I spent 2 days on a bus with billionaire AOL cofounder Steve Case and 'Hillbilly Elegy' author JD Vance as they scoured the South for the next big startup

rise of the rest bus

For the last four years, AOL cofounder Steve Case has led seven "Rise of the Rest" bus tours across 38 cities, in a total of 26 states.
On these tours, he meets with cities' power brokers and ends each day with a pitch competition for entrepreneurs with a $100,000 prize.
I joined the tour for the last two stops of its latest journey, in Chattanooga, Tennessee and Louisville, Kentucky. I found the "stunt" intentionally grabs attention, and that the tour's value outlasted its day in town.
This article is part of Business Insider's ongoing series on Better Capitalism.

I only spent two days with AOL cofounder Steve Case and his team in May, but they were virtually nonstop. Each time, we were part of the biggest show in town.

I joined the last two days of the latest Rise of the Rest bus tour, as it passed through Chattanooga, Tennessee and Louisville, Kentucky. It's an initiative Case has been running through his Washington, DC-based venture capital firm, Revolution, for the last four years.

In each tour, Case and his team meet with the city's power brokers and end the day with a pitch competition with a $100,000 prize. This past tour was the first to draw that money from a $150 million seed fund Revolution raised last year, featuring more than 30 high-profile investors serving as limited partners who give their money but not their counsel. They include Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio. Case put JD Vance, "Hillbilly Elegy" author and former Valley investor, in charge of the fund.

After spending time on the tour, I realized it's a spectacle — and that's essential to drawing attention to the entrepreneur communities in these cities. The real value, however, comes from the relationships that last beyond the day. As Case told me, "Most interesting things are not actually what happens the day we're here, it's what happens in the months before we arrive and the months and hopefully years after we leave."

Here's what it was like.