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For the better part of the last half-century, the world has traveled to California to experience Silicon Valley. Theyve heard from Stanford dropouts-turned-unicorn founders, toured dazzling tech campuses, spoken with shrewd venture capitalists, and discussed, ad nauseum, the regions core DNA. Theyve come to scoop up the secret fertilizer, take it back home, and sprinkle it onto the local soil in the hopes of magically growing Silicon Prairie, or Silicon Heartland, or Silicon Fill-in-the-Blank. In reality, few places in the United Statesalmost none outside a handful of big coastal citieshave succeeded. Eventually, hopeful communities have abandoned their innovation hubs after disappointing results. But not all of them. Among the rare successes of a burgeoning tech hub, Tulsa stands out. I know because I helped lead the citys reinvention. So, in understanding how northeast Oklahoma managed to establish a growing innovation economy, other places may finally be able to carve out a sustainable path in tech. The task isnt simplethere are no shortcuts. But thats because, in the end, theres no secret ingredient. It simply comes down to whether cities can find the niche that corresponds with their strength and exploit it. No place will be able to compete with Silicon Valleys moneybut great gobs of capital sit in various locales, and yet few have become tech hubs. No place can replicate the Valleys concentration of talentbut for all the celebrated universities, few have spawned notable clusters of innovation. Thats not whats really important. Here’s what istruly important: Having a community think carefully about what their value add can be to the greater world of tech, and how they can lean into that specific attribute. Innovation economies grow from the bottom-up, not the top-down, and they can be tailored to fit your city. Thisis what Tulsa is doing so successfullyand its the reason that Im convinced other cities can do the same. When I was recruited to Tulsa in 2019, the economys two pillarsoil and gaswere both on the ropes. Like many other midsized cities, there was rising alarm that Oklahomans were poised to be left behind by AI, the states manufacturing and service jobs gutted by automation. So, the Tulsa-based George Kaiser Family Foundation asked me to lead an effort less to make the region a mini-Silicon Valley, and more to help Tulsa find what I call its tech nicheits own special place in the 21st century economy. As one cowboy hat-wearing entrepreneur told me, We dont want to be San Francisco. We want to be the best version of ourself. But that just raised a series of questions that most cities struggle to answer: What should the communitys tech identity be? How could we create durable jobs? Where should we deploy scarce capital? The economic development organization I founded, Tulsa Innovation Labs, led a community-wide effort to answer those questions. We looked initially at education technology and discarded it as a focusTulsa simply didnt have a competitive advantage in that realm. We then looked at agriculture technology and set that aside toothe potential impact of investing in that cluster wasnt sufficient to building a resilient tech economy. Instead, we zeroed in on four areas where we believed we could create the critical mass of activity necessary to reinvent Tulsas economy: virtual health, energy tech, advanced air mobility, and cyber. Having narrowed the field, we raised over $200 million in four years to invest in those clusters and put ourselves on track to create 20,000 jobs. The question today is what other older industrial economies such as St. Louis, Buffalo, and Cincinnati can learn from Tulsas experience. And the lesson is surprisingly simple: Rather than try to emulate Silicon Valley, they should find their own tech niche and then invest in infrastructure that fuels growth in those clusters. To do that, they need to follow four principles. First, cities should build on existing industries Every city has longstanding employers with expertise that can be transitioned to tech. Tulsas energy companies were facing intense disruption thanks to climate change. And although Oklahomas aerospace industry is largely in maintenance, repair, and overhaulnot techthe industrys regional facilities offered existing infrastructure and talent with valuable skills that can translate. Tulsas challenge was to build on top of those important assets to spark growth in emerging technologies. Second, cities need to identify their strongest opportunities in tech Cities should pick a few tech clusters that are adjacent to existing industries and show long-term growth trends, thereby building a bridge to a more vibrant economy. Given its legacy as the oil capital of the world, Tulsas prime opportunity was energy tech. As was advanced air mobility given the regions strong history in aerospace and the energy industrys use of drones to monitor pipelines. While its understandable that many startups want to be in Silicon Valley, others are realizing its wiser to build near established industries with the ready-made partners they provide and the dynamic ecosystems they can offer. Third, those searching for a niche should ensure it promises a range of jobs San Francisco is a cautionary tale because the explosion almost exclusively of high-paying positions for the most educated has increased housing prices and widened inequality. Choosing clusters that offer jobs demanding a variety of skills and education levelsjobs open to those without bachelors degreescan drive inclusion. In Tulsa, we selected cyber in part because workers with skills-based credentials are essential to the industry. About a third of the 20,000 jobs Tulsa is on track to create are accessible without a bachelors degree. Finally, cities should select a niche that allows them to lead Midsized cities need not compete with major tech hubs. Instead, they should search for specific clusters, sub-clusters, or parts of an industrys value chain in which they can lead. For virtual health, Tulsas opportunity was in remote care solutionstechnologies that, for example, enable remote glucose monitoring. Virtual health also has nice synergies with cybersecurity, which keeps those remote systems safe, as well as advanced air mobility in which drones could deliver pharmaceuticals to rural parts of the region. The specific clusters that comprise your tech niche should reinforce each other. Silicon Valley is a unicorn, and for too long, it has been viewed as the model for places that cant possibly recreate it. This myth has become a self-fulfilling prophecy, with a national innovation economy that leaves out most Americans and dismisses the Heartland as flyover country. Places like Tulsa can thrive in the decades to come if they find the right niche. Pulling off an economic renaissance isnt easy to do, but its entirely realistic. For anyone living in a place thats being left behind by tech, know that you can write your own future if you and your neighbors work together and grow from the inside out.
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E-Commerce
Donald Trumps return to office has bolstered a wave of apps. Bluesky spiked in November; Signal is seeing renewed attention. Niche dating apps are also raking in new usersboth from the right and left. Americans are dating across party lines less and less. In 2020, 71% of Democrats told the Pew Research Center they wouldnt date a Trump voter. Most also agree that cross-party dating is getting harder. App developers have seized the moment, creating new spaces for singles to connect within their political circles. But those efforts look different depending on which side of the aisle you gravitate toward. The MAGA movement has long flirted with its own dating appsnow one is gaining traction with hundreds of thousands of downloads and backing from Peter Thiel. On the left, attempts to build a liberal-only space havent taken off. Instead, progressive dating apps often feel more like a reaction born of resistance or fear. The right-wing dating apps resurgence Leading the pack among right-wing apps is Date Right Stuff, cofounded by former Trump staffer John McEntee and backed by $1.5 billion from Thiel. The apps 2022 launch was rocky, marked by few downloads and plenty of controversyincluding allegations that the FBI visited users who answered a prompt about the January 6 insurrection. One user, 18-year-old Grace Carter, told Wired that McEntee sent her uncomfortable messages via the apps Instagram. But since Trumps inauguration, interest has surged. In a recent interview with Andrew Zucker on the Golden Age podcast, chief marketing officer Raquel Debono said the app has now surpassed 400,000 downloads. Like Tinder and Hinge, Date Right Stuff is expanding into live eventsit recently hosted a Make America Hot Again party at Trump Towerand into platonic matchmaking. Sort of like a Bumble BFF, but with your right-wing BFF, your person to talk politics with, Debono explained. Security is also top of mind. Face ID verification is coming soon to make sure everyone is exactly who they say they are, Debono wrote in an email to Fast Company. Its all about meeting people who share your values, get your sense of humor, and let you be unapologetically yourself. Whether Date Right Stuff has staying power is another question. Back in 2018, Gaby Del Valle wrote about the rise of right-wing dating apps for Vox. Every app mentionedRighter, Conservatives Only, Donald Daters, Patriohas since disappeared. Where do all the liberals go? Sex and dating quickly became political flashpoints after Trumps first election. Some liberals refused to match with anyone who identified as Moderate on Hinge. Others looked to Koreas 4B movement, where women pledged to abstain from dating and sex altogether. But unlike the right, the left hasnt coalesced around a dating enclave, despite the fact that dating apps, in general, have long skewed liberal. According to a 2006 Pew study, online daters were more likely to express liberal social beliefs. But platforms explicitly designated for progressive users like Lefty and TruuBlue haven’t gained traction. Then theres the rise of fake dating. Lavender marriages (unions between LGBTQ+ individuals to mask their identities) have gone viral on TikTok in the wake of Trumps return to the White House. More queer daters are now seeking relationships rooted in political safety over attraction. In a grim twist, theres an app for that. Jeremy Del Zotto created Gen We, and recently launched a Lavender Marriages community on the app. The announcement video has racked up more than 500,000 views. In a recent update, Del Zotto said Gen We had thousands of downloads within weeks.
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E-Commerce
When Michael White struck out on his own after stints at DoorDash and Square, his plan was to help tech employees access the value of their equity while their companies were still private. But as White and his cofounder Gautam Gupta enabled workers to get a line of credit, they found that most people were using it to finance a home purchase. It makes sense, White says. That’s a big reason people seek liquidityor that’s one of the first things that people do if they have an exit. So it really led us to dive deeper into that and ultimately pivot. In 2024, White and Gupta relaunched their company Multiply Mortgage as an employee benefit that helps aspiring homeowners secure a mortgage. The company is licensed to originate mortgage loans in 19 states and works with mortgage brokers in nearly every other state. Through Multiply, workers can access expert advisors and discounted mortgage interest ratesand more recently, the company has also expanded to include more comprehensive education resources about financial wellness. For now, the benefit will remain a free service for employers, owing to Multiplys business model in which the company earns a commission on mortgage origination from all of its lender partners. (White does, however, note that the company might start charging companies down the road, as we build out more of the value that we’re providing companies.) Working with employers also gives Multiply a built-in pool of potential customers and lowers the steep cost of customer acquisition across the mortgage industry. Beyond that, building an AI-powered platform has enabled Multiply to reduce its labor costs while continuing to bolster crucial elements of the business; the company recently closed a $23.5 million Series A round led by Kleiner Perkins that will go toward getting its product in front of more workers and improving on its personalized services. We’re not building a self-serve mortgage, White says. For as complicated and stressful as this transaction can be, having a really high level of client service can make it go a lot more smoothly. So we’re really investing heavily in our team of mortgage advisors. In the past decade, companies have started offering workplace benefits that help support employees through various personal experiences, from fertility treatments to mental health support and menopause-related care. At the moment, many benefits managers and HR teams are daunted by the rising costs of healthcare, not to mention the overwhelming number of niche employee benefits now on the market. If medical insurance is going to consume basically all of your budget, companies have to make some pretty hard choices in other places, White says. Multiplys pitch to companies like Rampthe booming fintech startup that is one of its customersis certainly appealing from a financial perspective, but the return-to-office movement has also created an environment in which some employers are looking for ways to lure their workers back to the office or court prospective employees. Another buzzy tech startup is currently using Multiply in part because its employees are expected to relocate to cities that are not traditional tech hubs. “They are in the process of building out those teams with engineers that wouldn’t typically live in those places,” White says. “So what we’ve seen them doing with us is including us in their recruiting materials and really highlighting how this might not have been where you were otherwise going to livebut look at the quality of life that you can have. Look at what you’re able to afford from a home perspective; you can buy a home here, and here’s a resource that you can use to make that even more attainable. Some fully remote employers, on the other hand, are offering Multiplys services because of the geographic range the platform promises. The fact that we can help their employees in Michigan just as well as we can help their employees in California makes a big difference for them, White says. Companies have also found that providing Multiply as an employee benefit has encouraged some people to consider buying a home even if they previously assumed it was out of reachor, at a minimum, use the service to evaluate their options. “One thing that’s been really cool is how much employees are just exploring what homeownership could look like for them, evaluating how much they could afford [and] renting versus buying,” White says. “They’re able to take advantage of this resource, as well. They have unlimited access to those advisors.” For some clients, the lower interest rates they secured through Multiplywhich can be discounted by up to 0.75% and save them an average of $5,100 annuallyhave made all the difference in terms of being able to afford home ownership. Like other players in the workplace-benefits space, White also makes the case that may be most appealing to companies and HR teams who are sifting through a dizzying array of potential offerings. Going through a divorce or buying a home can be a lengthy, emotionally taxing experience, one that inevitably bleeds into the workplace. “If you know what to expect and you know how to adequately prepare for it, you can take a lot of the stress out of the processwhich is great from the company’s perspective,” White says. “If you have this big thing happening outside of work that’s stressful and distracting, then that’s going to degrade performance at work.”
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E-Commerce
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