American Underground Chief Strategist Adam Klein sees the diversity of Durham as a big strength when it comes to creating fertile ground for start-up companies. Klein recently penned an article for Entrepreneur magazine focusing on that fact.
“The fact is, unlikely partners sometimes produce undeniably appealing ideas — whether the ultimate objective is launching a company or re-launching a city,” writes Klein.
He tells the story of how Capitol Broadcasting took a crumbling campus of warehouses and turned it into a thriving downtown hub. He then turns his attention to American Underground.
“But what about the next generation of innovators?” continues Klein. “CBC eyeballed a storage basement and somehow found it exactly right for the development of the American Underground, a co-working space for entrepreneurs that might otherwise opt for Silicon Valley or Boston. The American Underground grew into a 250-company campus and reached well beyond the city’s borders to establish a fruitful association as one of the country’s eight Google for Entrepreneurs Tech Hubs.”
He outlines how CBC and American Underground have worked to attract a wide variety of entrepreneurs to the thriving downtown.
Klein concludes, “In Durham, we’ve found that diverse teams with an array of perspectives and skill sets make for both innovative solutions to immediate challenges and sustained success.”
- Read the entire article: The Story Behind the Explosion of the ‘Startup Capital of the South’