Steve Case on the Future of Innovation

I was able to catch this fireside chat with @SteveCase at SXSW via SXSW Go today. At first, I was wondering where the presentation was going, as he started by presenting commercials from his old days at AOL. However, he started delving into the topic, and covered some great megatrends helping innovation and entrepreneurs.  He talked about how you’ll hear about crowdsourcing/funding, wearables, and other trends, but these are 4 megatrends moving the future:

1. Easy access to capital – It’s easier than ever for companies – who can inspire people and prove their potential – to get capital. Whether that’s through venture capitalists or crowdfunding. Using social media and other platforms – Indiegogo, Kickstarter, etc. – innovative new companies and entrepreneurs have the ability to show they have what it takes to succeed.
2. Strategic partnerships – There’s an old saying, if you want to go fast, do it yourself, if you want to go far, do it together. While speed is important, it’s not beneficial if it’s not sustainable. There’s a re-emergence of partnerships and companies looking at how they can leverage each other’s strengths to go further and build something that will last.
3. Profits & purpose – It was once said that “profits are everything.” However, new companies have to have a purpose. It motivates employees to grow toward something larger than themselves and inspires consumers to want to do business with these companies.  The combination of profits and purpose is way more powerful and sustainable than something that is solely built to make money.
4. Innovation everywhere – There’s a lot of innovation happening outside of Silicon Valley. Currently, 75% of investment capital goes to companies in 3 states. However 75% of fortune 500 companies are in other states. There’s a lot of entrepreneurs outside of the so-called “innovation hubs” and @SteveCase has started looking at other cities to find innovation. He mentioned that at one point in history Detroit was the Silicon Valley of the U.S. in the golden age of cars… but look at Detroit now. It’s not a knock on Silicon Valley, but his foresight to look outside of Silicon Valley for new innovative ideas and potential for finding future entrepreneurial opportunities.