BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — Central Florida is getting the attention of a well-known entrepreneur.

  • 'Rise of the Rest' tour visits the Space Coast
  • Steve Case, AOL co-founder, wants to empower entrepreneurs 
  • The tour is also visiting Orlando, Tampa, Miami, San Juan

Steve Case, who co-founded AOL, visited one Space Coast startup Tuesday as part of the Rise of the Rest bus tour.

For the first time almost all the stops were in the same state. Florida's tour involved Orlando, Space Coast, Tampa, and Miami. There will also be a stop in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The tour started in 2014, traveling to 38 cities and covering more than 10,000 miles.

Steve Case made stops at several local startups: Rocket Crafters, a creator of hybrid rocket engines using 3D printing technology; Embraer, the Brazilian aerospace company that produces commercial, military, executive, and agricultural aircrafts; Florida Institute of Technology’s Digital Scholarship Lab, to talk to students; and OneWeb Satellites, which designs and manufactures satellites to deliver affordable internet around the world.

“(We’re) celebrating entrepreneurship all across America, spotlighting places like the Space Coast, because most of the attention goes to Silicon Valley not places like (the) Space Coast … ” Case said.

One Web Satellites is a 50/50 venture between OneWeb and Airbus. They partnered to turn making satellites into an assembly line sort of manufacturing.

“We've taken the assembly line, the Henry Ford approach to satellite manufacturing,” said One Web Satellites General Counsel John Timmermann.

Case says startups are the future. They’re launching new, creative ideas while creating jobs but are sometimes overlooked by investors if not located in popular startup cities.

“It is harder to be an entrepreneur in Florida. Even though it's the third largest state last year, less than two percent of venture capital went to entrepreneurs in Florida. Over 50 percent went to California,” he said.

Later Tuesday night, eight of the top local startups in your community — as they compete for a $100,000 investment — will be announced later this week.