Steve Case, AOL co-founder and former CEO, is sold on metro Detroit.

Case's Revolution venture capital fund has invested in nine startups in Michigan, including four in Detroit. Earlier this year, it led a $7.5 million Series A funding round for direct-to-consumer plant shipping company Bloomscape. It participated in a 2017 funding round for e-commerce platform StockX, which achieved a $1 billion valuation following a funding round announcement at last year's Detroit Homecoming event. It's also an investor in Shinola/Detroit LLC.

He believes the region is ripe for entrepreneurial growth and is aiming to invest more. His Washington, D.C.-based venture capital fund closed on another $215 million to finance startups with early stage capital, an anouncement he made at Crain's sixth annual Detroit Homecoming event earlier this month at the Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center in Detroit.

Case wants others to follow his lead, but says the community needs to help itself, too.

Crain's Senior Reporter Dustin Walsh sat down with Case before he took the stage at the Homecoming event to discuss where metro Detroit's startup scene can improve and what it's already doing right.

How did you get involved in this area?

We wanted to focus outside of California and New York with our funds and because of this bias of Rust Belt companies, we naturally looked to Detroit. I first came to Detroit five years ago as part for our Rise of the Rest tour (a bus tour across the country to discuss entrepreneurship and identify potential investments). What we saw and believe is that Detroit is a rising city. We're hoping to prove to the rest of the country that there is room to invest in Detroit. Because we made early investments (StockX being one of the first), we come back for board meetings and end up finding others.

Michigan and Detroit are often described, due to their legacy big automotive business, as an area afraid to fail. Is this how you see it?

There is a cultural element to that. Really believing in the entrepreneurs in the city. The idea of focusing on what went right, not wrong. I see that changing here, but it's slower than I'd like it to be.

StockX is considered a home run with a $1 billion valuation. Does the city need more home runs to drive in more capital?

We've definitely seen some progress, like StockX. But Michigan only got 1 percent of the venture capital dollars last year. California got more than 50 percent. We need more examples, more potential home runs (to lure in more capital). Momentum begets momentum. I hope to see this changing soon.

Speaking to other experts in the space, access to talent remains a critical issue for startup success here. Do you agree?

That's exactly right and why events like Homecoming are so important. For a startup to scale up, it has to have access to talent, getting people who have successfully launched and exited startups to assist the startups here. We need to have people with that experience move back to the area. The ones that are here need to use the bully pulpit. Mostly these CEOs need to reach out, build profiles nationally and recruit to see a hit rate. Detroit Homecoming is a great example of how you get people to return. They are probably surprised by the momentum here, and that's what we need.

Revolution has invested in companies like StockX and Bloomscape. These are obviously not in the mobility space, but that space is the major focus of this community's discussions. Is focusing on mobility helping the startup scene here or hindering it?

I think that industry legacy is helpful. Mobility is Detroit. Agriculture is Omaha. Identifying your competitive advantage helps all startups and the ecosystem. But you do need to keep your vision wide. Entrepreneurs can build companies kind of anywhere. So you have to strike a balance of recognizing your advantages in an industry while also building a broader startup community. We're agnostic. There are great entrepreneurs in many spaces all over the country.