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What happens when COVID cancels your big event… and instead, it unlocks a movement?
Welcome to the first official episode of the Midwest House Podcast, hosted by co-founder Ted Velie, alongside community builders and innovators Wolf Starr and James Feagin. This is more than a South by Southwest recap—this is the story of how a cancelled conference turned a Michigan-led idea into a Midwest-wide movement.
You’ll hear:
🧭 The wild early days of Michigan House and Columbus House
🌍 How Midwest House became a cross-state collision zone for founders, VCs, and ecosystem builders
🏠 Why South by Southwest wasn’t the finish line—it was the launchpad
💥 How a $40k pilot trip led to millions in ROI for underrepresented founders
💡 Why "flyover country" is becoming the heartbeat of U.S. innovation
🌍 How Midwest House became a cross-state collision zone for founders, VCs, and ecosystem builders
🏠 Why South by Southwest wasn’t the finish line—it was the launchpad
💥 How a $40k pilot trip led to millions in ROI for underrepresented founders
💡 Why "flyover country" is becoming the heartbeat of U.S. innovation
From angel investing playbooks to eco-mapping ecosystems, this episode lays the foundation of a community-driven force that's reshaping what innovation looks like between the coasts.
🔗 Whether you're a founder, funder, or ecosystem builder—this is your invitation to the table.
Creators and Guests
Guest
Guest
What is Midwest House?
A podcast experience born from the intersection of innovation and community—amplifying thought leaders, startup builders, and culture-makers in the Midwest, hosted by Midwest House in collaboration with ThinkTank.
[Speaker 2] (0:00 - 0:47)
Hey everybody, my name is Ted Vealey. You're welcome to the first, it's kind of amazing actually, this is the first ever Midwest House podcast. The first official Midwest House.
People have recorded podcasts at Midwest House before, but this is the first ever. Again, I'm Ted Vealey. I'm one of the founders of Midwest House.
Excited to be here with a couple of my very good friends who are very, I actually did not give them a choice to be the guinea pigs for this first one, but it makes a lot of sense that they'd be the first guests here because they've, both are sort of intrinsic to the Midwest House story. So without further ado, I'm going to introduce my good friends, Wolf star, James Feagin. Wolf, let's start off with you.
Tell everybody who you are.
[Speaker 3] (0:47 - 1:19)
Yeah, thank you so much, Ted. It's an honor to be on the inaugural episode from the Midwest House. So I'm Wolf.
I've had five careers, everything from blue collar work to throwing big events and festivals, and then just creating community. And that's really what brought me together with Ted. Several years back, I was working with the city of Columbus and some of our partners to create the Columbus House for South by Southwest.
And it was at that point where we got the- So you're giving away my next question.
[Speaker 2] (1:19 - 1:22)
So just start off with just like, who are you?
[Speaker 3] (1:22 - 1:33)
Hi, my name's Wolf. I raise venture capital funds for underrepresented communities and create angel networks to support founders when they need it the most. And where do you live?
Columbus, Ohio.
[Speaker 2] (1:33 - 1:45)
Columbus, Ohio, which let me just mention as a University of Michigan grad, it's notable that we're in the room together. And we'll get to some of that.
[Speaker 1] (1:46 - 2:07)
Feagin, who are you? James Feagin, founder, managing partner, Black Bottom Ventures. We support growth for startups and strategy for communities.
And currently I spend most of my time serving as head of growth for EcoMap. We're an ecosystem mapping and community management tool, great team based out of Baltimore, and we support ecosystem mapping.
[Speaker 2] (2:08 - 2:49)
Yeah. Again, thank you both for being here. So you guys have both came up to Grand Rapids, Michigan.
We've got an event at Start Garden later today about all things angel investing. We'll talk about that in a little bit. But let's sort of set the scene for everybody.
Wolf started going down this road already, but we'll do this. Rewind. We'll rewind a little bit.
I think I've actually known Feagin longer, but it's actually like right around the same time. Actually, no, maybe it was a little, I don't know. It's one or the other.
But Feagin, let's start with you. When did you first hear of what I believe was Michigan House at the time?
[Speaker 1] (2:50 - 3:11)
Yeah, probably back when I was consulting for a big family office up in Detroit. I was helping to build Detroit Demo Day. And there was this thing that I would hear about that was happening at this place called South by Southwest.
And it was all kind of, at the time, abstract to me. But I definitely remember hearing about it. Yeah.
[Speaker 3] (3:11 - 3:54)
And Wolf, how about you? So I first heard about the Michigan House when we were doing a tour we called Radical Collaboration, where we'd load up a bus full of people in Columbus and go to Cleveland and have them trade ideas. And then we'd load up a bus in Columbus and a bus in Cleveland, and we'd all go to Detroit.
And we met a lot of your partners. We met Planet M and a few others. And they just kept talking about how great South by Southwest was.
So that year, I headed on down and checked out all the houses and really fell in love with the power of South by. But it was the Michigan House, which really inspired us to build the Columbus House, which is now part of Midwest House.
[Speaker 2] (3:55 - 3:59)
Yeah. And what year was it when you were going to do the first Columbus House?
[Speaker 3] (4:00 - 4:06)
It was the day that COVID reached the states. Yeah, yeah.
[Speaker 2] (4:08 - 4:33)
Yeah, it was 2020. So I remember this very well. I remember, I think I got connected with you.
I met somebody who worked with you at Detroit Startup Week. And we talked a few times before you were going to do, before South by Southwest 2020. You're going to do a Columbus House.
I sort of told you like, here's how we do it. Here's the game plan. And yeah, it didn't happen for either of us that year.
[Speaker 3] (4:34 - 5:13)
But what was amazing about that year? I mean, we were at in Cahoots, where you did an amazing event. This year is part of South by Southwest.
And we rented out this entire hotel for what was supposed to be a two day event. And everyone in Austin had already left for their spring breaks. And then everyone who was coming to Austin, all the participants ended up not coming.
And so Austin was truly a ghost town filled with just event producers and community managers from all over the country. And it felt as though the 30 of us had the most beautiful ghost town ever to ourselves while we were also panicking and figuring out what we were going to do.
[Speaker 2] (5:13 - 7:21)
Yeah, it was all it was all fun and games until we couldn't get toilet paper. That's when we said we needed to come home. Okay, so let's jump forward a little bit.
Because after 2020, so again, those of you who aren't paying attention, March 2020, South by Southwest was one of the first things canceled by, by the COVID. It was like about six days before the conference was supposed to start is when they had to shut it down. It was three days before they announced it, because we all arrived on the Monday before.
And it was Yeah. And this was after weeks of it being like, it's going to happen, it's going to happen, and then it didn't. Anyways, long story short, it was a big mess for us for Michigan House at the time.
We lost a lot of money really fast. And also, it was just like, suddenly, the thing that we did, which is, if you don't know, I don't know why you're listening to this. But the thing we do is bring together innovative and creative people from, at that point, the state of Michigan, bring them together, create collisions, create spaces where people who should know each other get to know each other, people who know each other a little bit can sort of form even tighter bonds.
Anyways, we couldn't do that for two years. We all know this, right? Within that, in that time period, though, I remember very specifically, stinking to myself, you know, these guys from Ohio, like they were, they were going to do a venue, we were going to do a venue.
This is kind of stupid. Like, why are we all going down there because this stuff's expensive. Why are we all going down there and paying to do this separately when we should be, you know, the whole reason we go there is to meet people.
So when the world began to get towards, you know, opening up again, I remember very specifically reaching out to Wolf and being like, hey, let's talk about some things. And that, like, truly was the beginning of Midwest House. So Wolf, do you remember that call?
And do you remember sort of how you and I started this? I mean, at this point, I think we had only ever talked on the phone. We had never met in person.
[Speaker 3] (7:22 - 8:48)
Yeah. So I think that what happened was you were giving us all this great advice. And a lot of the people who I met the year prior, when we decided to do this, they kept pointing and saying, yeah, the Michigan house is great.
It's unique. It's, it's right there next to the Australia house and the German house. Like what are the things you cannot miss?
And one of the people who connected us really put us in this conversation where you sort of mentored what the Columbus house would be. And you sent me a lot of material. You were exceptionally kind.
That is part of what I used to raise the funds we had for the Columbus house. And then when we realized that we were alone in the city and we could do something bigger and better, it went from the Columbus house and Michigan house to the Ohio house and the Michigan house, which was very controversial for things mentioned earlier. But then our friends from the neighboring states were saying, well, if you're going to do that, how do we have a day?
How do we have a part of it? And I think that's when we said, okay, what could the Midwest house be? Yeah.
And, and you and your partners really created the framework and brought it to us. And then we took it to our stakeholders and everyone agreed. And then, uh, I, I think we all got to know our, our neighboring states a lot better throughout this process as well.
[Speaker 2] (8:48 - 10:06)
Yeah. Yeah. So this is 2020, 2021.
They do a virtual South by Southwest 2022. The world is opening back up. Um, that is also, uh, the first time I convinced James Fegan to come to South by Southwest.
Um, and I had been, I had a weird, you and I had had a couple of meetings in Detroit, um, and had been talking about some ways about how to get more, to give more opportunity to more, uh, entrepreneurs from Detroit who, I mean, one of the hard things about any event like a South by or any of the places we go is this stuff all costs money, you know, and, and it also takes time. Um, and it's not, it's not an environment that everybody is knows even exists or knows how to exist in. Um, and so I, I very much remember you arriving at that, the first Midwest house, the first official Midwest house, um, in 2022, um, we were on rainy street and, uh, you came down and just tell us, tell us your first reactions to South by Southwest itself.
[Speaker 1] (10:07 - 13:55)
Yeah. So, um, the reason I said, when you first asked me, when I heard about Michigan house, and I was like, it was kinda, you know, I didn't say your brother. I said it was abstract to me at the time.
Um, when you're in the, in Detroit or in a city and you're on the ground building. So at that point in my journey, I am, um, I've gone from like community organizer in a neighborhood to getting involved in consulting for a lot of philanthropy, a lot of government building programs. And it was still like really Detroit focus, really economic development focus, real entrepreneurship focus, you know, what about the neighborhoods?
And around that time, as I'm really pushing and starting to see some traction on the small business stuff, I'm noticing even some of my clients, like I'm a part of one part of what they're doing, but this is the other part. So they started paying attention to the other part. And the demo day was about, you know, one day, one stage, one million dollars, bringing everybody together.
So now as I start to see these other facets that I'm not necessarily feeling connected to, which is, you know, put a plug in that. Um, that's when I start interacting with other folks like you. So now fast forward, we've done the last Detroit demo day.
I've come now in house with the family office. Um, and I'm starting to think about like, okay, part of my goal going into 2022 was like, what's next. And I was at a point in my practice, in my practitioner journey, and also in Detroit, where it's like, it can't just be another small business program.
There are these other things happening that I'm pretty informed and connected, but that feel it strapped to me at abstract to me. I got to understand what these things are. And I got to be able to share with other people what these things are.
So that's the context in which I'm like, okay, I'm going to go to South by Southwest this year. And then now I know this guy, Ted. And so I don't have to just land in Austin and try to figure it all out.
I just kept connecting with you. So now it's Friday night. I went, I text you, I say, I'm here.
You tell me, you give me the address for half step. And I show up and I'm like, okay, this is interesting. And I walk up and he had me wristband.
And like the, I remember the mayor's tour was happening. So we had to wait outside. In addition to like, okay, what the hell now it's kind of like a tradition.
I look forward to like, oh, the mayor's are coming. Um, so I'm instantly in this space and I feel like I'm kind of, I'm not in a dark room touching an elephant because I can tell it's an elephant, but I can also tell, like, I have a place to put my hand. So that's my initial moment for me where it's like, I'm trying to conceptualize this thing that I know needs to be bigger.
I don't exactly know how it needs to be bigger, but as I walk in in Austin at Friday night on rainy street, and this energy is happening, I'm like, this is going to be an experience in a relationship that informs bigger for me. And that's played out over the last couple of years. All right.
You know, but it really started with having that relationship. Like you can just see the flyer and go to South by, I'm sure some people do that, but like knowing that I had a place having a person and then having a way to kind of start something like college. Right.
I had a orientation that wasn't just first day in classes. Here's 30,000 people get to your class on time. It was like a curated thing to help me get in, to touch it, to see it, to feel it, have a home base.
Um, so it felt a little bit like home, but I also knew this wasn't just your local ecosystem anymore.
[Speaker 2] (13:55 - 13:55)
Yeah.
[Speaker 1] (13:55 - 13:56)
Yeah.
[Speaker 2] (13:56 - 15:01)
So we'll yeah. Talk a little bit about that and specifically that first year. Cause honestly that first year it was Midwest house was more of a concept than it was.
I mean, it was still a lot of Michigan folks, uh, a lot of Ohio folks, and then at some sprinkling other people, but we could see something was there. And what, what was it that we saw? Cause I think even like for you, you were doing sort of similar to Fegan.
You were doing a lot of work close to home at that point. And like, I think the timing of, for both of you guys and for me is really interesting. Cause we all started, like started in like one sort of geographic location.
And then the timing is we started being like, Oh, wait a minute. Why is like, there's more happening as, as, as you said. And for us to, to do what we want to do in this one location, we started, I need to start getting connected to other things.
And was there a sense of that at that first Midwest house in 2022? Yeah.
[Speaker 3] (15:01 - 16:58)
But the first Midwest house, we all wore so many hats and, and, and, and we, we still do, especially you. Um, but I remember looking at coming back to South by having Midwest house be real and all of us just taking all of these, um, different jobs that we had and saying, okay, how can we bring all this together to get the most out of this Midwest house experience? So, uh, at that point I launched my first two funds.
One was for impact driven businesses in Ohio. So it was a perfect time bring all those founders out. The other was, um, the pride fund, um, for the LGBTQIA plus community.
And there wasn't really a tie in between Midwest house and, uh, the pride community at that point, cause it was a national fund, but it was the perfect venue. And so what we knew the moment that we got there was that we had a great location and we had lines out the door and we had food trucks and I day two, we were one of the talks of South by is we would go to another event and they'd say, Hey, meet me at the Midwest house. Meet me at the Midwest house.
It's, it's really special. And we were hosting a lot of people. Uh, I think that first year we had a text chain or I had a text chain with about 50 people saying, Hey, here's what's going on.
Come here, free food, come here, meet this person. But by day two, every one of those people and every one of the Michiganders just knew Midwest house was the home base. And if you want to go somewhere else, take a break, go to that.
But, um, it, it, it became home, I think not only to us, but to everyone who we adopted throughout the week. And that really showed for year two, when we were significantly more organized and we had some of those other partners from throughout the region. Yeah.
[Speaker 2] (16:58 - 17:52)
I think, uh, I think I talk about, or people have heard me talk about before is every year when we're at South by Southwest, there's a moment for me where I'm like, Oh, like the vibe is right. We're right now we're doing one of the coolest things in this whole town. And like, I think that there's something significant about for me anyways, for the Midwest house, the Midwest, which is more normally thought of as like fly over country to like, we're actually doing this as a good as, as, as well as anybody.
And like, we are a place to be. And like, we, we, we know there's like VCs from San Francisco that are like, we're the place they want to get into. There's a bunch of people from Texas who are literally waiting in line to hang out in our space.
And there's a bunch of people from other places being like, how do you do this? How does this happen? Um, and that first year is like, we could it's like, Oh, there's something here for sure.
[Speaker 3] (17:53 - 18:45)
It also taught us how similar we are in the region between different States and also just the quirky little differences that we don't notice. It was amplified. Uh, one of my favorite stories is, uh, the word Oak, which is fully natural to most Michiganders and Chicagoans and whatnot.
Uh, I'd never really heard that before in, in Columbus and it blew everyone's mind because they thought everybody used that, especially everyone in the Midwest. But then in continuing my conversations, I learned that that vernacular is also used in Cincinnati is also used in Indy. Um, but it's not as much used in Cleveland.
It's not used in Columbus. We're, we're that we're, we're, we're sort of, uh, I, I personally think Pittsburgh is the Eastern edge of the Midwest, but everyone can debate that.
[Speaker 2] (18:45 - 19:18)
We need eco map to do a open map. Uh, okay. So I want to, I want to keep us moving a little bit, but I think, uh, something that Wolf said is going to lead into sort of where Fegan and I started working together a little more intent and sort of purposefully.
So come back from South by, and you're, you're generally at your basic feeling was like, okay, I get this now. And what, what did you sort of bring to me as like, here's how we want to get involved.
[Speaker 1] (19:19 - 23:01)
Yeah. So coming into 2022, all I knew was demo day was done and it was like, what was next? And I was also transitioning from one part of the family office that was kind of, you know, year to year, you know, marketing driven to like philanthropic long form economical ability.
So I'm thinking about this new set of tools, this new kind of runway and this different level of collective impact, um, which then gives more space for. Um, kind of what you're talking about earlier, right. We're both on the ground.
What I was thinking about when you're saying that is like, we're on the ground in a city. It's almost like being a mayor versus being a Senator in a sense of like, you've got to deal with the things that are happening every day. And it almost feels indulgent or not serious to go spend five days in Austin or to do something that's about community or activations or whatever.
It was like, I got to do tangible stuff, but again, both appreciate the tangible power of Midwest house, but also understand the value that if I'm gonna get a group of founders from Detroit to build something that they've never seen before, I have to show it to them and have to show them in a very. Like for real way that like, there's another world out there. And so I looked at Midwest house as a part of my arsenal.
As I now went to build out what would become venture 313, which would have this very tactile on the ground component to it. There was a lining ecosystem partners and aligning capital and saying like, here's a small business versus a venture backable business. And, uh, you know, these are the gaps in our cap table locally and blah, blah, blah.
Here's what a cap table is. All those things, right. Had all that just nuts and bolts stuff, but also needed the day at Disneyland.
That was not just a day at Disneyland, but it's like Disneyland exists and there are people that do this every day. And you belong here. You know, that was the other piece.
Like, you know, the, the, the kind of, I'm not, there was no strategic plan around. I didn't sit down and say, these are seven takeaways, you know, I just knew like, if I get a group of founders here, I give them enough context beforehand. I give them a home base.
And I also take away that, uh, how am I going to eat? You know, it's wasting on re reimbursement from a hotel room, you know, not know, like, you know, if you're there, like there's always free food, there's always lattes or eat here. We need to eat here.
Like all the little things that we know, like I needed to have some advance for them, but also have them a place where they could get that info efficiently without having to just struggle on their own or ask somebody. Um, so I'm rambling a bit, but the other component to it was now we were at the point going into 2023, where it's like, okay, if we build this into the program, now they feel like they're not just there. They're actually a part of the program.
Um, and that's grown year over year. But that first year it was really important. Like us doing a panel together, them being venture three on three founders, them having the time to, um, take this thing in, but know that you don't have to try to take it all in.
[Speaker 2] (23:01 - 23:02)
Yeah.
[Speaker 1] (23:02 - 24:10)
Right. The Detroit house. Right.
Which could exist within. Cause it's funny. Sometimes even in Detroit, you can be a founder from Detroit and a black founder and go to one of it in Detroit and feel like it's not for you, but Midwest house in Austin as a temporary space, I could tell folks felt welcome there from day one.
A lot of that has to do with you and just your intentionality around I don't, I don't, I honestly, I don't even know like what the reasoning is, but I will just say like, there's a spirit over it. Right. The, it doesn't feel like even if I could go someplace down the street here, I could go to, to so many spaces in Detroit and this is like, okay, I'm here, but I'm not, am I supposed to be here?
Like, are the resources being discussed here for me? Are the relationships available here for me? And the biggest testament of that is some of the things that the founders went on to do in, you know, even the next year, because a lot of that stuff was out the way and they could just be who they were.
[Speaker 2] (24:10 - 24:15)
I mean, let's, let's talk specifically what we did. How many founders we bring that first year?
[Speaker 1] (24:15 - 24:15)
Nine.
[Speaker 2] (24:16 - 24:18)
So we brought nine founders from Detroit.
[Speaker 1] (24:18 - 24:18)
Yeah.
[Speaker 2] (24:19 - 24:49)
Um, so I think mostly that first year, mostly founders of color. Yeah. Um, and I, I don't think all of those nine, I don't think any of them have ever been to South by Southwest.
A lot of them said they hadn't heard of South by Southwest before. Yeah. Yeah.
Um, and then, and what we did was we, as you said, gave them a travel stipend, found housing for them. And specifically, I think it's kind of important. We find Airbnb.
So they're staying together. They're not, it's not just like hotel rooms.
[Speaker 1] (24:49 - 25:12)
And not a hole in the wall either. Yeah. Nice.
So like just, I mean, and I don't want to miss all of these because they're huge, right? Like they weren't staying at the Clarion by the airport, which is somehow how you got it. Sometimes that's how you got to do Austin.
They had a house. There was food. There was, it was a vibe.
It was awesome. And it, it set the tone of like, no, you're really here.
[Speaker 2] (25:12 - 25:14)
Yeah. And you, and you, yeah, you belong here.
[Speaker 1] (25:14 - 25:14)
Yeah.
[Speaker 2] (25:15 - 25:46)
Yeah. Um, and it was, it was, it was you and Don Bats who you all are doing some work with now too is as well, who I think, I think was really important too, that, that, that y'all were really kind of their experience getting with them and like they had people they trusted, you know? Um, but yeah, I mean, we were talking about this last night at dinner.
When you look back at that, those first nine founders, there, there's some major, some people doing major things in Detroit right now.
[Speaker 3] (25:46 - 25:49)
Right. And, and they're doing major things across the country right now.
[Speaker 1] (25:49 - 26:12)
Yeah. But they also went on to do major things at South by we did. We, I came in 2022, you know, Johnny and Alexa came with even score in March, 2023, March, 2024.
They're in the Hilton doing an official panel with Garland Lieutenant governor Garland. Yeah. What that's a heck of a job.
[Speaker 2] (26:12 - 26:17)
This is talking black tech Saturdays, which, which started, I think a few weeks after South by Southwest.
[Speaker 1] (26:18 - 28:07)
Yeah. I don't know the exact timeline, but I know they were, you know, in their journey and their evolution and both thinking about their company at a time, which was focused on building community, but also this community aspect. So, you know, they, you know, they took that acceleration, several other founders.
Um, I think we had some anecdotal conversations with the data with Dawn. It was like $750,000 in capital. That was like socialized, like people making nexus with VCs and finding customers awful.
So $40,000, the total trip, nine founders, the house, the pad, the passes, the per diem to a 40 K what's the ROI on that now, just on that one panel of the next year, not to mention the valuation of five or six or nine of those companies. Um, and what venture like for me to sit there this year and watch venture to go through, show up without me and have its own thing. It was like, it's like watching your kid, but your kid doesn't, it's just amazing to see how it went.
Um, and then also now you got the accelerator, you got some other things. So it's born a lot of fruit that is captured in content and data, all of that. But the biggest thing for me is, and then it goes back to this, like, there's things that don't show up on the grant reports or even don't, we don't even think about like, what does it look like if 2020 doesn't happen?
And it doesn't give you a wolf, the chance to pause and say, instead of us, like, imagine if you showed up and there was an Indiana house and a Columbus house and a Detroit house, and there's seven different activations happening now in a bunch of people trying to do it on their own, instead of this thing that I don't know, the thing where like the Midwest has a collective activity like this.
[Speaker 2] (28:08 - 29:02)
I mean, one of the things that we found after doing Midwest houses, there weren't those things. And there was very quickly. And that sort of moves us into the next part of the story, which is when we begin to start thinking outside of just Midwest houses, South by Southwest, is we realize it's like, no, one's thinking about how to better connect Chicago with Columbus or Detroit with Indianapolis.
We had sort of learned that in Michigan, like a long time ago, that it's like, how I always laughed, like, how am I the person who's making the introduction between this VC in Grand Rapids and this founder in Detroit, like they should know each other anyways, but that's just not the way these things work oftentimes. So we realized there was this space to be a connector for a region and no one else is incentivized to do it. And in some cases, people are disincentivized.
[Speaker 1] (29:03 - 30:56)
There's a lot of well-meaning jobs that are like, you know, whether it's our state needs these incentives or even some of the things we did were relationship based. They weren't even like, like it wasn't my job to take nine founders to South by like, I could have just stayed at home, done some great Detroit programming and been fine, you know? So having a lot of mission-driven people in the right spaces that see beyond KPIs is really important.
I think there's still an opportunity. We've talked about this a lot, right? Who's the corporation, if it's a Kroger or a whoever, like who cares that this is happening regionally and is not looking at it as like, you know, well, we need to build everything for our market.
I remember when we had that impromptu, that's why I laughed when we said this is the first official podcast, you know, we kind of spitballed the idea of a Midwest innovation fund. Oh, we're getting there. We're getting there.
And just looking at, if you look at just, you know, Michigan, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Columbus, you know, Cincinnati and Chicago and Detroit, and you think about like, if each of those founders could have a network of not just what's available in that one market, but like what's available in a four-hour drive for you as a founder, and what does that ecosystem look like? And then that's where my Ecomap brain comes into mind, like the thinking that led me to that company and has been doing things. If you could map that out, build community around that, map assets around that, bring stakeholders to the table around that, take the data that's already being generated by Midwest House and all of our activities, but have that as a baseline.
I mean, there's a lot there where I'm not, it's not about competing, but that's a very unique offering. Yeah.
[Speaker 3] (30:57 - 31:12)
And as we've watched for the part of the conversation, I'm going beyond just South by the network, which has been built at South by now travels to all of these other events, whether they're in the Midwest or not. And it's just called a Midwest House reunion.
[Speaker 2] (31:13 - 34:54)
Yeah. I mean, let's back it up here a little bit and just say, so basically, through working with Wolf, we kind of built this space. I think through working with Fegan, we found a very important part of like the who and how we fill the space, which is making sure that it's not just everyone who's got a corporate account and can come to South by, it really needs to be a place that's filled with the doers and dreamers and people who are trying to do big things in the Midwest and who maybe aren't even dreaming big enough yet because they don't feel like they have the right to. And we're providing a space that hopefully is inspiring to do even more.
So we do that once a year for four days. And suddenly we're all looking around and being like, wait a minute, there's way more here. And like you said, it opens up this for all, for all of us.
I think these new conversations we're having with people we meet and suddenly it's like, you know, Wolf and I are going to Chicago for tech Chicago week or for the venture summit. We're start getting invited to things like rally in Indianapolis and us as Midwest house. We're starting to look around and be like, wait a minute.
We like we can show up in those places. What do we do when we're at home? What do we do the other 51 weeks of the year?
Um, so I took founders to black tech week, took founders to black tech in Cincinnati. Yeah. Like similarly.
Um, but I do think another sort of important sort of point in this story is the next sort of big Midwest house pop-up event we did was later, let's see, 2023, I believe, um, at rally in Indianapolis. Um, so I was approached by the folks at elevate ventures in the spring of that year and say, we want to do the South by Southwest and the Midwest. Now I've heard that like literally a hundred times, 30 times.
And everyone's always like, we're, you know, we're going to do that. And I'm like, I'm like, South by Southwest has been going on for 40 years now. Like, I hope you got some time, but what I will say when they first approached me at rally and like big ups to elevate, I mean, they were, they had a big, they were ambitious and they were also willing to spend some money on that.
Um, and that, that is important. You need to be, you need to like truly put your money where your mouth is on these kinds of things. And they, and they were trying to build from the beginning, not bring something in, which I think is important too, because it allows for it to be its own thing allows for some growth.
Um, so we did a Midwest house at the first rally, um, not to the scale that we do things in Austin, but, uh, pop up. And the cool thing for me was you both were there. I think Wolf, you were speaking at, at the conference.
You both were speaking at the conference. Um, and we did do, they were laughing about the fact that there was an unofficial Midwest house podcast. Uh, we did do a podcast on stage with, with the two of you.
Um, I believe it was called, uh, vegan and Wolf talking shit. That's it. Yeah.
Yes. Um, and I just given the name that, that was, that was the focus group. Yes.
They loved it. They loved it. Um, so this has, some of this has happened before.
Um, but I think maybe happening right now. Yeah. That first, that first rally was also the first time where I had been another event and be like, Oh, this vibe feels similar to what we get in Texas.
Not the same, but similar. Um, and this is something now, like if we can do this here, this is something there's, there's something here.
[Speaker 3] (34:54 - 36:26)
Yeah. To, to, to rewind back on something really quick for anyone who's not been to South by Southwest and has not, uh, seen the way the houses are set up because it leans really heavily into where we're going on this one. Um, essentially a country or a city or a state will take over house and then, or a bar or restaurant or storefront.
And they'll do a semi-official event where, uh, attendees from the festival will be there and then they'll showcase their best food, their best musicians, their best, everything. And for me, that is where the South by Magic is. And to your point, we all the time have people say our event is going to be the next South by Southwest.
Well, I'll say that big credit to Toph and the team at Elevate when they reached out to you to do a Midwest house at rally. That was something which really set their event apart from a lot of others in a way where you have that same feeling where it was, I'm at the official event, but I can go to the unofficial event, which is a partner with it. And, and as we're looking at Black Tech Week and, um, all the other events that we're going to, we're really taking that, that house concept culture and saying, this is something which can really benefit your main event.
Um, and, and it's breaking down barriers and it's really quite impressive. So I agree. Rally was the next big, big swing at, uh, elevating our, uh, our partnership levels.
[Speaker 2] (36:26 - 37:02)
Yeah. And I think the other thing I would say about rally too, was, was the fact that it was like, both of you all were there. Our friends from Chicago came down and a lot of them came were there based on the fact that we were going to be there.
And that was like a bit of a, uh, aha moment in my head being like, wait a minute. Suddenly now we are beginning to have a bit of a Midwest like innovation community. And also being there helps to like, we have some gravity where the community can show up if we're going to be there.
Like we, if we provide the space, the community will help fill it.
[Speaker 1] (37:03 - 37:58)
Yeah. I mean, if you think about it, and this is no slight to rally, cause it was a great conference, but a conference in the convention center is a conference in the convention center. And for it to be a first year, huge thing, a bunch of people are going to show up in Indiana because it was there.
You had Peyton Manning, you had Guy Rash, you had all these other things, millions of dollars in investment and you could see it. But the wrinkle that Midwest house added and the credibility of Midwest house added from day one gave it a different feel because it wasn't just a conference in the convention center, which no matter how cool they are, are at the end of the day, just that, and there's a hundred of them. So, you know, it created a different thing.
I definitely don't think we're hopping up on any of those conference rooms and just saying, are you going to Wolf talking shit? We know we save that for the Midwest house. We appreciate that.
Right. But I'm saying you're not going to get to do things like that in a, in the convention center.
[Speaker 2] (37:58 - 37:59)
Yeah.
[Speaker 1] (37:59 - 38:18)
So it provides this laboratory, almost like I like to think about entrepreneurship centers at universities where you're not going to create a new entrepreneurship class, but you can create a beer hangout. So having this space that doesn't have to be as structured as the rest of your conference is actually a great asset to your conference.
[Speaker 2] (38:19 - 38:19)
Yeah.
[Speaker 1] (38:20 - 38:43)
And you know, I don't know how you pitched it to them, but I know that they've seen the value of it. I know for them, it became a way to, because people are going to go do those and they want a place to just chill and hang out. That is around there, whether it's just grabbing a bar or restaurant around or whatever, but you gave them a place to do that was still a part of the conference.
It's still a part of the thing that was happening, but felt like a break.
[Speaker 3] (38:44 - 38:58)
Yeah. Yeah. And it once again became the place where everyone met up.
So instead of going to one of the sections in the conference room, it's like, okay, we need to have a 20 minute conversation. Meet me at Midwest house or let's walk to Midwest house together. Cause we want to see one of our friends on stage.
[Speaker 1] (38:59 - 39:09)
It's almost like a conference third space. Yeah. You got the hotel, you got the venue and then Midwest house is like a third.
So there's, there's your pitch deck for you. I appreciate that.
[Speaker 2] (39:09 - 40:55)
I appreciate that. Well, and so I do want to get, get to like what we're all working on now because it, so let's just get to where we get to today. So basically we take that sort of what we learned from rally and for Midwest house where we say, okay, we can start going to other events.
And we did our first summer tour last year where we're hitting Milwaukee and summer fest tech or hitting tech Chicago week. This year we're going to head to Columbus. We also add in this piece that sort of inspired by what we did with, with venture three, one three at South by Southwest.
We started working with the world buzz of Chicago and have this, this new Midwest founder exchange that allows us to provide some funding to get founders to some of these events as well. We're, we're not like, okay, we can be a, we can be this, this pop-up third space in a lot of places. See how quickly that, right.
That worked well. And what we now believe is we have this dynamic community that is connected to us. And now it's like, okay, we have this dynamic community.
We can create this density of ambitious founders, ambitious investors. We can find the people who are supporting that. Now it's like, what do we need to do to really like build the, the, the, everything they need, we need as a community to get to that next step.
Like we have the hardest thing, which is the, the community. Now it's like, what does that community need? And I think we're all working on some of those things in different ways right now, and we won't get into all of it, but I do want to hear like, what are you guys working on right now?
[Speaker 1] (40:56 - 43:05)
Yeah. So I think the most immediate thing for me is from an eco-map perspective, we think every day, like when a founder is looking for resources, yes, we're making that easier to do so that they can find the thing they need to keep knowing. But then the other question is like, well, why are they looking for that thing?
What are they trying to, what's the context in which that transaction is happening? And how do we create a digital infrastructure that not only eliminates the barrier to that thing, thing as a foundation for a relationship and allowing the founder to do what they need to do, the ecosystem partners coordinate better. And whoever is kind of supporting that activity to have some greater visibility on it and influence it.
And that's kind of the same thing Midwest house is. Midwest house is a physical eco-map because rather it's the person that has the corporate check, you know, they got the job to come there or the person who's an ecosystem builder or the founder, like there's a reason they're coming there. And we create the space for those collisions, but that's a great four day space.
What does that space look like the other 361 days a year? That's the question that we like to answer, whether it's literally building an eco-map from Midwest house or thinking about the college campuses or cities or states where those are things that are happening every day. Like everybody has their job to do, whether it's the founder growing the business, the ecosystem provider, that's running a space or delivering an air program or the philanthropic program officer, but they're all trying to deliver something that requires each of them.
And the, the, the degree to which you can make those connectivities connect, make those connectivity, make those connections happen, and then be able to actually track them and then improve on them is going to determine how fast innovation happens in your community and who's a part of it. And then I know there's other parts of that that are like the capital that's required, right? The thoughtful programming that's required, the continual having these third spaces, knowing where to go, all these different parts of it.
[Speaker 3] (43:06 - 45:04)
Well, in talking about the capital where my career has grown into throughout this, this life that we've had and what we call the Midwest house is originally I was running a venture funds and I love those funds. I'm really proud of what we did and what we're doing, but I also noticed that what the founders specifically in the Midwest need the most are those first checks to come in those individuals that are willing to say, I will take this journey with you. Similar to the support, which we gave to founders when we were bringing them down from Detroit.
And so I started working with the group vessel, which created the Ohio angel collective. And of all the angel collectives I work with, they have some really unique features where the goal is to get as many individuals to participate in the asset class as possible. Not only so that we can support the founders, but so that when those founders are successful and they have their exits, that money goes back to the region instead of just flooding to the only options on the coast.
So as the Ohio angel collective has been growing and I've been able to make introductions, we were able to bring them to South by to be part of the Midwest house this year. We really took a bite from, from your playbook, Ted, and said, why don't we have a Michigan version of this? Why don't we have another Midwest version of this?
Our friends in Kentucky who have been really supportive of the Midwest house and trying to build those bridges said, how do we participate? So now we're working with a lot of the partners from the Midwest house to create more of these angel capital teams so that we can help founders, not only in Ohio, but in Michigan and Illinois and Indiana and everywhere. How, how do we help them grow and then turn that into a way where we can all co-invest in each other's success?
[Speaker 2] (45:05 - 47:22)
So just to step back here and people who are listening, this, this may be so deep in the weeds. You might not have any idea what's going on at this point, but let me just paint the picture as, as it looks in my head, right? So Midwest house, you know, it starts as these physical events, pretty easy to understand, you know, you're there, but there's a vibe there and there's a community there.
And what we're trying to do now is say like, how do we have that community year round? And then how do we provide for that community? What does that community need?
So part of this year round Midwest house for me is yeah, we're doing pop-up events. That's like the same thing we've done is just doing more of them, different versions of them. Second piece of it is, is a little bit of what Fegan's talking about.
It's like, what is the digital back end of, of this community? How do we build that? What is, what is the virtual Midwest house?
In some ways, like literally this podcast you're listening to is a part of that to some degree. So we're now working on this, like this big, huge sort of content push we're going to be doing. We're here at Think Tank today.
They're our new partner of ours is going to be helping us with, with things like content, podcasts, thought leadership, all that kind of stuff that can be done year round. We've got our sub stack. We've got all that.
We are, and then we're working on a couple of different digital tools to, to, to both map the, the ecosystem, this larger regional ecosystem, as well as just keep it connected, you know, and, and make it, make some of those connections between cities and States a little easier to make. And we'll, we'll be talking about more of that stuff later. And then I think this stuff that Wolf is talking about with the Ohio angel collective and what that could become, this is a little more like, what does this community need?
Like, imagine you have this, this dense dynamic Midwest house community. Imagine we can now like inject capital into that as well. And on our side, we're working on some things in that space as well.
You know that I think all of this stuff starts to work together and becomes pretty interesting.
[Speaker 1] (47:23 - 49:39)
Yeah. And, and I think it goes back to, again, that first, what if I was saying, and I don't want to get it lost on that. You just said it's pretty easy for people to understand what the West house is.
It's easy now. You see what I'm saying? Yeah.
So now we can sit here and we can do a couple things. Number one, the three of us are doing a podcast together from three different communities across two different States. We're also each building things.
And as each of us are doing our individual building, we're comparing notes together and thinking about like being in ecosystem together. That is Midwest house personified. Like we'll could be down in Columbus building something and it'd be great.
You can be here in Grand Rapids building something. It'd be great. I can be in Detroit building something.
It'd be great. But the fact that we're starting from day one, like how do we build this and give it the most collective impact? That's really valuable.
And it creates that continuum. Like you said that now, I don't know yet how you quantify that, but do you say that like what might take 10 years to have a certain level of impact can now happen in two because it's built from the right place in the beginning and it can still have very like you're always going to champion Grand Rapids. I'm always pushed Detroit, even though the company I work with are based out of Baltimore, but we all have both regional mindsets and then national mindsets and even global.
Like what I remember two years ago at Midwest house, when the Australia house folks came over and they're sitting in networking with those, there's relationships that are built there now. Right. And those things, as much as we'll continue to try to quantify them, I think some of the digital tools are going to help us say like, okay, 56,000 attendees is great.
Like what has happened? What are those connections look like? What does it look like to like right now?
Everybody's excited. Okay. I know when I come back to Austin next year, I'm going to Midwest house.
What if you don't have to get back to Austin or just follow up on LinkedIn or send a text message or an email, but there's ways for you to communicate, collaborate, identify needs, share best practices on a regular basis. Right. You know?
[Speaker 2] (49:40 - 50:17)
Yep. Yeah. And I, it's funny.
Well, if I'd never really thought about what you're beginning to do right now, it truly is. It's, of what we started doing for Midwest house. It's like, okay, we're going to start with Chicago.
You know, we're going to start going to events there. We're going to meet people there and we're going to tell them about, come to this. Here's the, here's what we've been doing every year.
It's at South by we're trying to build this Midwest house. You guys should be a part of it. We need to have a Chicago day.
Of course, Chicago is the biggest city. You gotta be a part of this. And suddenly we look around and we're like, oh, we've actually have a Chicago network now.
[Speaker 3] (50:18 - 52:06)
Yeah. And we also have a national network that can suddenly find the Midwest on the map, which I think that like looking at Tulsa as a great example, they, they, in many ways became our sibling house where we, we run and check out their events. We'd support them.
We support them socially as well. And a lot of these other houses, you did an amazing job with the European houses. And it's great to try and explain that story to, to folks who have no idea what South by Southwest is.
But you're right. If so, a great example is I had, I had an opportunity to be in Detroit for a couple of days and I knew it about a month out. I got ahold of all of our partners, a bunch of our friends.
It happens to be that one of the authors who I work with, who's now friends with Fegan and Dawn all live in the same neighborhood, but in many ways, Adam was introduced to that community because of the Midwest house. And if not for that, he would have lived five minutes away from, from two of my best friends who I also met through the Midwest house and never met them. I never got to connect with them.
And so it's great to be able to post on social, Hey, we're going to be coming to this event. We're going to be going to this and have a bunch of people say, Oh, great. If, if two of you are going, that makes it our safe community and our place where we want to be.
And so with tonight's event we've got friends coming in from all over. We've got friends from our family office networks and whatnot. And, and those, I believe to a great degree are extensions of what were built from the Midwest house at South by.
[Speaker 2] (52:07 - 53:00)
Yeah. Well we're, we're running out of time here. I think there's gonna be a lot more conversations with, with both of you about sort of what we're building together.
Again, you know, I already said we, we had dinner last night and we all got excited about like some of the big picture things here. I do want to bring this back to kind of the, the keeping an eye on like, not like what we're not the Midwest house we're trying to build or the angel collector we're trying to build, but let's really talk about the community we're trying to build. Yeah.
Because I think that's, that's what we all sort of need to keep in mind. So let's just going to ask both of you guys, like, why do you do what you do? What's the community you're trying to build?
Like, why, why does this matter in the Midwest? Why does this matter in Columbus? Why does this matter in Detroit?
[Speaker 1] (53:01 - 53:59)
Yeah, I'll start. So for me, you don't hear me, you know, talk about Black Bottom Ventures too much, but really that's my holding company for my theory of change. And that shows up in a couple of ways.
One is in being head of growth at Ecomap, I'm doing two things. Number one, I'm providing digital infrastructure for communities that allows them to all have more accessible, equitable ecosystems and accelerate innovation in those communities. The reason I say both of those things is sometimes there's a, what might seem like a feel good or a social justice component to accessibility, but then it's seen as a conflict or it can't coexist with like, yeah, like innovation as an output, as an economic output.
It's like, no, we're showing you the data that you can happen. And they do happen.
[Speaker 2] (53:59 - 54:07)
Yes. And in some cases, one is the cause of the other, like money is being made because more people have access. Exactly.
[Speaker 1] (54:07 - 55:45)
So we work to do that. And in me doing that, I'm also enjoying being like inside a startup, you know, going from, you know, having a, you know, eight figure portfolio and doing a lot of long form investments around multi-generational economic mobility and change to now like, okay, we have a runway. I have a sales goals for this month.
We have, you know, profitability push and client by client, hand-to-hand combat and a sales pipeline. Like I love being in that. And if I can do those two things and a couple of other things, like do this podcast or have this road trip and think through how we can support things like Michigan angel collective, how we think through collectively, like not just the future of Midwest house as an entity, but like Ted from the guy I met three years ago or however many years ago to like, you know, now we've got new problems, right? Not the problem of like, is that the South by auto? I paid his tax bill to like, okay, what's this?
How do we build from here? You know, that for me is what I enjoy doing. And right now that's never been more fun.
And it's starting to get more aligned where if I just Ecomap is how I think. So connectivity, digital infrastructure, efficiencies, visibility, impact, and outcomes, and like layering that across the set of relationships that are all moving in the same place. And that's, that's a really fun thing to wake up and get to be able to do every day.
[Speaker 3] (55:45 - 57:30)
Trenton Larkin I love that. Well, yeah, for, for me, the through line of my entire career has been creating communities and connecting dots and finding opportunities for those who don't have them. And I think the Midwest is the best place in the country right now to be doing these efforts.
And there are a lot of different groups that are trying to do it. And we can support those groups. I don't know that anyone is doing a better than Midwest house is doing it at this point of bringing multiple different cities together in different ways throughout the year.
And that's where I'm so excited of how from all of our different roles, we can keep building on the base, which you and the partners have created, whether it's in figuring out early angel funding, whether it's in creating a fund or supporting other funds, which are looking to invest more into the Midwest, whether it's creating the tools to help the artists get the exposure or supporting our friends who are starting the next South by Southwest in, in bringing them an audience and, and best practices.
So for me, the best thing I can be doing for Columbus is connecting the dots to the other cities throughout the region. And the more that we can do that closer to home, the more people who I can bring out. And I think that the future of what the Midwest house is even two, three years from now is completely unrecognizable to us now, but we can start to feel that growth of what is the next chapter in the next generation of what the Midwest house will be.
[Speaker 2] (57:31 - 59:20)
I was right on an hour. That's really good. But I'll just say I'm not done yet either.
Oh, I just want to say, you know first of all, again, thanks. Thanks to both you guys for, for being here. I think what I think about the communities that both of you have built and the community we're trying to build together all of this comes back to provide like helping to, to turn these places we live into, into more dynamic spaces where there's more opportunity for more kinds of people.
I think that's literally what we need as a society is more people to feel more hopeful and more like they're part of, of what, of to have an opportunity to win in what our, in the society we built is. And we all know there's a lot of problems we need to solve. I think innovation is the way you get to that, to a lot of those problems.
I think getting more people involved means that's more people who are thinking about their own problems and innovating around that. We're really, the three of us, I think are all pretty aligned in the fact that we just, we just want to give people more opportunities to feel like they've got purpose in their lives. Which is not, no small thing.
And sometimes I think it gets, I mean, I know for me, sometimes you get lost into like, what is this venue going to cost? And who's going to be on what panel and whatever. But like, I, I occasionally need to remind myself of like, this isn't just about, you know, an event here or an event there.
It's not just about like one investment here and one investment there. This is, I feel like we're doing work that has a real purpose to it. And, and when I spend time with the two of you, like that purpose feels reinvigorated.
So I thank you for that.
[Speaker 3] (59:22 - 59:49)
And I'm just going to interrupt to thank you because there are not, there are so many people who come to the Midwest house or even sponsor or even partner with the Midwest house and don't understand how hard you have worked for a decade to build this. And there, there are way too many people to name that have also been a huge part of it, but you could have given up after, I might still today.
[Speaker 2] (59:50 - 59:51)
Well, this podcast goes too much longer.
[Speaker 1] (59:52 - 1:00:02)
I mean, if I'm sitting there in March, 2020 was a pay for thing here, that's empty during the pandemic. We may not be sitting here today if it's me, you know? Yeah.
[Speaker 2] (1:00:04 - 1:00:11)
Well, again I appreciate you both being here. I do not want this to turn into a love fest for Midwest house. Maybe it already was.
[Speaker 1] (1:00:11 - 1:01:55)
It won't, but I do have to say this, the fact that we just sat here for an hour and we talked about the future and I, you know, there's a lot of different things that are happening right now. And there's a lot of righteous reasons to be frustrated and upset. But literally, like I was saying, like you to go through 2020, as we all did in some form, and we could talk about how that shaped our view of the world, how that shaped the importance around our work, the businesses we support.
We're now five years later in a different type of challenging environment that has a lot of things that can evoke a lot of feelings, but we're charting like a path forward around that. And it was a really good conversation that you hosted the Fireside Chat Friday with Victor Wang and Shara Davis, CEO of Ecomap, that I think is a good nugget to take forward around like, while we sort all this other stuff out or not, entrepreneurship and innovation is a pretty universal, positively polled activity. And so while we battle some of the language and semantics of it, or even some of the motivations behind different people's actions, like this can still be a place where it has to be a place where things move forward.
And we can't wait two years or four years for that or be stopped by any one decision or article or executive order. We just got to keep going. And you kept going through 2020, and we're going to keep going through this.
Keep putting the head down.
[Speaker 2] (1:01:55 - 1:02:28)
Let's go. Well, again, thank you all. I really appreciate you for being here.
Wolfstar, James Feagin, two of my dearest friends. Thanks to anyone who made it the first ever official Midwest House podcast. We'll be doing some more of these.
Thanks to the folks at Think Tank for having us here. If you all don't know about them, check out their site, check out their studio. It's beautiful.
It's really beautiful. And I don't know how much it will cost to actually be in it. We're going to be doing some cool stuff with them going forward.
So yeah. Thanks, everybody.