Ex-AOL CEO Steve Case Is on the Hunt for the Next Big Idea
*By Carlo Versano*
Steve Case has been traveling the country in search of the next big thing, and he's eyeing Florida and Puerto Rico for the next leg of his journey.
The former AOL CEO wants to find ー and invest in ー entrepreneurs outside the major coastal tech hub through his [Rise of the Rest](https://www.revolution.com/entity/rotr/) initiative. He told Cheddar Friday that the next big wave of innovation will come from the heartland, and he's putting his money where his mouth is. Rise of the Rest is armed with $150 million in venture capital, and has been to 38 cities so far. Case and his partners will hit four more in Florida before heading to Puerto Rico. In each stop, the seed-stage company that wins a pitch competition receives a $100,000 investment.
Case said he wants to "level the playing field for entrepreneurs everywhere" and shine a spotlight on the innovation in cities beyond Boston, New York, and Silicon Valley, which are home to 75 percent of venture capital funding.
We think of the coasts as breeding grounds for the hottest startups, but that wasn't always the case. As Case noted, some of the most successful companies that came out of the first tech boom ー think Gateway ($GTW), Microsoft ($MSFT), AOL ー didn't get their start in Silicon Valley.
Now, some of the most innovative ideas and disruptive products are being launched in unexpected places, Case said, particularly in fields like healthcare, smart cities, and the food industry.
Rise of the Rest isn't a charity, though. The seed money is coming from a group of prolific investors, Case said, who are investing in anticipation of high returns. Case said he hopes when Rise starts making returns on its investments that more wealth and jobs will spread across the country.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/why-aol-co-founder-steve-case-is-heading-to-puerto-rico).
CES 2024 starts this week in Las Vegas. It's set to feature swaths of the latest advances and gadgets across personal tech, transportation, health care, sustainability and more. Here's a list of the coolest announcements so far.
Astronauts will have to wait until next year before flying to the moon and another few years before landing on it. NASA on Tuesday announced the latest round of delays in its Artemis moon-landing program.
The Biden administration has enacted a new labor rule that aims to prevent the misclassification of workers as independent contractors. The labor department rule going into effect Tuesday replaces a scrapped Trump-era standard that lowered the bar for classifying employees as contractors
The KC-46 was to be the ideal candidate for a fixed-price development program. Instead, it has cost Boeing billions, and made industry wary of such deals.
Dave Long, CEO and Co-Founder of Orangetheory Fitness joins Cheddar to chat trends in the industry for 2024. He updates us on the company's plans to expand and what the state of the economy has meant for business.
One of the world's largest renewable energy developers will be getting hundreds of wind turbines from General Electric spinoff GE Vernova as part of a record equipment order and long-term service deal.
A moon landing attempt by a private US company appears doomed because of a fuel leak on the newly launched spacecraft. Astrobotic Technology managed to orient the lander toward the sun Monday so its solar panel could capture sunlight and charge its onboard battery.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has announced that 100,000 businesses have signed up for a new database that collects ownership information intended to help unmask shell company owners. Yellen says the database will send the message that “the United States is not a haven for dirty money.”
