Another fair objection is this: If Abilene has had these assets for decades, why hasn’t a startup ecosystem already emerged? The answer is simple—we have always had the fuel, but we lacked the spark. Until recently, no single catalyst was strong enough to ignite sustained startup activity. That is changing. A number of future-facing events and trends are converging to create a burst of energy for innovation. - In 2024, the U.S. Air Force announced that Dyess Air Force Base would become one of the homes for the nation’s newest bomber, the B-21 Raider. The aircraft will arrive in about a decade, bringing with it cutting-edge military technology, including stealth and other advanced systems. - In February 2025, Abilene Christian University earned an R2 research designation from the Carnegie Classification, recognizing its growing investment in research. - Construction of ACU’s NEXT Lab—a molten salt nuclear reactor project first submitted for approval to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2022—is nearing completion, positioning the university as a leader in nuclear research. - And in January 2025, President Trump announced that Abilene would host the Stargate artificial intelligence data center project, a $500 billion collaboration including OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank. By September, five additional data center sites had been unveiled in the surrounding region, making Abilene the epicenter of the largest computing infrastructure project in history. The combined effect of these initiatives is more than just external investment. They have sparked a new belief inside Abilene—that we are on the edge of something significant. For the first time in decades, optimism and ambition are converging with opportunity. That belief, more than anything else, makes the conditions perfect—right now—for launching a startup ecosystem.

Big Ideas in the Big Country

Q: Why Here?

Skeptics will rightly ask: If Abilene really had what it takes, wouldn’t a startup ecosystem already exist here? It’s a fair question. The truth is that our region, like much of rural America, has been largely ignored by venture capital. That’s the ultimate irony, because the person widely credited with inventing the term “venture capital” is Benno Schmidt, Sr—born and raised right here in Abilene, Texas. Without the influence of venture capitalists, local investors, including our numerous family offices, have stuck to more familiar assets like property and minerals. The result is a deficit of experience and mentorship—resources founders need to navigate the long journey of building a company. Lacking that supportive human infrastructure, many would-be entrepreneurs either leave for more nurturing communities or turn their attention to traditional pursuits. But what looks like rejection is actually mispricing. The potential founders swimming among us are a severely underpriced asset. In fact, venture capital currently values them at zero—representing an extraordinary market opportunity. Other mid-sized communities once dismissed in the same way—Tulsa, Oklahoma and Chattanooga, Tennessee, for example—have since built thriving innovation hubs by leveraging their unique assets. We can do the same, by valuing our local founders and supporting them with local resources. Abilene has always been a place where big ideas could flourish. Dyess Air Force Base is here because business leaders once rallied the community to buy land for the Air Force. We are the Storybook Capital of America because citizens spent decades commissioning statues and organizing festivals to bring that vision to life. Launching a startup ecosystem won’t require Abilene to change who we are. On the contrary, it will allow us to lean into our character—discipline, determination, and generosity—and magnify it on a larger stage.

Michael Bob Starr
9 hours ago
5 min read

From Dyess to downtown, Abilene has always had the spirit to dream—and deliver.

This essay was originally published on Substack in January 2026.

Many people think of Abilene, Texas, only as the punchline to a management parable—the “Abilene Paradox,” a story about how groupthink can lead people to choose something nobody really wants. That reputation has stuck: a town too conformist, too quiet, too traditional to ever produce the kind of disruptive energy that fuels startups.

But what if that’s exactly the wrong way to see it? What if the very qualities that are easy for outsiders to miss—the discipline of Dyess Air Force Base, the determination of our universities and local businesses, and the generosity woven into our civic life—are precisely the ingredients of something new? What if Abilene, centered in the region of Texas known as the Big Country, became the place where the next paradox unfolded: a so-called unlikely city turning out to be one of the most compelling places in America to launch innovative companies that matter?

Startup economist Paul O’Brien has already outlined such a vision for Abilene’s potential. What I want to do here is take the next step: to grapple with the question that immediately comes up both inside and outside Abilene—why? Embedded in that question are three concerns: Why this? Why here? Why now?

Why This?

Although Abilene has many of the raw materials found in vibrant startup ecosystems—several universities and colleges, including some with a growing focus on research; a military base with a diverse set of missions; a regional medical center; plentiful capital; and an active artistic community—it lacks startup activity, especially the kind that features innovative, rapidly scalable ventures. Some might contend that Abilene doesn’t need a startup ecosystem. Why spend the time and effort to fix something that isn’t broken?

One can argue (and in fact Paul O’Brien, once again, has) that startups punch well above their weight class in terms of generating economic value. But my answer is upstream of economic value: innovation. Innovation creates value at every scale of measurement—in people, in teams, in companies, in regional economies, and beyond that, in nations. Peter Drucker identified innovation as one of the two basic business functions that produce results (along with marketing).

And innovation is contagious. The creative energy that powers startup ecosystems inevitably spreads to other sectors of society. Established businesses become more innovative, along with local government and school districts. And an innovative community is better prepared to meet tomorrow’s challenges. Innovation not only drives economic growth, it builds economic resiliency.

Establishing a startup ecosystem in Abilene will also help us retain and even attract talent. Between Abilene Christian University, Hardin-Simmons University, McMurry University, Texas Tech University Health Science Center, Texas State Technical College, Cisco College, and Dyess Air Force Base, we have a river of creative, entrepreneurial people flowing through our community every year. A startup ecosystem would give the most promising of these individuals a reason to stay, acting as a dam to retain more of them—especially the ones with the highest potential.

Why Here?

Skeptics will rightly ask: If Abilene really had what it takes, wouldn’t a startup ecosystem already exist here? It’s a fair question. The truth is that our region, like much of rural America, has been largely ignored by venture capital. That’s the ultimate irony, because the person widely credited with inventing the term “venture capital” is Benno Schmidt, Sr—born and raised right here in Abilene, Texas.

Without the influence of venture capitalists, local investors, including our numerous family offices, have stuck to more familiar assets like property and minerals. The result is a deficit of experience and mentorship—resources founders need to navigate the long journey of building a company. Lacking that supportive human infrastructure, many would-be entrepreneurs either leave for more nurturing communities or turn their attention to traditional pursuits.

But what looks like rejection is actually mispricing. The potential founders swimming among us are a severely underpriced asset. In fact, venture capital currently values them at zero—representing an extraordinary market opportunity. Other mid-sized communities once dismissed in the same way—Tulsa, Oklahoma and Chattanooga, Tennessee, for example—have since built thriving innovation hubs by leveraging their unique assets. We can do the same, by valuing our local founders and supporting them with local resources.

Abilene has always been a place where big ideas could flourish. Dyess Air Force Base is here because business leaders once rallied the community to buy land for the Air Force. We are the Storybook Capital of America because citizens spent decades commissioning statues and organizing festivals to bring that vision to life.

Launching a startup ecosystem won’t require Abilene to change who we are. On the contrary, it will allow us to lean into our character—discipline, determination, and generosity—and magnify it on a larger stage.

Why Now?

Another fair objection is this: If Abilene has had these assets for decades, why hasn’t a startup ecosystem already emerged? The answer is simple—we have always had the fuel, but we lacked the spark. Until recently, no single catalyst was strong enough to ignite sustained startup activity.

That is changing. A number of future-facing events and trends are converging to create a burst of energy for innovation.

In 2024, the U.S. Air Force announced that Dyess Air Force Base would become one of the homes for the nation’s newest bomber, the B-21 Raider. The aircraft will arrive in about a decade, bringing with it cutting-edge military technology, including stealth and other advanced systems.
In February 2025, Abilene Christian University earned an R2 research designation from the Carnegie Classification, recognizing its growing investment in research.
Construction of ACU’s NEXT Lab—a molten salt nuclear reactor project first submitted for approval to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2022—is nearing completion, positioning the university as a leader in nuclear research.
And in January 2025, President Trump announced that Abilene would host the Stargate artificial intelligence data center project, a $500 billion collaboration including OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank. By September, five additional data center sites had been unveiled in the surrounding region, making Abilene the epicenter of the largest computing infrastructure project in history.

The combined effect of these initiatives is more than just external investment. They have sparked a new belief inside Abilene—that we are on the edge of something significant. For the first time in decades, optimism and ambition are converging with opportunity. That belief, more than anything else, makes the conditions perfect—right now—for launching a startup ecosystem.

Decades from now, when people talk about the Abilene Paradox, it may not be about conformity at all. Instead, it may be about how a mid-sized city in dusty West Texas turned its reputation on its head—how it leveraged discipline, determination, and generosity to fuel a startup ecosystem that no one thought possible. Not by copying Austin or San Francisco, but by leaning into who we’ve always been.

That possibility—that Abilene could become the stage for a very different kind of paradox—is more than just exciting, it’s calling me forward. I invite you to join me on the journey!

Big Ideas in the Big Country

Why This?

Why Here?

Why Now?

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