Great Lakes Book Tour -

Silicon Heartland

June 18 - July 1, 2023

Highlights from Rust Belt to Tech Belt

Silicon Heartland

Buffalo:

A Tech Revolution Underway

In an All-

American City

June 20

Seneca One Tower

Recap with panelists from

Launch NY, TechBuffalo

43North

Viridi Parenti

Avalon Development

Buffalo Rising Snapshot

Tech Talent: + 3%

Population: + 6.5%

Specialization: Advanced Manufacturing, Biomedical

3 Unicorns

$731 million in 67 startups 2021 & 2022

Media coverage

Silicon Heartland Chicago

Aiming high to be the Midwest's

Innovation Capital

June 22 Recap, more photos

Luncheon & Roundtable Discussion

with

Claude Cimeus, P33 Chicago

Abin Kuriakose, World Business Chicago

Rebecca Fannin, Silicon Heartland

Gary Levenstein, Partner, Nixon Peabody

Chicago Status Check

19 new unicorns minted and

$7.9 billion VC invested in 1 year

Tech Talent + 4.6%

Population - 1%

Specialization: foodtech

Silicon Heartland Milwaukee

Summerfest Tech 2023

June 27-29 more photos, comments

Keynote Speaker

with Mayor Cavalier Johnson

Milwaukee Status Check

Tech Talent - 2.9%

Population - 4.2%

Specialization: Tooling, Web3, Healthcare

These downward stats don't fully reflect the city's cool techie and artsy vibe, best experienced at Summerfest.

Key takeaways, LinkedIn post by

Tim Dickson of Generac Power Systems

Silicon Heartland - Portsmouth, Ohio

Roundtable & Celebration with

Community Leaders Spurring Change

Where the book begins and ends

July 1

Glockner Museum

More event photos

Attendees at Summerfest Tech in Milwaukee lined up for a signed book:

Silicon Heartland

19 reviews so far!

5 stars

BUY THE BOOK and Write Your Review

Sources for City Snapshots, above

Census Bureau, 2010-2022

Tech Talent: CBRE, % change in 5 years

VC: PitchBook

Silicon Heartland book

The Narrowing

VC GAP

6 Great Lakes States Measuring Up

Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin

Rank 5th out of 8 US regions

Attract 8% of US VC deals - and growing stronger than other parts of the former Rust Belt

Venture deals

% growth in 10 years

West Coast 5769 + 81%

Mid-Atlantic 3718 +143%

Southeast 1356 + 149%

New England 1279 + 63%

Great Lakes 1192 + 63%

South 1152 + 79%

Mountain 1063 + 104%

Midwest 239 + 81%

Source: PitchBook data

2012 - 2022

Silicon Heartland book

Tracking

Silicon Heartland

Deals

Cincinnati's Refinery Ventures co-leads

$4 million financing of Denver-based Bitewell, a food health innovator that had gotten caught up with the SVB collapse but pulled through with all assets intact and managed to nail this new deal with Refinery, Lake Nona Sports & Health Tech Fund, and a handful of other aligned investors.

Crowd funding of $1.3 million went to smart mailbox company Arrive in Indianapolis, bringing its total pot to $9 million from almost 5,000 investors. Arrive, which is prepping for distribution, relies on drones and robots to deliver mail to secured boxes with alerts.

EVENTS

TechChicago Week

Capital Summit, Techmakers, Socials

July 10-14

Rally Innovation 2023

Indianapolis

August 29-31

investor 1-1 meetings, demos, pitches,

content sessions

Keynote: Peyton Manning

Ohio VC Fest '23

October 11-12