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If you don\u2019t like disruption, you are going to HATE irrelevance.\xa0\n\nChris Olsen of Drive Capital talks about investing in world-class companies located in the Midwest. Drive Capital, a venture firm based in Columbus, OH, developed a $550 million fund with this aim.\xa0Chris believes the Midwest will see more billion-dollar companies in the next five years, and based on GDP, the Midwest is the 4th largest economy in the world.\xa0If there are more Venture Firms in the Midwest, we\u2019ll see faster growth with LPs making more money in Midwest Venture funds than in Silicon Valley companies.\xa0\n\nWhy is today the right time?\xa0The Midwest is typically cheaper than the coasts, and with cloud computing, you can rent all the engineering and computing power you need.\xa0The access to technical specialty is now unlocking other geographies, like China and Europe.\xa0We are melding knowledge and tech and making advances in areas such as car insurance, healthcare, taxi rides, etc.\xa0There\u2019s also an imbalance of venture capital invested in the Midwest. Dive Capital is spending time in the\xa0Artificial Intelligence, Insurance, Robotics, and Ed-tech markets.\n\nWhen developing the fund, Drive Capital made the mistake of replicating a Silicon Valley approach. You can\u2019t build companies in the Midwest and assume capital is unlimited.\xa0They learned to determine when products are working or not. Stop earlier if they aren\u2019t hitting milestones. They also thought they'd have to import talent from the coasts, but have had a much better success rate in using employees from existing businesses, and retraining them in a startup.\xa0There is an engine of talent that doesn\u2019t want to go to coasts.\xa0E.g., Root Insurance.\xa0Taking advantage of Nationwide Insurance experiences to help startups succeed.\xa0\n\nChris hasn\u2019t seen a lot of change in existing businesses. He believes it\u2019s just time before some of these companies will wake up and deal with irrelevance.\xa0What should companies do?\xa0Stop trying to be venture capitalists. Companies can innovate and work with startups, but should invest in Venture Capital firms.\xa0VCs will share their best innovation with the companies.\xa0Big companies have different skills than startups.\xa0\n\nFor more information or to connect, email Chris Olsen at chris@drivecapital.com or see www.drivecapital.com\xa0\n\nIf you liked this episode, you might also enjoy: Ep 105-\xa0Randy Komisar with Kleiner Perkins and Straight Talk for Startups Author; Ep 91- Paul Singh @ I/O Innovation Summit; Ep 65- Jason Calacanis, Angel Investor and Author of \u201cAngel\u201d; and Ep 52- Ann Winblad w/ Hummer Winblad VP\n\nFREE INNOVATION NEWSLETTER\n\nGet the latest episodes of the Inside Outside Innovation podcast, in addition to thought leadership in the form of blogs, innovation resources, videos, and invitations to exclusive events. SUBSCRIBE HERE For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy