By Tom Walker, Founder & CEO
For decades, early-stage venture capital in the United States has been concentrated on the coasts.
That concentration didn’t just shape where capital flows, it shaped how venture capital works. Networks became dense, pattern recognition became narrow, and too often, promising companies outside those ecosystems were overlooked, not because they lacked potential, but because they didn’t fit a familiar mold.
But innovation has never followed those boundaries.
Across the Midwest and throughout the interior of the country, entrepreneurs are building ambitious technology companies. These founders don’t lack talent or vision. They need early access to capital, service networks and partners who understand how difficult the earliest stages of building a company actually are.
That gap is what led us to build R1 Capital.
We partner with founders building companies across enterprise AI/software, deep tech, and life sciences focused on solving complex, real-world problems in undercapitalized markets.
We’re drawn to founders working on problems that matter. These are visionaries that are modernizing legacy industries, advancing human health, and bringing intelligence into the physical economy. Many of these innovations emerge far from traditional venture hubs but address markets that are national or global in scope.
Early-stage companies rarely fail because founders lack ambition. They struggle because the path from idea to product to revenue is longer, more complex, and more uncertain than expected. Markets don’t validate overnight. Early customers are hard-won. Teams take time to build. And capital is almost never raised just once.
Most founders understandably come looking for capital. Capital is essential, but it’s only one part of the equation. Founders also need perspective from people who have seen the journey before, along with access to customers, talent, strategic partners, and follow-on investors.
One of the most underappreciated advantages of building outside traditional venture hubs is proximity to the real economy.
Regions like ours are home to major corporations, research institutions, and deep industry expertise. When startups connect with those organizations, often just a few miles away, something powerful happens. Corporations gain early access to new technologies, while startups gain real-world feedback, early customers, and market validation.
Those early relationships don’t just accelerate growth, they shape better companies. In many cases, that proximity creates an advantage you simply can’t replicate from a distance.
We call this the Backyard Effect.
While our roots are in Ohio, we look across the Midwest, and other parts of the country where promising companies are emerging, but capital networks remain thin. Over time, we’ve seen the same lesson repeat itself: extraordinary companies can emerge anywhere, if the right support system exists around them.
R1 Capital is built around a focused core team and is extended by an extensive network of venture and corporate partners that expands our reach significantly. Our team has spent nearly thirty years working alongside early-stage founders and over a decade doing the work together.
Individually, our experience matters. Collectively, our network helps be the kind of partner founders need.
We’re building R1 Capital around a simple belief: great companies can be built anywhere, but they don’t succeed alone.
The founders we’re looking for are solving real problems, building durable technology, and pursuing markets large enough to matter. When capital, experience, and network come together around the right founders, the outcomes can be extraordinary.
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