Austin Just Became the U.S. Army’s Silicon Valley

Route Fifty: If you were to write a scene set in “a hip tech hub,” you might limn the Capital Factory, a co-working space and startup accelerator in downtown Austin. On a typical day, you can find kids barely old enough to drink who are pitching their startups to top venture-capital firms in a sunlit space, full of beanbag chairs, fun wall murals, green protein shakes, and loads of snacks. It’s not the sort of place you would expect to find Gen. Jim McConville, the vice chief of staff of the U.S. Army. But last Thursday, that’s where he was, piloting a simulated plane.

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