When rural entrepreneurs are given the spotlight, they do more than tell their own story. They expand the story of what innovation in America can look like.

That is why we are excited to see Dusty Birge, founder and CEO of Fast Forward, a CORI Innovation Fund portfolio company, will be featured on an upcoming episode of America’s Best Builders, a business docuseries focused on the founders, operators, tradespeople, manufacturers, and builders powering the economy.

Based in Kearney, Nebraska, Fast Forward is helping modernize one of the most essential systems in the country: the electric grid. The company works with electric utilities and municipalities to improve how they document, inspect, and maintain infrastructure. Using tools like vehicle- and UTV-mounted camera systems, automated thermal inspections, mapping software, and data management, Fast Forward helps utilities identify equipment issues earlier, reduce outages, improve safety, and strengthen reliability.

That work matters everywhere. But it is especially important for rural utilities and communities, where electric infrastructure can cover vast distances, serve fewer customers per mile, and face growing pressure from aging systems, extreme weather, and limited local capacity. Fast Forward is building technology for those realities — practical, scalable tools that help utilities keep power reliable and communities resilient.

Dusty’s appearance on America’s Best Builders is not just a milestone for Fast Forward. It is also a reminder that rural founders belong in national conversations about innovation, infrastructure, and the future.

Rural entrepreneurship is often framed as small, local, or separate from the high-growth innovation economy. Fast Forward shows how incomplete that story is. Rural founders are building technology that serves critical industries. They are attracting investment, creating jobs, and developing solutions shaped by deep knowledge of the places and systems they serve.

Representation matters because visibility shapes belief. When rural entrepreneurs see people like Dusty on platforms like America’s Best Builders, it reinforces that you do not have to leave your community to build something consequential. When investors, partners, and policymakers see stories like Fast Forward’s, it challenges outdated assumptions about where innovation happens and where capital should flow.

At CORI, we know rural America is full of entrepreneurial talent, technical expertise, and market insight. What rural founders need is not a different standard of ambition, but stronger access to the networks, capital, and visibility that help promising companies grow.

Fast Forward’s continued momentum is a strong example of that possibility. The company is tackling a national infrastructure challenge from rural Nebraska, building tools that support safer and more reliable power systems, and proving that rural tech companies can compete in markets that matter.

At the time of this writing, a date for Dusty’s episode has not yet been posted. The episode is expected to be available through the Inside Success TV app and the America’s Best Builders episode page when released.

Dusty also recently joined CORI’s webinar, “Measuring Rural America’s Entrepreneurial Spirit,” where he shared more about Fast Forward’s growth and the experience of building a technology company from rural Nebraska.