Ohio: A State That Builds

“We are more fulfilled when we are involved in something bigger than ourselves.” - John Glenn

Across the state of Ohio — from Cleveland to Cincinnati, from Toledo to Marietta, one can see signals that we should be saying out loud: Ohio is standing on the edge of the greatest economic opportunity in a generation.

And yet, if we are not intentional, if we fail to act, that opportunity will slip through our fingers. I’m writing this letter as someone who believes deeply in what Ohio can be in this decisive decade.

Intel chose Ohio. Anduril chose Ohio. Amgen chose Ohio. The world is looking to our state as a cornerstone of America’s reindustrialization, the comeback of advanced manufacturing, and the birthplace of the next era of defense and dual-use technologies (among other things).

These wins are historic, but we need to be absolutely clear:

Attracting great companies is not enough. Ohio must also build its own.

That is the charge before us.

We stand in the middle of a global transformation:

Artificial intelligence is reshaping every industry.
Biotechnology is redefining health and longevity.
New forms of energy are redefining geopolitics.
Robotics is reinventing how we manufacture and move.
The digital economy is creating entirely new markets.

Across America, the geography of innovation is decentralizing. People are no longer asking, “Why Ohio?” They are beginning to ask, “Why not Ohio?”

Ohio is no longer a flyover state. We are a frontier state — a state being rediscovered by the industries that will define the next century. But we must remember that big companies alone do not build the future.

Founders do.
Startups do.

If Ohio is going to lead, we must build not just an economy of jobs, but an economy of builders.

I’ve built companies across four continents. I’ve worked with global investors, with Fortune 500 executives, with entrepreneurs fighting their way from zero to one. And what I know to be true is that timing matters more than geography, and conviction matters more than pedigree.

Ohio has the timing, the people, the industry, and the values. And we urgently need, in addition, courage.

The courage for more Ohioans to say: I will build something. The courage to turn ideas into companies, companies into institutions, institutions into legacies.

That courage should become the beating heart of Ohio as a Startup State. We have the ingredients, and now we need the ambition.

Ohio is the nation’s 7th-largest economy. Home to 25+ Fortune 500 companies. A national leader in healthcare, insurance, logistics, energy, advanced manufacturing, and defense research. A state with world-class universities and world-class workers. A crossroads of America’s supply chain.

And yet…

In 2024, we captured only 0.54% of all U.S. venture capital. This is certainly not a reflection of Ohio’s potential but more so a reflection of our complacency.

It is the result of a culture that tells young people to play it safe.
It is the result of an ecosystem where too few feel permission to start.
It is the result of a funding landscape that undervalues Ohio’s homegrown innovation.

And this must change.

To truly become a Startup State, Ohio needs a new compact, a collective commitment across industry, government, universities, founders, and communities.

Here is the compact we must make:

1. Ohio must produce founders at scale. Not hundreds, but thousands. Every university, community college, and high school should become an engine of entrepreneurship.

2. Ohio must build the strongest pre-seed ecosystem in the Heartland. The earliest dollars are the hardest to get, and we must change that. We must create the on-ramps that allow first-time founders to start from here and stay here.

3. Ohio must turn workers into innovators. Intel and Anduril will train world-class engineers, machinists, roboticists, and technicians. Those workers will become the founders of the 2030s if we give them pathways.

4. Ohio must celebrate entrepreneurship the same way we celebrate sports. Great founders should be as celebrated as great quarterbacks. And innovation should be as visible as Friday Night Lights.

5. Ohio must build companies that matter. Companies that transform healthcare, energy, logistics, defense, education, and manufacturing (among others). Not just apps or incremental tools.

Ohio must build the next generation of civilization-scale ventures. This is a statewide movement, and it has already started.

Over the next 10 years, entire industries will be reinvented, entire regions will either rise or fall, and entire generations will decide where they want to build. The question is not: Will Ohio commit to compete?

Will we commit to becoming the state that builds? The state that dares? The state that leads? The state that produces, not just attracts, the next great American companies?

This decade will decide the answer.

Whether you are a student in Athens, an engineer in Dayton, a teacher in Akron, a nurse in Cleveland, a product manager in Columbus, a logistics operator in Cincinnati, a machinist in Lima, a researcher in Toledo, or a dreamer in Marietta— this is your invitation into the arena.

Start something, build something, make something new, solve a problem, take the leap, take the risk, join the movement, shape the future.

Because no company we recruit to Ohio — not Intel, not Anduril, not Honda, not Amazon, can substitute for the companies we build here from scratch.

And the next great one… might be yours.

A Startup State is something we build, not declare. And it is built by builders, by people who see what is possible, who choose courage over convention, who understand that the story of Ohio’s future will be written through products built, not in policy memos. Through prototypes, not through talking points. By choosing to build, not by waiting for permission.

Let’s keep fighting for this vision, let’s keep building this movement. Let’s keep pushing until Ohio becomes the state where builders build, and where the future is born.

Ohio is ready. The moment is here.

We came to build,
Yon

➡️ Join the Ohio’s Got Founders community here.

(Missed the previous letters? Read them here.)

yon@projectheartland.co
https://www.linkedin.com/in/yonatanrf/