Entrepreneurs: America’s Most Undervalued Natural Resource
Entrepreneurs: America’s Most Undervalued Natural Resource
You don’t extract it.
You don’t refine it.
But every strong economy depends on it.
Thom Rhue, CEO of NC IDEA, said it best: “The greatest natural resource in the world is the entrepreneur.”
Not because they chase trends or pitch the loudest—but because they see what's missing and decide to build it.
Because they create momentum where there was none.
Because nothing scalable, sustainable, or truly new begins without them.
And yet, we still treat them like a side note—when they’re the foundation.
What We Miss When We Think “Growth”
Drive through a city and you’ll see it: cranes in the sky, apartments rising, new retail footprints.
We call that progress.
But walk past a founder building something from scratch in a coffee shop with two engineers and a mess of sticky notes?
That doesn’t make the front page. And yet, those are the people quietly changing the trajectory of a region.
Because real entrepreneurs don’t just create products. They create momentum.
They create platforms other companies depend on. They build systems that support workforces, industries, even whole communities.
We’ve seen it before. Not just in Silicon Valley, but in places like Durham, Asheville, and Rocky Mount.
When Microsoft launched, it didn’t just sell software.
It laid the foundation for how business is done—and created the conditions for tens of thousands of new businesses to exist.
The lesson isn’t that Bill Gates got rich. It’s that one entrepreneur’s infrastructure became another’s springboard.
And when that happens locally, the impact is exponential.
One startup becomes an anchor. That anchor draws talent. Talent builds new companies. Those companies build new workflows, serve new markets, create new demand.
And suddenly a region isn’t growing because of policy. It’s growing because of people.
Proof Is Already Here: You Just Have to Know Where to Look
In North Carolina, this isn’t a thought experiment. It’s already happening.
NC IDEA has backed over 250 startups across 75 counties. Quietly. Strategically. Intentionally.
These aren’t moonshots with PR teams. These are real builders solving real problems—and building value that stays rooted.
Take Max Leisten at Protopia. He’s not pushing hype. He’s building a smarter mentorship infrastructure—one that uses AI to connect students and alumni across universities like Duke and NC State without needing forms, scheduling apps, or administrative bottlenecks.
What was once piecemeal and manual is now seamless and scalable. That’s not a platform. That’s a blueprint.
Or Tracy Collum at CollegeWell, under CFNC. Her work isn’t flashy—it’s vital. She and her team are rebuilding the backend systems that govern how students across North Carolina access financial aid.
The tech matters, but the impact is human: more families getting support without getting lost in bureaucracy.
That’s not just automation. That’s access.
Agritecture in Asheville is helping farmers make smarter decisions amid volatile climate patterns. Fathom Science in Durham is integrating satellite data and AI to help fisheries, shipping routes, and coastal communities respond to shifting environments.
These companies aren’t noise. They’re infrastructure.
They don’t disrupt for attention—they anchor real industries with real stakes.
What Happens When We Undervalue Entrepreneurs
We don’t just lose companies. We lose compounding momentum.
We lose the founder who could have solved the supply chain issue that’s draining our margins.
We lose the system that would have saved hours a week for an under-resourced nonprofit.
We lose the local economy that never gets off the ground because the spark never got support.
And we don’t even know we lost it—because we never saw it as vital in the first place.
The truth is: when we ignore entrepreneurs, we stall the entire system.
Because what they bring isn’t just innovation.
It’s resilience.
It’s adaptability.
It’s the willingness to rebuild things the right way, when the default has already failed.
This is the cost we don’t calculate:
- The late nights.
- The silent setbacks.
- The systems held together with duct tape while someone waits for a shot that might never come.
When support finally does show up—when it’s built on trust instead of hoops—the return isn’t just ROI.
It’s legacy.
Why We Build the Way We Do
Big Pixel didn’t start with venture funding or a five-year plan.
It started with one founder—David—doing what entrepreneurs do best: solving a problem no one else would touch.
He saw small and mid-sized companies struggling with broken systems, unscalable tools, and dev shops that overpromised and underdelivered.
So he built a company that did things differently. Slowly. Intentionally. Transparently.
Not everyone got it at first. But the ripples started.
One fixed-fee dashboard for a nonprofit. One backend rebuild for a startup. One founder who finally felt heard.
And over time, the ripples turned into traction.
Today, we work with founders and operators across industries.
Sometimes they’re nonprofit execs drowning in manual workflows. Sometimes they’re first-time founders with a sketch and a pain point no one else has solved.
What they all have in common?
They’re trying to build a better way. And they need someone to build it with them.
That’s why we don’t do hourly billing.
That’s why we don’t offshore.
That’s why we don’t disappear between check-ins.
We offer fixed-fee, US-based development with full transparency—because trust isn’t an upsell.
It’s the foundation.
We believe that business is built on transparency and trust. We believe that good software is built the same way.
We’ve worked with clients who didn’t have a product—just a process that was breaking.
We’ve partnered with founders who’d been burned before.
And in every case, the outcome wasn’t just a product. It was a turning point.
Every time a founder solves a real problem, they don’t just improve their own path.
They change what’s possible for everyone around them.
That’s what makes entrepreneurs so rare—and so powerful.
They don’t just generate GDP. They generate belief. And belief, once ignited, spreads.
So the next time someone tells you that America’s greatest resources are buried underground, feel free to challenge the premise.
Because the most powerful, the most generative, the most catalytic resource?
Is the person who builds what didn’t exist yesterday.
And the smartest thing we can do?
Back them.
This blog post is proudly brought to you by Big Pixel, a 100% U.S. based custom design and software development firm located near the city of Raleigh, NC.
Entrepreneurs: America’s Most Undervalued Natural Resource
Entrepreneurs: America’s Most Undervalued Natural Resource
You don’t extract it.
You don’t refine it.
But every strong economy depends on it.
Thom Rhue, CEO of NC IDEA, said it best: “The greatest natural resource in the world is the entrepreneur.”
Not because they chase trends or pitch the loudest—but because they see what's missing and decide to build it.
Because they create momentum where there was none.
Because nothing scalable, sustainable, or truly new begins without them.
And yet, we still treat them like a side note—when they’re the foundation.
What We Miss When We Think “Growth”
Drive through a city and you’ll see it: cranes in the sky, apartments rising, new retail footprints.
We call that progress.
But walk past a founder building something from scratch in a coffee shop with two engineers and a mess of sticky notes?
That doesn’t make the front page. And yet, those are the people quietly changing the trajectory of a region.
Because real entrepreneurs don’t just create products. They create momentum.
They create platforms other companies depend on. They build systems that support workforces, industries, even whole communities.
We’ve seen it before. Not just in Silicon Valley, but in places like Durham, Asheville, and Rocky Mount.
When Microsoft launched, it didn’t just sell software.
It laid the foundation for how business is done—and created the conditions for tens of thousands of new businesses to exist.
The lesson isn’t that Bill Gates got rich. It’s that one entrepreneur’s infrastructure became another’s springboard.
And when that happens locally, the impact is exponential.
One startup becomes an anchor. That anchor draws talent. Talent builds new companies. Those companies build new workflows, serve new markets, create new demand.
And suddenly a region isn’t growing because of policy. It’s growing because of people.
Proof Is Already Here: You Just Have to Know Where to Look
In North Carolina, this isn’t a thought experiment. It’s already happening.
NC IDEA has backed over 250 startups across 75 counties. Quietly. Strategically. Intentionally.
These aren’t moonshots with PR teams. These are real builders solving real problems—and building value that stays rooted.
Take Max Leisten at Protopia. He’s not pushing hype. He’s building a smarter mentorship infrastructure—one that uses AI to connect students and alumni across universities like Duke and NC State without needing forms, scheduling apps, or administrative bottlenecks.
What was once piecemeal and manual is now seamless and scalable. That’s not a platform. That’s a blueprint.
Or Tracy Collum at CollegeWell, under CFNC. Her work isn’t flashy—it’s vital. She and her team are rebuilding the backend systems that govern how students across North Carolina access financial aid.
The tech matters, but the impact is human: more families getting support without getting lost in bureaucracy.
That’s not just automation. That’s access.
Agritecture in Asheville is helping farmers make smarter decisions amid volatile climate patterns. Fathom Science in Durham is integrating satellite data and AI to help fisheries, shipping routes, and coastal communities respond to shifting environments.
These companies aren’t noise. They’re infrastructure.
They don’t disrupt for attention—they anchor real industries with real stakes.
What Happens When We Undervalue Entrepreneurs
We don’t just lose companies. We lose compounding momentum.
We lose the founder who could have solved the supply chain issue that’s draining our margins.
We lose the system that would have saved hours a week for an under-resourced nonprofit.
We lose the local economy that never gets off the ground because the spark never got support.
And we don’t even know we lost it—because we never saw it as vital in the first place.
The truth is: when we ignore entrepreneurs, we stall the entire system.
Because what they bring isn’t just innovation.
It’s resilience.
It’s adaptability.
It’s the willingness to rebuild things the right way, when the default has already failed.
This is the cost we don’t calculate:
- The late nights.
- The silent setbacks.
- The systems held together with duct tape while someone waits for a shot that might never come.
When support finally does show up—when it’s built on trust instead of hoops—the return isn’t just ROI.
It’s legacy.
Why We Build the Way We Do
Big Pixel didn’t start with venture funding or a five-year plan.
It started with one founder—David—doing what entrepreneurs do best: solving a problem no one else would touch.
He saw small and mid-sized companies struggling with broken systems, unscalable tools, and dev shops that overpromised and underdelivered.
So he built a company that did things differently. Slowly. Intentionally. Transparently.
Not everyone got it at first. But the ripples started.
One fixed-fee dashboard for a nonprofit. One backend rebuild for a startup. One founder who finally felt heard.
And over time, the ripples turned into traction.
Today, we work with founders and operators across industries.
Sometimes they’re nonprofit execs drowning in manual workflows. Sometimes they’re first-time founders with a sketch and a pain point no one else has solved.
What they all have in common?
They’re trying to build a better way. And they need someone to build it with them.
That’s why we don’t do hourly billing.
That’s why we don’t offshore.
That’s why we don’t disappear between check-ins.
We offer fixed-fee, US-based development with full transparency—because trust isn’t an upsell.
It’s the foundation.
We believe that business is built on transparency and trust. We believe that good software is built the same way.
We’ve worked with clients who didn’t have a product—just a process that was breaking.
We’ve partnered with founders who’d been burned before.
And in every case, the outcome wasn’t just a product. It was a turning point.
Every time a founder solves a real problem, they don’t just improve their own path.
They change what’s possible for everyone around them.
That’s what makes entrepreneurs so rare—and so powerful.
They don’t just generate GDP. They generate belief. And belief, once ignited, spreads.
So the next time someone tells you that America’s greatest resources are buried underground, feel free to challenge the premise.
Because the most powerful, the most generative, the most catalytic resource?
Is the person who builds what didn’t exist yesterday.
And the smartest thing we can do?
Back them.
This blog post is proudly brought to you by Big Pixel, a 100% U.S. based custom design and software development firm located near the city of Raleigh, NC.
Our superpower is custom software development that gets it done.
