TractorBeam - Rural Tech Talent Accelerator
Organization Details
TractorBeam aims to empower under-resourced and overlooked rural workers to confidently transition into high salary, remote careers in tech, digital, and data. TractorBeam will provide mentorship, community, and personalized resources navigating through our ecosystem of partner organizations. We'll craft a personalized career transition path that connects rural job seekers to the most relevant training, financial assistance, career development, and tools/software they'll need to succeed.
Additionally, TractorBeam will provide rural community leaders with the frameworks and tools to create infrastructure for a local tech sector, including co-working spaces, local hiring agreements with remote employers, and helping local businesses modernize so they can hire local tech talent.
Impact Story
TractorBeam aims to activate a Rural Talent Pipeline Ecosystem through public & private partnerships. This ecosystem will provide rural job seekers with access to the training, tools, financial resources, mentorship, portfolio projects, and career development they need to transition into higher income, remote careers. The ecosystem will also provide rural community leaders with access to technology tools, hiring agreements, and resources they need to develop a strong local tech sector in their hometowns.
Problem: The digital economy has grown 4x faster than total GDP in the US, but 90% of that growth is concentrated on 5 mega metro areas, creating huge regional disparities and leaving rural workers out of the economic benefits created by the tech industry. As a result, there is a massive lack of access to career paths, mentorship, and community support in rural areas. These disparities continue to compound, leading to declining rural economies and ever-increasing socio-political divides.
The Big Vision: We believe rural America's full participation in the digital economy is vital to our nation's economic sustainability. The model for TractorBeam is created from the research and recommendations of countless organizations including the Center on Rural Innovation, Brookings, the Aspen Institute, the US Chamber of Commerce, the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities, McKinsey & Company, and the writing of Ro Khanna. And it's modeled after the success of the startup ecosystem using a cohort-based, accelerator model.
Our Audacious Goal: WIth the right ecosystem, we firmly believe we can facilitate a $1 billion increase in rural household income by 2026. Ultimately the goal is to stabilize rural economies & reduce social-polticial divides resulting in a stronger national economy with a more equitable distribution of income and opportunity.
Early Stage: We're clarfiying the frameworks, developing an MVP, and having conversations with potentail stakeholders and partners.
