Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott celebrated Black pride and called out past harm while inviting investors to plug into the city’s tech ecosystem designed for inclusive expansion.
In a candid sit-down at the 2025 AFROTECH Conference, Scott discussed Baltimore’s next chapter as a real “renaissance” powered by visionary leadership, inclusive policy and a commitment to making equity standard. He hit the Executive stage to map how Maryland, particularly the region he leads, is fueling Black innovation across tech, biotech and quantum, and why backing its builders is a smart bet on the future.
What network is Baltimore building?
Before diving into his proof points during the “Leading the Next Renaissance with Mayor Brandon Scott” session, Scott emphasized that he represents a city rooted in Black culture and that he’s happy to be involved.
“We are bliggity-bliggity-Black and we’re proud of it,” he told the crowd before he made a playful Death Row Records reference.
“We want everyone to know that we think about Maryland as Death Row Records. You can think of me as like Suge Knight. You want to live in the right place? Move to Baltimore, right? Especially if you’re Black [or] if you’re brown,” Scott said. “But that’s what this is about, a renaissance of a great American city that is not rooted in this culture.”
The 41-year-old shared that changes in Baltimore’s innovation ecosystem are driven by momentum, infrastructure and capital.
“We’re typically thought of as a port city or eds and meds, but when we think about that, we are now in a place where we have startups growing out the wazoo. When you think of us having [Johns] Hopkins [University], you think about Morgan [State University], Coppin [State University], [and the] University of Maryland,” he explained. “You have to think about this, our city is home to nearly 500 startups, right? And those startups raised $649 million in ’23 and $665 million in 2024. That’s what you’re talking about. We’re also growing as a tech hub, in a place where we want to do tech in an equitable way, lifting up our people as well.”
Scott added how Baltimore actively works to attract investment into the collectives and the startup community by investing in its residents first.
“We do that because we are a Black city, right? Obviously, it’s easy for us, our proximity, obviously, to Washington D.C., and not being too far from New York. But when you think about how this is happening, and the way our Greater Baltimore Committee actually has UpSurge, a program focused just on that,” he said. “These startups, we are investing in them, [and] the city’s investing in them. And we were named one of the 31 federal tech hubs across the country. That’s the way that we have to do it in Baltimore, where when you look at that and you look at programs like Techstars. We’ve been very proud to say that we want to be the first equi-tech city.”
Scott followed up by laying out the strategy from new facilities to agency-wide backing designed to help companies land and grow.
“We’re putting the infrastructure in place, whether that’s building the facilities to help these places come aboard,” he added. “Whether it’s us making sure that every part of our government is open to these businesses and open to support them. That’s what’s happening. We have to support it from the ground up, and that’s what we’re doing in Baltimore.”
Why does investing in Baltimore unlock growth?
This prompted him to call for equity to be viewed as both a moral duty and a business requirement.
“I think that we have to understand, very simply…when you’re a city that’s 46% Black, these folks will never be able to provide for themselves,” he noted. “They’ll never be able to provide for their families. They’ll never be able to support your business, right? We cannot live in a city, for example, when our other longstanding challenges that the city has faced, and it still does face, for a long time, [are] around vacant housing. When you look at that, it’s directly tied to the creation of redlining.”
Scott went on to say that if Baltimore wants actual growth, it has to invest in its residents and enforce equity across the board.
“We have to invest, we have to change policy, and we have to convince, and we have been able to convince folks in the business and other community that if they want to make the amount of money that they can ultimately make because that’s what talks to them, right? Then you have to be investing in these people and these places as well,” he said. “Also, in Baltimore, it’s the law of the land. So, it doesn’t matter what people think. Equity is the law of the land, and we have to do it that way because it’s the only way that cities are going to lift it up in this entire country.”
What to do when you visit Baltimore
Extending a path for engagement, Scott invited people to make a trip to Baltimore: “Look for Baltimore as a place to invest in your capital, invest in startups, to look at infrastructure projects, [and] to look at other government contracts and products. That’s the way that you can invest in our city. But most importantly, visit. Come to Baltimore. Once you come or once you taste that Old Bay, you will never want to leave.”
He shared some cultural events that happen throughout the year that visitors can attend.
“You can come to Baltimore for CIAA. If you’re from Charlotte, I’m sorry it’s never coming back to Charlotte. You can come in the summertime for our African American Heritage Festival. It’s the 50th year of AFRAM this year in Baltimore. We’re gonna have a beautiful Black time on Juneteenth weekend, so you can come. It’s free, by the way,” he said. “We have Artscape, just there’s so many reasons for you to visit Baltimore. But while you’re there, make sure you check out the folks at Techstars. Make sure you check out UpSurge, but make sure that you’re looking for the individuals who are next up. Whether they went to Coppin, or Morgan, or Hopkins, or UMD, or UMBC.
The discussion concluded with Scott championing and reminding the crowd what Baltimore has to offer.
“You will not find a better city with better people where that grit, that grind, that spirit that you need in the tech industry is embedded in us already,” he stated. “And now we have the best universities in the West that’s giving us the best skills.”