Where innovation finally comes home :: WRAL.com

Less than an hour
outside downtown Raleigh, the landscape shifts from glass towers to pine
forests. The traffic thins, the pace of hectic activity (I call this hectivity)
slows, and you start to see a different kind of innovation. [Note – In rural
communities, “innovation” is more likely to be called problem solving]. It
doesn’t rely on venture capital executives, ping pong table office culture or
high-rise skylines. It’s built in barns, garages, diners, churches and
small-town coworking hubs. In rural economies, community tends to come before
competition. 

I’ve written
extensively about the entrepreneurial leadership that Wilson, NC has
demonstrated over the years. Wilson’s Gig East Initiative, and associated Gig
East Summit will reach a 10-year milestone next year. Gig East is an initiative
to support entrepreneurship, arts, science and Technology (EAST), with Wilson
serving as a hub for eastern NC. It began with a decision to invest money into
broadband infrastructure, backed by an annual budget to focus on
entrepreneurship, startup accelerator programs and small business support
services. A major component of that strategy is the Gig East Exchange, a
municipal run coworking facility, which turns  five years old next month.

 But Wilson is not
the only rural community that is seeing dividends from investing in rural
entrepreneurs. Over the next few weeks, a trio of events will shine a spotlight
on rural momentum in North Carolina. 

●    
October 27, RIoT Pitch Night in Pittsboro showcases
startups from across the Sandhills, a region rich in talent and ideas but often
overlooked by investors focused on downtown zip codes.

●    
November 13, The Sandhills
Entrepreneur Summit in Pinehurst brings together founders, ecosystem
partners, and small-business champions from Moore County and beyond.

●    
November 17–18, NC IDEA’s
Ecosystem Summit unites leaders from across North Carolina during
Global Entrepreneurship Week, this year with a strong emphasis on rural
entrepreneurship and community collaboration.

Tech innovation as economic growth strategy 

Over the past few
weeks, I’ve written about innovation as a civic responsibility. Supporting
entrepreneurs isn’t just something for policymakers or investors. It’s
something communities do together.
That idea extends far beyond city centers. If you believe innovation is a civic
duty, that duty doesn’t stop at the city line.  

In practice, it
means showing up for local pitch events, mentoring founders in small towns and
recognizing that the next big idea might not come from downtown Raleigh or
Charlotte. It might come from Sanford. Or Rocky Mount. Or Pittsboro. Rural
entrepreneurship isn’t a charity project. It’s a growth strategy.  

You need to look no
further than the revitalization of downtown Wilson to see how quickly investing
in your local community creates results. Pittsboro has seen similar private
sector investment. Places that make startups and small businesses a priority, gain
both economic growth AND tighter woven communities. Plus, it naturally creates
a portfolio strategy for economic health. With the natural ebbs and flows of
markets, every year a few companies may struggle, but the balance supports the
economy.

Rural areas that
instead try to attract a major out-of-town factory or distribution center to
move into the area put all their economic hopes on a single entity. And that
entity’s decision makers, the C-suite and executives, have no connection to
that local economy. When times are hard, they preserve their headquarters and
downsize that satellite facility. Much better to invest in growing your own
headquarters than to focus on being the step-child facility from somewhere
else.

The long tail of innovation 

NC IDEA Ecosystem
Summit: A statewide innovation bridge

Next month’s NC IDEA Ecosystem Summit will bring
together hundreds of ecosystem leaders, many of whom are working to close the
rural-urban gap in entrepreneurship. This year’s agenda puts rural innovation
front and center, emphasizing collaboration across communities instead of
competition between them. 

Keynote speaker Andrew Yang will share insights from
his new venture Noble Mobile, which
challenges conventional thinking about how technology companies generate value.
Noble Mobile, a low-cost MVNO operating on T-Mobile’s infrastructure, rewards
users for using less — if customers
stay below a data threshold, they earn money back into an interest-bearing
account. It’s a clever business model that encourages balance between digital
engagement and real life — an idea that resonates deeply with the intentional,
community-driven pace of rural living.

Rural entrepreneurs
embody that same ethos every day — solving practical problems with creativity,
resourcefulness, and a commitment to people as much as profit.

Technology-based economic development 

The long tail as a map, not a metaphor