AOL founder Steve Case poses with a guitar for a spur of the moment photo opportunity at the Songbirds Guitar Museum during the Rise of the Rest seed fund tour’s stop in Chattanooga, Tenn. on Thursday, May 10, 2018.Chattanooga area business startups face an uphill climb in attracting venture capital to help fuel the growth of their companies, according to entrepreneur and AOL founder Steve Case.
Last year, three states – California, New York and Massachusetts – attracted 75 percent of all venture capital, says Case. California alone wooed 50 percent of the total, he says. Tennessee, meanwhile, landed just 1 percent.
“What that means is that entrepreneurs in California get every week what entrepreneurs in Tennessee get every year,” says Case, who came to Chattanooga in May for his Rise of the Rest seed fund tour aimed at making it easier for startups to launch businesses in places other than in Silicon Valley or on the East Coast.
As worrying, Case says, is that 90 percent of venture capital went to men last year. Only 1 percent was landed by black entrepreneurs, he says.
“It’s not right and it’s not smart,” says Case. “We’re trying to spread venture capital more broadly.”