[roneesh]

Almost any major city now has some people trying to make startups happen in their town. Find a co-working space or local startup accelerator and ask/pay to work out of it.

Tangibly you experience startup culture in three ways:

1. Being at a hub where that scene happens (almost always a co-working space or accelerator), 1871 here in Chicago is such a place, and it's a co-working spot 2. Having access to an organization that hosts events and alerts you to events and dispenses local news, BuiltInChicago is our local site that has keeps an up to date event calendar and where announcements happen. 3. Working with a startup, freelancing for startups or building projects at hackathons. Where you know, "work" actually happens.

If you find those three things you'll get more startup culture than you need, and it doesn't have to happen in a big city. I'm pretty sure Kansas City fits that bill. Omaha definitely does. Nashville, pretty sure.