Why Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales says Huntsville has always been a tech powerhouse

At Sloss Tech in Birmingham this year, one of the most anticipated keynote speakers at the tech conference was Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of Wikipedia and Fandom.

To some attendees, the Alabama connection to Wales may not have made sense. Why would this big-time tech entrepreneur want to come all the way from London to Birmingham?

He knew right away, however, that he would attend Sloss Tech when the invitation came his way six months ago. After all, he has deep Alabama roots.

Wales was born and raised in Huntsville, where he attended Randolph School, and went on to earn his bachelor’s degree from Auburn University and his master’s at the University of Alabama.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Wikipedia, a global powerhouse that now reaches over two billion unique devices every month.

Read on to learn more about his keynote, our exclusive interview with Wales and what he believes Alabama’s strengths are when it comes to the tech industry.

We had the chance to sit down with Wales and ask our burning questions — including if he prefers Alabama or Auburn football, which he respectfully declined to answer — after his Friday, June 26, keynote talk at Sloss Tech in Lyric Theatre.

Our interview spanned all things Alabama, from growing up in Huntsville and his college days at Auburn and Alabama, to why the state’s quality of life can easily beat out Silicon Valley for young entrepreneurs.

TL;DR: In Alabama’s hubs like Birmingham and Huntsville, there’s always been “tech on the radar.”

A persistent theme at Sloss Tech this year was developing and retaining talent, particularly when it comes to keeping them in the Southeast.

As an Alabama native, Wales has had a front-row seat to Alabama’s development as a home for tech startups.

He’s always seen Birmingham as a center for emerging medical tech and Huntsville for the space program and defense contracting.

“I think it’s great that it’s matured and grown over the years… With strong universities, you know, it’s just natural that it happens.”

In 2018, his for-profit company, Fandom, acquired a tech startup in Huntsville, First Media. While talking to the engineers there, he realized the draw to the Southeast is strong.

“Talking to some of the engineers there, the appeal of a great standard of living — cost of living, the quality of house you can have, the quality of life you can have — it could be pretty bad in Silicon Valley. It’s unbelievably expensive out there, you know.”

The challenge, he said, can be convincing outside talent that Alabama is a great place to live.

“If they’re moving into the South, you have to remind them that, yeah, we do have indoor plumbing and all that. That’s just a joke, but you kinda do. But if people are here, they already know that, actually, it’s a pretty good place to live, and certainly, that retains a lot of people.”

For the rooms full of founders and startup builders filling the seats at Sloss Tech, Wales’ core business advice focuses entirely on passion over market viability. If a founder builds a company purely based on data spreadsheets rather than a genuine interest in the problem, he notes they are building a recipe for burnout.

“My biggest advice for entrepreneurs is always really about, you know, don’t pick a project because you think it’ll make you the most money. Pick a project because it means something to you. It excites you, it’s fun, it’s interesting, it’s a problem you think is worth solving.

“If you pick the project that looks the most financially appealing, but you kind of find it boring and you hate it, you’re not going to be very good at it, and you’re not going to win anyway. And if you pick the project where you’re like, ‘I don’t know what the business model is or I don’t know how, but I’m passionate about it,’ you’ll find a way.”

The same philosophy of prioritizing genuine human purpose over rigid algorithms extends directly into how Wales views the future of modern media.

During his on-stage keynote at Sloss Tech, Wales laughed about typing the very first words he typed on Wikipedia — a simple “Hello, world” — back when today’s undergraduate students weren’t even born. Today, he is paying close attention to how that world connects to the future of media, telling Bham Now that while tools are changing, the need for real, human content is higher than ever.

“I talk in my talk about how Wikipedia is thinking about and grappling with large language models and the changes that are coming, that’s also true in journalism.

“I think the idea of like, ‘Oh, maybe we won’t need journalists. AI will do it all.’ I think that’s crazy talk.”

Trust in media, he said, is at an all time low, but he attributes that to dwindling local news, especially in rural areas.

“If you don’t have a local newspaper or it’s the shell of what it used to be, then the news is only about famous people and faraway places. You don’t really have that personal connection.”