The Game

(EARLY BIRD TICKETS WENT ON SALE LAST WEEK FOR THE MIDWEST HOUSE SUMMIT IN GR 12/2-3 HERE: https://luma.com/qgst3fc7

They are $149 - the lowest price they’ll ever be - and there’s only like 55 of them left, so don’t delay. More details below)

I wore maize(ish) and blue Sauconys to the Summit in Columbus last week.

We came to Ohio in peace. We came to connect and learn and grow. But you know — some loyalties run deeper than regional economic prosperity.

The truth is that the rivalry rarely came up during the Midwest House Summit Ohio. When you’re building community across the middle of the country, you lead with what you have in common. And in a room of founders, investors, and ecosystem builders, you have a lot in common. I had to bring up the shoes for anyone to even notice.

But once I said it — everyone got it. There were more than a few “that school up North” jokes and even our friends from the other 10 states represented at the Summit would smile at the Michigan/Ohio of it all.

Never was the rivalry more front and center than during the “Welcome to Ohio” panel. First, the panel was moderated by our guy Philippe Vella — founder of StartMidwest, who, it should be noted, lives in Ann Arbor. And then the panel also featured Arnab Nandi, professor of Computer Science at The Ohio State University, multi-occasion founder, and one of the sharpest ecosystem thinkers in the room. Arnab also happens to be a University of Michigan graduate.

So, yeah, it came up.

And somehow the rivalry of it all even seems related to one of my biggest takeaways from the whole week — which is Arnab’s theory and advice about how we need to be building in the Midwest (I’m paraphrasing here):

Find the spaces and the talent where you can build the best company in the world. Do that, and the coasts and the capital will come to you.

That’s it. That’s the whole thing.

There’s a clarity to it I don’t always find in conversations about “the Midwest opportunity.” We spend a lot of time talking about what we don’t have — the coastal networks, the concentration of capital, the exits that generate the next wave of angels. Arnab’s framing skips all of that. It’s not a chip on the shoulder. It’s a mandate to build things that others want to be a part of.

I will be repeating Arnab’s very lofty challenge to “build the best company in the world” to founders because I love the clarity of that vision.

But when I think about applying that challenge to the regional ecosystem that we’re all working on — my mind returns, oddly enough, back to college football and “The Game” and “that school up North.” Because in one very specific space — the Midwest has built the best company/conference in the world.

Some of you will know that the Midwest has not-so-quietly won the last three college football national championships. One each for UM & OSU…and then somehow Indiana. And even before that we’d already built the richest, most desirable athletic conference in the country such that schools from the coasts have quite literally come to us — joining the Big Ten for that TV money.

Clearly the old high school jock in Ted is coming out here, but the cool thing to realize is that the Big Ten is winning because of our rivalries — not in spite of them. Michigan got better because of a decade of Ohio State dragging us. IU was an afterthought and then innovated their way to be better than both last year. It’s a simplistic metaphor but after a week surrounded by scarlet and grey it’s one I can’t miss.

The lesson, though, is if we’re trying to build a regional ecosystem worthy of the founders who will take on Arnab’s challenge — we don’t need to unlearn our rivalries. Our competitiveness should be a tool to drive us forward. But we also should realize that a win for a rival city or state could still be good for the whole in the end (just as I very begrudgingly — two years later — kind of know that it was good for the Big Ten that Ohio State won a Natty).

As I crossed back into Michigan last Friday, I had at least 5 people send me an article from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy titled “Ohio is Eating Our Lunch.” Clearly, I’m not the only one who thinks that a little rivalry might be what we need to spur innovation and growth.

Yes, we’re rolling it back. ​December 2–3, 2026 · Bamboo Grand Rapids

​Last December 500+ came through to make the first ever Midwest House Summit a raging success - snowstorm be damned.

​This year, we back, bigger and badder. Midwest House takes over Bamboo Grand Rapids DECEMBER 2 + 3 for two days of on-stage inspiration, curated connections, and “this can happen here” discovery that’ll have you talking through the New Year.

​Early Bird Tickets are on sale now — but they won’t last forever. Grab them while you can, y’all!!!

Early Bird Tickets