Its startups have raised more than $2 billion. The useful story is how a Tampa nonprofit turned a meetup into a system for getting founders into the right rooms.
For nearly five decades, this Ybor City agency has done something harder than making ads: it has turned local identity into measurable action, from stadium seats to patient visits to a food bank reborn as a hub of opportunity.
Brian Butler started Vistra at home because no one would hire him. The business took off when he stopped treating communication as decoration and started treating it as operational infrastructure.