The nation’s most interesting startup scene isn’t in Silicon Valley, says a University of Virginia Thriving Cities”“study, adding, “If you want a glimpse of the future of entrepreneurship, look no further than Durham, North Carolina. There, “The offbeat incubator called American Underground is quickly becoming a new paradigm enterprise.”
Durham’s American Underground (AU)) has launched more than 250 businesses and poured millions back into the local community since its inception in 2001, according to
The study says that Durham, with the American Underground in the lead, has “entered a post-industrial renaissance with a thriving innovation economy and entrepreneurial ecology.
It adds that the American Underground model centers on a kind of holistic thinking that is highly instructive for cities, neighborhoods, businesses, and nonprofits across the country.
The study says that AU has proven to be an anomaly in the tech industry as it has “been profoundly intentional about diversity and inclusion.”
More than half of AU businesses are led by women or minorities: 29 percent of the American Underground’s businesses are led by women, 22.4 percent are minority-led. Nationally, approximately only 1 percent of startup founders are black and 8 percent are female (according to CB Insights).
This was also evidenced in the recent Google entrepreneurs event focused on minority entrepreneurs held at American Underground @ Main in Durham.
Prior to establishment of the American Underground, much of Durham’s downtown, which is indeed thriving now with new hotels, apartment complexes, restaurants, stores and activity, was largely abandoned and boarded up.
AU’s 2015-16 Annual Report outlines the more than $1 million spent by its entrepreneurs in the local economy, among other effects. The Thriving Cities study says, “This commitment to measuring success by more than their own bottom line is what makes AU a new paradigm enterprise.”
