That’s not to suggest that smaller cities aren’t rife with incubators, investors, and other support needed to succeed in business. It’s just that sometimes it’s hard to know where to look. Here, John Dearborn, president of the Cleveland-based nonprofit VC firm JumpStart Inc., shares three tips for maximizing resources in mid-sized cities.

Let us now praise older men (and women).

“When you think of startups, you tend to think of what the popular press covers, Facebook and really young firms,” Dearborn says. But focusing on sexy young things can miss an enormous swath of potential innovators with experience under their belts. JumpStart’s average applicant is in his mid-40s and out of traditional industry–not necessarily your hip-innovator profile, but definitely undervalued.

Older workers bring not just experience with them, they bring a whole network of people.

Many of these older entrepreneurs bring ideas that were the results of recreational tinkering, either at the lab or the factory: useful innovations their bosses deemed either too small-potatoes or too off-industry to pursue, Dearborn says. Others walk in the door with their early-retirement package in hand, looking to fund phase two of their careers. “Older workers bring not just experience with them, they bring a whole network of people” to realize the idea, Dearborn says.