As AOL cofounder Steve Case read author JD Vance's memoir "Hillbilly Elegy," he saw a slice of American life he'd been trying to improve for the last several years. The book is about the struggles of escaping poverty in Ohio via Kentucky transplants.
Case founded his Washington, DC-based venture capital firm Revolution in 2005 with what he called a "Rise of the Rest" ethos. The idea is that there are more places to invest in than California, New York, and Massachusetts.