This week, I spoke with two political science grads who became billionaires by having the insight to spot an opportunity to innovate and partner with people who understood the mechanics of what they wanted to do.
Steve Case was a marketing manager for Pizza Hut in Wichita, Kansas when he decided to join a struggling startup carved out from the carcass of a failed gaming company in the Virginia suburbs of Washington D.C. He helped transform it and became the founding CEO of America Online, or AOL, bringing the internet to 30 million American households and giving consumers access to the wonders of email, chatrooms and news-on-demand.
Case joined us at a C-suite dinner on Monday that Fortune co-hosted with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in its historic headquarters across from Lafayette Square and the White House. Now the chairman and CEO of Revolution, an investment firm, Case spoke about the need for a more inclusive innovation economy. “It’s not good that all the money’s made…in places like Silicon Valley, New York, or Boston,” he said.
He believes “the next phase is vertical AI that can advantage companies in the middle of the country that have domain expertise in healthcare, farming, or other sectors.” He’s also moving aggressively into hospitality and real-estate, as “in an increasingly AI-centric world, people are going to value real people, real places, and real authentic experiences.”
Neil Bradley, chief policy officer of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, pointed out at our Monday dinner that “not a single person will say the American Dream is 3% real GDP growth.” But you can’t ignore macroeconomic data entirely: “When you grow an economy at 3%, you double the size of the pie in 23 years.”
As the U.S. marks its 250th anniversary, these conversations suggest a different way to think about our post-tech bro era. After all, innovation can be found across the country and tapped by those with all kinds of backgrounds—not just those rooted in Silicon Valley and Wall Street.
Bradley noted on Monday that the U.S. “had more new business applications last year than at any time in our history.”
“The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well.”
