97%
The method treats a city as an interconnected entrepreneurial system rather than a collection of isolated pitches. It begins by convening the local “suits and T shirts”: government officials, universities, established employers, investors, support organizations, and startup founders. Facilitators ask how talent, capital, ideas, and industries move through the region, then test those accounts by visiting companies and workplaces. The process concludes with a public showcase or pitch competition that surfaces promising ventures and creates momentum. Applications enter a database for continued tracking, while relationships with local investors generate updated referrals after the tour. The output is a grounded map of the city’s distinctive capabilities, leading companies, institutional assets, gaps, and investable opportunities.
Origin
David Hall describes how Revolution began Rise of the Rest bus tours in 2014 and expanded the approach across 38 cities. Extracted from Masters in Business.
Core principles
- 01Great entrepreneurs can build businesses anywhere
- 02Local stakeholders reveal opportunities outsiders cannot see
- 03Physical visits expose strengths that databases miss
- 04A visible investment catalyzes community participation
- 05Regional industries and institutions shape startup clusters
How to run it
- 1
Convene the ecosystem
Bring together politicians, economic-development leaders, university representatives, established companies, investors, accelerators, and startup founders. Include both institutional leaders and people building companies day to day.
Pro tip Invite representatives with direct knowledge of talent, capital, and customer flows.
Watch out A room dominated by officials or large companies will provide an incomplete picture.
- 2
Diagnose local flows
Ask what industries are emerging and how talent, capital, and ideas enter or leave the city. Look for repeated observations across stakeholder groups.
Pro tip Probe for both historical industrial strengths and new clusters created by local disruptions.
Watch out Do not assume every city should imitate Silicon Valley.
- 3
Visit companies
Go into startup workplaces, meet founders, and inspect how local claims appear in practice. Use visits to understand products, constraints, talent, and customer access.
Pro tip Meet as many companies as practical rather than relying on a curated handful.
Watch out Pitch decks alone can hide weaknesses in the surrounding ecosystem.
- 4
Showcase the future
Run a pitch competition or community celebration featuring promising local companies. Where appropriate, attach a real investment to the winning pitch.
Pro tip Use the event to make emerging founders visible to the full community.
Watch out Do not treat the competition winner as the only worthwhile company encountered.
- 5
Track and revisit
Place applicants and referrals into a structured database, then maintain relationships with local investors and support organizations. Return periodically because the leading cohort changes over time.
Pro tip Ask multiple local funds independently for their two or three most exciting companies.
Watch out A one-time visit quickly becomes stale without continued local relationships.
In the wild
The tour connected Pittsburgh’s robotics activity to Carnegie Mellon’s technical strength and the city’s steel heritage. That combination revealed a cluster grounded in both research and industrial experience rather than a generic attempt to become a technology hub.
→ The city’s distinctive investment thesis became clearer through its institutions and industrial history.
After Hurricane Katrina forced New Orleans to rethink education, Teach for America alumni arrived to help and subsequently founded education-focused businesses. The ecosystem lens connected a disruptive local event, incoming talent, and a new technology cluster.
→ A non-obvious ed-tech ecosystem emerged from a specific regional challenge and talent migration.
Common mistakes
Copying coastal hubs
Trying to reproduce Silicon Valley can obscure the industries, institutions, and problems that make a region distinctive.
Listening only to institutions
Officials and universities matter, but founders and frontline ecosystem builders reveal how entrepreneurship actually operates.
Treating discovery as a one-off event
Companies and leadership cohorts change, so the map must be refreshed through recurring local relationships.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for investors, economic-development organizations, and ecosystem builders exploring overlooked regions.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for teams unwilling to build long-term local relationships or conduct in-person fieldwork.
From the transcript
“We believe that great entrepreneurs can start great businesses anywhere”
“We we convene the leadership, I like to call it the suits and the T shirts getting together for the first time.”
“We follow that with visiting, going out and seeing that, talking to these companies, and and going and being in their physical spaces and meeting…”
From the episode
David Hall Discusses the State of Venture Capital (Podcast)
David Hall