How do you reinvigorate the economy of a rust belt city? Our guests on this week's show are working both at the grass roots and civic levels to rebuild the economies of their mid-sized cities.

Ron Kitchens is the CEO of Southwest Michigan First, a nonprofit organization dedicated to being a catalyst for success in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Ron joins us to tell us about incubating new companies in this economy and how smaller businesses can thrive when large corporations fail.

Eric Mathews is the founder of Launch Memphis, an organization that nurtures technology startups in Memphis. We'll talk to Eric about how technology can help seed an entrepreneurial community and be used to bring entrepreneurs together.