Chattanooga, Tennessee has found a way to reinvent itself as a startup center of the South

Revolution

• Chattanooga, Tennessee has a promising startup scene that is intimately supported by the city government.
• The city struggled for decades in the wake of post-industrialization, but was reinvigorated by city-operated high-speed internet and pro-entrepreneur policies.
• AOL cofounder Steve Case highlighted the city's scene in May through his Rise of the Rest bus tour.
• This article is part of Business Insider's ongoing series on Better Capitalism.

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My introduction to Chattanooga, Tennessee hinted at what I'd find during my visit there. Mayor Andy Berke, who's led the city since 2013, visited my New York office in March accompanied by Bellhops CEO Luke Marklin, whose moving company has raised $30 million. They told me the story of the city's startup-fueled revival, and when I visited it in May, for AOL cofounder Steve Case's "Rise of the Rest" bus trip, I saw that the mayor's publicity tour alongside a local success story represented a bigger story.

Chattanooga is a fairly small city, with a population of 175,000 — and a greater metro area of more than half a million (Nashville's population is around 684,000) — but it's using that to its advantage. After speaking with the mayor, leaders in the chamber of commerce, about a dozen local entrepreneurs and hearing from more, I saw how passionately everyone wants each other to succeed, and how intimately involved the mayor is. George Brown is the founder of Aegle Gear, which wants to be the Under Armour of performance medical scrubs, and he told me that one of the reasons he loves the city is because he can get the mayor on the phone.

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See Also:

• In one of Louisville's poorest neighborhoods, a formerly abandoned community center is making enormous strides — and even Google has taken note
• I spent 2 days on a bus with a billionaire and a celebrity author as they scoured the US for the next big startup
• Billionaire Steve Case has taken a big red bus through 26 states to bet $150 million on finding the next big startup — here's where he's looked so far

SEE ALSO: AOL cofounder Steve Case is betting $150 million that the future of startups isn't in Silicon Valley or New York, but the money isn't what's making his prediction come true

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