Every day I work in the Shasta Venture Hub it occurs to me a little bit more how crazy it is that I never knew this building existed before I arrived here for my first Cloud Wise Academy class.

The other day I interviewed Mark Soderwall, who owns a startup called Indie Game University , which produces online courses aimed at teaching independent game developers the business side of game development. I looked at his LinkedIn page and saw that he has decades of AAA game development experience at high levels of household-name organizations like Atari and Lucasarts. He works just down the hall from me.

I asked him, “Why Redding?” and his answer re-shaped my perspective on Shasta County. “Really,” he said, “it came down to the revelation that I had that because my business is online, it could be done from anywhere. I could be in Alaska in an igloo with a Wi-Fi connection and still be able to work, you know? Redding was a lifestyle choice. The outdoor nature, the smaller community, it’s a lot more intimate, I could hear myself breathe. My network was in LA, Orange County, but I had to displace myself, because I couldn’t hear myself think! I had to go somewhere that was a little more my culture, my realm, my community. And I found that in Redding. There’s also a real entrepreneurial surge here, a real creative groundswell. I wanted to be a part of that.”

I’ve lived in Redding my entire life, the four years I spent at college down in Isla Vista notwithstanding. And I could not love this area more. I love the mountains, the lakes, the forests, the people. But, to be honest, until recently I was lukewarm about the actual civilization here. My attitude towards Shasta County (especially when I was a teenager) has always been one of affectionate ribbing. “It may be a sleepy old-fashioned town where nothing happens, but at least it’s OUR sleepy old-fashioned town where nothing happens,” I would think.

Let’s be honest: that’s how Shasta County is branded. If an outsider reads the Record Searchlight, they’ll learn about a slower-paced place with homeless problems, and a wishy-washy economy split between service, retirement, and the remnants of our old logging industry. That’s how we appear, and that’s how many of us, especially young people, think of ourselves.

And it’s just not true.

I came to Cloud Wise Academy as a student initially. I had a degree in Literature, but I was having a tough time finding a job in the area. I wanted to learn some web development skills. That was the first time I entered the Shasta Venture Hub on Caterpillar road.

Later on, I got a content-creation internship at Cloud Wise Academy, and I realized that the Venture Hub may be the most exciting place in town.

The Shasta Venture Hub is a building owned by the Shasta Economic Development Corporation that rents out office spaces to small businesses in the technology realm. It first opened to businesses in 2015.  It is billed as “a startup incubator and co-working space for entrepreneurs, developers, inventors, makers and creatives.”  One of the greatest benefits of working in the space the ability to network with other innovators and those with tech talent.

Since I’ve arrived, Cloud Wise Academy has moved into a larger space in the building. Many of the startups that were here when I arrived, such as Adjoy , have hired more people and moved into larger spaces. More independent developers have entered the building and started using the open spaces. I see new faces all the time. Every day I notice a greater blossoming of the startup culture in Shasta County. I’ve only been in the building for three months.

At the end of October an event called Startup Weekend took place at the Venture Hub. It is an event designed to get entrepreneurs to create small demo businesses based on their startup ideas in a single weekend. This is the second year that it has taken place in Redding, and reportedly attendance was much greater, the ideas were much more mature, and many more people were interested in pitching their own ideas, rather than simply working on teams.

Essentially, startup culture is booming in Shasta County.

And yet, every time I explain to people where I work, even dyed-in-the-wool Reddingites like myself, they haven’t heard of the Shasta Venture Hub. This is unfortunate for a few reasons.

First of all: Businesses in Redding should know that there are plenty of brilliantly talented professionals in technology working not very far away from them, with a vested interest in helping the community. This talent can be put to use solving technical problems for business owners in web development, marketing, app development, and so on.

Secondly: Young people in Shasta County who are interested in technology should know that the hometown is an exciting option. Many of our best and brightest youth get degrees in computer science and travel to Silicon Valley. They could be here, where the cost of living is actually affordable. Young people without degrees should know that going into technology can be a highly lucrative alternative to the trades, and the educational resources are easily available through groups like Cloud Wise Academy.

Lastly, and most importantly, people in and out of Redding should know that we have something to be really proud of. Our startup culture is exciting, dynamic, and offers a hope for tremendous prosperity in the future. And so I believe we all need to spread the word: This is an exciting time to live in Shasta County! We are the incubators of the Digital Revolution.  Who would have thought our “sleepy burg” could become the city of the future?

One exciting startup here is Joe’s Web Geeks! Come to us with your web marketing needs.