When Steve Case’s “Rise of the Rest” tour came to Tampa Bay in 2019 to highlight emerging startup hubs beyond Silicon Valley and Boston, the region was truly on the precipice of rising.
Innovation hub Embarc Collective required hard hats to walk through; Sparkman Wharf was months away from reality, and the entirety of Water Street was years away from full completion.
Case, who is perhaps best known as the co-founder of AOL, returned to the region on Tuesday for Synapse Summit, just over four years after his initial visit.