Dozens of entrepreneurs and investors gathered at the White House this week to update administration officials on the progress of start-up ecosystems in their hometowns and pitch policy recommendations for the coming year. But they didn't fly in from traditional innovation hubs like Boston and Silicon Valley; they came from cities like Lincoln, Neb., Nashville, Tenn., and Iowa City, Iowa.

"In the last couple years, there's really been a groundswell of entrepreneurial activity in places not traditionally known for that," Andy Stoll, co-founder of Seed Here Studio, a networking start-up for young companies in Iowa City, said in an interview. "Geography doesn't have a monopoly on good ideas, and we are just trying to find ways to unlock that latent entrepreneurial talent in places like Iowa. We're not saying we're better than New York or San Francisco, we're just asking "Why not here in the Miwest?"