AMERICAN UNDERGROUND A STARTUP INCUBATOR IN DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA THRIVING CITIES CASE STUDY Draft December 2016 www.thrivingcities.com The Thriving Cities Project is a research initiative of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia. This publication is made possible through the generous support of the Kern Family Foundation. Institute for IAS Advanced Studies C in Culture Copyright © 2016 by the Thriving Cities Project All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or stored in a retrieval system without the written consent of the Thriving Cities Project. This Case Study is available for download at www.thrivingcities.com/case-studies For media inquiries email us at:
[email protected] Meet American Underground, a startup incubator in Durham, NC that’s quickly becoming a leading example of a new-paradigm approach to business. The nation’s most interesting startup scene isn’t in Silicon Valley or New York City. If you want a glimpse of what could be the future of American entrepreneurship, look no further than Durham, North Carolina, where an offbeat incubator called American Underground (AU) is quickly becoming a leading example of what we call a new-paradigm enterprise. By many measures, American Underground has been a runaway success. The incubator currently hosts 257 companies, up from 73 just three years ago. AU-headquartered companies raised over $26M in 2015-16. After just three years in business, AU was designated one of eight Google for Entrepreneurs Tech Hubs nationwide, and has attracted glowing press from The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and Business Insider.