Revolution CEO, investor, and co-founder of AOL, Steve Case, recently announced a commitment to invest an additional $500,000 in startups across five regions as part of the sixth Rise of the Rest bus tour. That tour is coming to Indianapolis on October 12, and TechPoint is urging Indianapolis tech startups and scale-ups to participate.

The Rise of the Rest tours are a nationwide effort powered by Revolution to work closely with entrepreneurs in emerging startup ecosystems across the U.S. Since the tour launched in 2014, Steve Case has traveled more than 6,000 miles on a bus to visit 26 diverse cities and personally invested more than $4 million in local startups. Previous tours included visits to: Denver, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Phoenix, Baltimore, Buffalo, Detroit, Charleston, Des Moines, Nashville, and Omaha (see the list of past cities here).

“When the Rise of the Rest bus pulls into a city, we want to help accelerate the momentum around entrepreneurship already underway in these emerging startup ecosystems,” said Steve Case. “We are thrilled to hit the road once again to find the companies driving innovation and creating jobs across the country.”

Steve Case addresses the crowd during a Rise of the Rest tour stop. The tour is coming to Indianapolis on October 12.

During the upcoming tour, the Revolution team and partners will:

  • Bring together local entrepreneurs, businesses, non-profits, universities, and public officials to discuss the opportunities and challenges of fostering startup growth;
  • Hold a pitch competition where a local startup will receive $100,000 investment; and
  • Host a fireside chat for the broader community to discuss the opportunities for regional entrepreneurship today.

Partners joining Revolution on the tour include: Google for Entrepreneurs, Salesforce for Startups, Village Capital, Startup Grind, Tech.co, The Economic Innovation Group, Engine, Startup Champion’s Network, Verge, and TechPoint.

Here’s how you can get involved in the pitch competition.

  1. Visit https://riseoftherest.submittable.com/submit/ to view the eligibility guidelines. Startups must be headquartered within a 75-mile radius of the tour stop city, have a live product/service or be in active beta,  have established and measurable performance indicators, and currently be raising or have plans to raise an early stage round.
  2. Have a bold, scalable idea with a business model, execution plan and a team capable of moving forward on your idea.

A total of 8 companies will be selected to participate in the pitch competition.

Companies must submit a completed application no later than 5:00 PM EST Tuesday, August 15, 2017, to be considered.  Finalists will be notified by September 15, 2017. View all application guidelines and an FAQ here.

More information on the Rise of the Rest bus tour, including times and locations for specific events in each city, is available at: https://www.riseofrest.com and by following @RiseOfRest and #RiseOfRest on Twitter and Instagram.