40 innovators. 5 cities. 1 conclusion. - by Stephen McBride

Stephen McBride spent two weeks touring five U.S. cities, meeting 40 innovators and coming away with a clear verdict: California remains the global engine for frontier technology while Texas is where companies go to scale. McBride and Rational Optimist Society cofounder Dan Steinhart convened more than 25 investors in Los Angeles, toured warehouses and factories across Los Angeles and San Francisco, and reported back on startups ranging from Matic Robotics to Longshot Space, Terranova and Zipline. McBride said the trip required a long haul — “I wouldn’t have traveled 25 hours and left my wife and kids alone in Abu Dhabi ...” — and it convinced him California is where radical ideas are born.

“California for the startup, Texas for the scale-up,” McBride wrote, summarizing the most common refrain he heard from founders during the tour.

That maxim matters because, according to McBride’s reporting, three practical advantages keep founders rooted in California despite regulatory and logistical headaches: capital, talent and ambition. He quoted the blunt bank-robber line to make a point about gravity: “That’s where the innovation is.” That gravity is backed by a dense venture capital ecosystem and a concentration of specialists — “LA is the only place in the world you can go hire 50 world-class aerospace engineers,” he noted — and a culture of founders pushing one another to higher performance.

McBride did not gloss over friction. He relayed anecdotes of a would-be fusion reactor builder forced to move tests out of San Francisco because local rules would have required pouring special “freeze-dry” concrete and paying millions to a bureaucrat “who literally stands there watching the concrete dry.” A space-launch founder faced a city wildlife inspector trying to block tests for fear of disturbing nesting birds. McBride contrasted those hurdles with scenes of manufacturing revival: early-morning jogs on Redondo Beach and family life near the Golden Gate, tempering media narratives of decline.

Startups and highlights from the tour

• Most useful innovation: Matic Robotics — Founder Mehul Nariyawala is building AI-powered vacuums that map homes and clean intelligently; McBride compares Nariyawala to “the next James Dyson.”
• Coolest thing: Longshot Space — Inside an old Navy tunnel with four-foot-thick walls, cofounder and CTO Nathan Saichek and his team are building a giant gun to launch cargo into space.
• Ultimate rational optimist technology: Terranova — Berkeley cofounder Laurence Allen asked, “What if you just raise the ground?” He’s developing robots that inject wood slurry under foundations to lift whole sections of city ground.
• A team “absolutely crushing it”: Zipline — After California discouraged early tests, Zipline proved its model in Rwanda, now delivering over 70% of the country’s blood supply and saving thousands of lives; its factory tour showed rapid production ramp-up.
• Best startup energy: Pilgrim Labs — noted by McBride for its drive and momentum among Bay Area teams.

McBride stressed a split strategy: incubate in California, scale in Texas. He reported Austin as “booming” and “the No. 1 spot for California refugees,” and predicted Los Angeles will matter more over the next 30 years as an “innovation avalanche” gathers pace. Despite citing costly public projects — “17 years and billions of dollars” spent on a high-speed railway with no track laid — his conclusion is unequivocal: visit the factories, meet the founders, and you’ll find the ideas and people still powering American technological leadership.