• A decade ago, Lighthouse Network’s founder-first accelerator model helped anchor Richmond’s “entrepreneurial ecosystem building” strategy, and a new national study suggests that model is paying off.
• It ranks high for high-growth, high-earning entrepreneurship across demographics, and benefits from corporate gravity and access to Washington DC and the Mid-Atlantic corridor, but hasn’t produced many homegrown exits at national scale.
• The question is whether entrepreneurship stays a central priority across administrations, budgets and geography, and whether Richmond builds its own reputation through startup storytelling and network-building.
In 2012, a small group in Richmond launched Virginia’s first startup accelerator.
Developed into a year-round entrepreneur support organization, Lighthouse Network never tried to be flashy. But it was consistent: Year upon year, cohorts shipped, mentors showed up, founders found peers. Like any developing entrepreneur strategy in the 2010s, it wasn’t perfect, but one of the primary strengths was anchoring what we now call an “entrepreneurial ecosystem building” strategy.
A new national study suggests that model is paying off.
The Nasdaq report argues Richmond is now one of the country’s best at supporting fast-growth entrepreneurs.
The Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center’s Advancing Regional Innovation Economies (ARIE) report, released last fall and featuring analysis by Heartland Forward, argues Richmond is now one of the country’s best at supporting fast-growth entrepreneurs.
As the founder-first Lighthouse ecosystem matured, institutional investment followed. In 2018, Capital One opened the 1717 Innovation Center, giving Startup Virginia a public-facing home right on East Cary Street — part clubhouse, part classroom, part “we’re serious about this” billboard.
More recently, CoStar’s riverfront campus added another piece to the modern skyline and a daily flow of product, data and design talent. Meanwhile, Dominion Energy, Altria and other HQs kept the downtown-to-suburbs economy diversified in a way many mid-sized regions envy.
What sets the Virginia region apart is the Richmond–Petersburg advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing corridor.
In 2022 came a $52.9 million Build Back Better Regional Challenge win for the Alliance for Building Better Medicine, which funded shared lab space, pilot-scale manufacturing capacity and workforce programs to strengthen US medicine supply chains. That momentum helped the region secure a 2023 federal Tech Hubs designation in Advanced Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, formalizing a multi-institution effort led by VCU’s Medicines for All with industry partners.
For founders, that base can translate into practical advantages: industry-experienced talent, pilot lines and nearby manufacturing partners that shorten the path from prototype to production.
Virginia’s state leaders are attempting stronger policy architecture too. Formed from a merger, the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation sits alongside Virginia Economic Development Partnership and GO Virginia, among other business attraction, retention and creation strategies. The remit is broad: the economic vitality of a state of 8.5 million people. The question is whether entrepreneurship stays a central priority across administrations, budgets and geography.
For now, Virginia’s startup credentials are led at the regional level, including Richmond and Northern Virginia’s Arlington, with Roanoke and Hampton Roads following.
In the Nasdaq report, Richmond lands in the top 15 for high-growth, high-earning entrepreneurship across demographics. It attracts venture funding, but hasn’t yet produced many homegrown exits at national scale.
What the region does have is entrepreneurial program durability, a pharma corridor distinction and serious corporate gravity. Access to Washington DC and the dense Mid-Atlantic corridor of capital, talent and customers matters too.
Richmond, though, needs its own reputation. It is well-suited to lead Virginia’s tech and startup storytelling if it chooses to do so. A new governor may help. So could building a network with other ecosystems, telling a story and continuing to build on the success of pro-entrepreneurship programming.
Richmond has built real scaffolding. Keep the cohorts. Increase the size and frequency of first checks. Tighten the loop between pilots and purchase orders. If the region closes that speed gap, the next decade will read less like slow-and-steady progress, and more like visible, venture-backable wins born in Richmond and scaled from Richmond.
Download the ARIE report to see the specific metrics and action steps.
