Richmond (RVA for short) is a hidden gem that often lands on national lists for its food, arts & culture, and outdoor scene. While it has been home to Fortune 500 companies for decades and its startup scene has been growing over the last 10 years, the national spotlight is starting to turn on the ecosystem that has been silently gaining momentum over the years. This unique capital city with a small town feel has so much to offer and we can’t wait to share it with you in person. Here's what the data (and the sidewalks) will tell you before you even land.

Richmond is climbing the national rankings

LinkedIn's 2026 Cities on the Rise report ranked Richmond #2 in the country, just behind Augusta, Georgia, citing the city's fast-growing economy, expanding tech infrastructure, and strategic spot between D.C. and the Southeast. Four undersea fiber cables converge here, and data center investment is pouring in from companies like Meta. Richmond was also recently listed an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tech Talent Leader by Business Facilities magazine in its 2026 Annual Rankings Report. The Richmond Region was also included in the top 10 Tech Talent Leaders

Zooming out to the state level, CNBC just ranked Virginia #3 in its 2026 Top States for Business, pointing to the Commonwealth's business climate, workforce, and infrastructure. Richmond plays a big part in that.

Richmond ranks high for Black-owned businesses

LendingTree ranked Richmond the sixth-highest city for Black-owned businesses across the country. It’s no coincidence that the city has decades of history that tell the story of thriving Black businesses in Jackson Ward and beyond. The Harlem of the South is where we’ll be during our 2.5 days together, learning about entrepreneurs like Maggie Walker, Charles Russell, Neverette Eggleston Sr., and John Mitchell and hearing from Black business owners who are shaping the neighborhood now.

Pictured: Mama J’s, Adiva Naturals, Penny’s Wine Shop, Urban Hang Suite, and Natroganix

Richmond is a launchpad for high-growth entrepreneurs

The Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center's ARIE report names Richmond one of the best regions in the country for supporting fast-growth entrepreneurship — and credits Lighthouse Network as the catalyst. You'll hear that story straight from the source: the founders and the current Executive Director, on how it started and how far it's come.

Richmond is a Fortune 500 hometown

Some of the country's biggest companies got their start in Richmond. CarMax was founded in 1993, opening its first store in the region and building the no-haggle used car model that eventually made it the largest used vehicle retailer in the country. Markel Corporation, now a Fortune 500 insurance and investment giant, was founded in Richmond back in 1930 and never left. Owens & Minor, a Fortune 500 medical supply distributor, has called Richmond home since the 1880s.

Then there's Capital One. What's now one of the largest banks in the country got its start in 1994, spun out of Richmond-based Signet Bank by founders Richard Fairbank and Nigel Morris. While its headquarters eventually moved up the road to McLean, Capital One never left Richmond behind — its West Creek campus in the region remains one of the company's largest, with thousands of associates, and its community investment shows up locally in tangible ways. Most notably, 1717 Innovation Center, which Capital One founded alongside Startup Virginia to support startup and entrepreneurship. But beyond that, Capital One invests in the community through various initiatives.

Add in Dominion Energy, Performance Food Group, and Genworth Financial, and Greater Richmond is now home to eight Fortune 500 headquarters and a dozen Fortune 1000 companies.

Richmond is a media and advertising powerhouse

Some of the most recognizable ad campaigns in American pop culture were dreamed up in Richmond. The Martin Agency, headquartered here since 1965, is behind the GEICO Gecko, the "so easy a caveman can do it" campaign, and decades of work that turned a mid-size insurance company into a cultural fixture. The agency's client list runs through UPS, CarMax, Oreo, Papa Johns, Bud Light, Solo Stove, and more.

And Martin isn't alone. Richmond's ad and branding scene runs deep: West Cary Group, Hodges Partnership, NDP, and VCU's own Brandcenter — one of the top-ranked advertising and brand management graduate programs in the country — all call Richmond home. It's part of why a city this size punches so far above its weight in the creative industry, and why so many entrepreneurs here have world-class branding talent just down the street.

A leader in health research

Right in the middle of downtown, wedged next to the VCU Medical Center, sits something most cities Richmond's size don't have: a 34-acre biotech research park inside the urban core. The Virginia Bio+Tech Park was established in 1993 through a partnership between VCU, the City of Richmond, and the Commonwealth, with the mission of turning university-driven life sciences research into real companies and jobs. Today it houses close to 70 public and private life sciences companies, research institutes, and state and federal laboratories, employing thousands of researchers, scientists, and engineers a few blocks from City Hall.

What makes it unusual isn't just the science — it's the governance. The park is run by Activation Capital (formally the Virginia Biotechnology Research Partnership Authority), a public authority whose board seats the President of VCU, the Mayor of Richmond, and the Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade side by side. That's a university, a city, and a state economic development office all sharing direct oversight of the same innovation asset — a structure most regions never manage to pull off. Over the past three decades, that alignment has helped launch and support well over 100 companies, and Activation Capital has since expanded its role beyond the park itself into backing high-growth entrepreneurship and startup ecosystem-building across the region.

Richmond loves public art

More than 150 murals and street art pieces color Richmond, created by over 50 national and international artists. One of the most powerful projects, Mending Walls, launched in 2020 to bring artists from different backgrounds together to create work side by side. Mending Walls uses public art to open conversations about race, history, and healing that Richmond, more than most cities, can't avoid having. We will hear from one of its founders during the Summit.

Richmond takes care of its neighbors

Among the startups, the marketing powerhouses, the murals, and the research are efforts started by passionate Richmonders who want to help lift up others through mutual aid. One of those efforts is RVA Community Fridges, which you will find scattered across the city. There are 15 in total that are stocked, restocked, and maintained entirely by neighbors, for neighbors. The newest one just opened outside Studio Two Three in Manchester: a fridge, freezer, and pantry built to look like a retro corner store, designed with an architect and built by the community art space's own staff and interns. It's a small, physical example of the same instinct that shows up everywhere else in this city: if something's needed, Richmond tends to just build it.

That's the short list! Come to Richmond this fall and you'll find the long one — one conversation, one mural, one block at a time. Learn more and grab your tickets here.