After the energy era, OKC’s next chapter starts now

As Devon Energy and Expand Energy announce the relocation of their headquarters, we outlined what this shift signals for our state’s economic landscape in a recent op-ed for The Oklahoman, along with the launch of our Angel Fund.

Read the article here.

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After the energy era, OKC’s next chapter starts now

Authored by Susan Moring | 02/13/2026

Oklahoma City is at a turning point. As two of our most visible energy companies move their headquarters to Houston, we have a rare chance to decide what kind of city we want to be over the next 30 years — and to signal clearly that the future of OKC will be built on technology, innovation, and the people who choose to stay and build here.[1][2][3][4]

The end of one era, the start of another

For decades, energy companies anchored Oklahoma City’s economy, tax base, and civic identity. Their downtown towers and payrolls quite literally shaped our skyline and our story.

Their relocation is emotional and disruptive, but it is not the end of OKC’s story — it is the beginning of a new chapter. The same entrepreneurial grit that took risk on wildcat wells, shale plays, and complex infrastructure can now power startups, software products, and advanced technologies.[2][1]

We’ve been quietly preparing for this moment

Over the last decade, Oklahoma City has been laying the groundwork for a more diversified, innovation-driven economy, often without fully realizing how important that groundwork would become.

Local venture capital activity has grown dramatically as part of a broader heartland surge; Heartland Forward notes that several heartland metros, including Oklahoma City, have seen venture investment growth exceeding 700 percent over the past decade, signaling the rise of “larger, more functional, and viable startup ecosystems” outside the coasts.[1][2]

Oklahoma City was recently recognized by CBRE as the 19th most up-and-coming tech talent market in North America, with more than 22,000 tech workers and tech wages rising 17 percent over the last five years — evidence that our tech workforce is both growing and becoming more competitive.[4]

Universities and training programs are producing over 1,000 tech graduates annually in our region, adding to a steady pipeline of software, data, and engineering talent.[4]

These are not accidents; they are the compounding results of entrepreneurs, investors, civic leaders, and educators betting that Oklahoma’s future must be broader than a single industry.[2][1][4]

A tech ecosystem that’s already building

Tech in Oklahoma City is no longer theoretical. It is a set of real companies, real jobs, and real products being shipped to customers around the country and the world.

Recent analyses estimate that Oklahoma City’s tech sector contributed roughly $4.2 billion to local GDP in 2023, with a 12 percent year-over-year increase and a 15 percent jump in tech jobs in a single year. Startups in software, AI, cybersecurity, aerospace, and industrial technology are taking root here—alongside more mature technology-driven employers.[3][4]

We are seeing:

Homegrown startups raising outside capital while keeping their headquarters in OKC.

Tech employment reaching more than 22,000 positions, making tech one of the city’s fastest-growing, highest-wage segments.[3][4]

Global companies choosing Oklahoma City for expansion, particularly in aerospace and defense technologies.[3][4]

This emerging ecosystem is not yet as visible as an energy tower on the skyline, but in terms of job creation, wage growth, and resilience, it is already a critical part of what comes next.[1][4][3]

The Verge and the power of community infrastructure

Behind every strong tech ecosystem is a set of places and institutions where entrepreneurs can collide, learn, and grow — and Oklahoma City has been building that infrastructure.

The Verge has become a central hub of entrepreneurship in OKC, intentionally positioned as “much more than a coworking space” and instead as a community where “movers, makers, and visionaries” connect, learn, and launch companies. As a nonprofit, The Verge offers educational programming, curated events, flexible workspaces, and a deep network of mentors and investors that help founders move from idea to launch to growth.

Through its start–ascend–soar model, The Verge creates an on-ramp for founders at every stage—helping people start their first business, scale with accelerator and capital access, and then grow into established companies with offices, teams, and ongoing coaching here in Oklahoma City. This kind of community infrastructure is exactly what national research says heartland regions need to convert talent and ideas into durable innovation economies.[2][1]

The national context: the map of innovation is shifting

While a handful of coastal metros still dominate headlines and investment flows, the geography of innovation in the United States is changing.

Heartland Forward’s “America’s Evolving Geography of Innovation” report finds that venture capital investment in the heartland has more than tripled over the past decade to $55 billion, and that “viable high-tech startup ecosystems are now found in growing numbers of heartland communities,” which is “critical for America’s economic future.” Brookings and other researchers have warned that concentrating innovation in a few superstar hubs widens regional inequality, and have called for deliberate investment in midsize metros with strong universities, industry bases, and affordable costs of living—the exact profile Oklahoma City offers.[5][6][7][1][2]

In fact, Heartland Forward notes that Oklahoma City ranks among the top large metros for growth in venture capital investment, with growth of over 700 percent, placing it in the same conversation as cities like Salt Lake City and Miami as an emerging innovation hub. In other words: the country is looking for new centers of tech and innovation, and data suggests Oklahoma City is already on that map.[4][1][2]

A direct call to Oklahoma’s builders: stay and build here

This is the moment to speak directly to the people who will define Oklahoma City’s next economy:

To the software and AI engineers: the problems you want to work on—automation, data, energy transition, logistics, healthcare, aerospace—are all here, often closer to the physical industries you’re trying to transform than in any coastal hub. The opportunity to build category-defining companies at the intersection of bits and atoms is uniquely strong in a place like OKC.[8][1][2]

To the electrical, mechanical, and systems engineers: the skills honed in energy, aerospace, manufacturing, and defense are directly relevant to new startups in robotics, autonomy, advanced manufacturing, and climate tech. You don’t have to move to work on the future of your field; you can help build it here.[8][1][2]

To the scientists, product builders, and developers: Oklahoma City offers something rare—a chance to have an outsized impact in an ecosystem that is still young enough for individual contributions to really move the needle, while still enjoying the quality of life, affordability, and community that drew you here in the first place.[1][3][4]

And to the would-be entrepreneurs sitting inside large companies or labs: this is your moment. The ecosystem, capital, and community support available to a founder in OKC today simply did not exist a decade ago.[2][1]

Announcing a new $10M angel fund for Oklahoma

To match this moment with capital, we are launching a new $10M angel fund dedicated exclusively to investing in Oklahoma companies.

This fund will focus on technology-driven businesses—software, AI, deep tech, and tech-enabled services—that choose to build in Oklahoma and hire here. Its mandate is simple: provide the earliest, most catalytic capital to ambitious founders who want to start, stay, and scale in this state.[1][2]

We believe that early capital is one of the most powerful ways to convert talent into companies and ideas into jobs. As Heartland Forward’s research underscores, when regions like ours pair growing venture flows with strong local institutions and talent pipelines, they can “create more balanced economic growth” and become key contributors to the national innovation economy.[2][1]

By limiting the fund’s investments to Oklahoma companies, we are making a clear bet: the next generation of high-growth, high-impact companies that will matter to this region are already here—or will be founded by people who choose to relocate here because of the opportunity.[1][2]

For such a time as this

For years, community leaders, founders, and investors in Oklahoma City have worked to build a startup ecosystem while energy was still booming. It sometimes felt like a side project, an experiment, or a hedge.

Today, it feels like the main story.

The departure of major headquarters will certainly change our skyline, but it does not diminish our city’s capacity to build, to innovate, or to lead. If anything, it clarifies why we invested in diversification in the first place—and why we must double down now.[4][2][1]

If you are an entrepreneur, engineer, scientist, or builder, this is an invitation: stay in Oklahoma City. Join The Verge, plug into the community, and bring your ideas forward. Talk to us about the new angel fund. Surround yourself with others who are committed to building the next generation of Oklahoma companies.

The energy industry powered Oklahoma City’s rise. The innovation economy can power its resilience and relevance for decades to come—but only if the people who can build that future choose to do it here, now, for such a time as this.[4][2][1]

After the energy era, OKC’s next chapter starts now

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