Building Innovation Ecosystems Beyond Silicon Valley

For a generation, the story of American innovation was concentrated in a handful of zip codes. That concentration produced extraordinary companies — and left enormous talent and opportunity on the table everywhere else.

The next wave will look different. Capital is more mobile, tools are more accessible, and the talent has always been distributed. What ecosystems outside the Valley have lacked is not ability but infrastructure: the dense network of mentors, capital, and institutions that turns ideas into companies.

Building that infrastructure intentionally — anchored in universities, corporations, and communities — is how regions become engines of innovation. It is the work we are doing in Birmingham and across the country.