the story of The American Townsman
Who is Adam Tidrow?
For more than 15 years, Adam Tidrow has worked in economic development, business funding, and local business strategy across the US Rust Belt, including Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Western New York State.
In those 15 years, Adam has helped create economic growth in small towns and regional cities by leading, advising, and working directly with small local businesses, chambers of commerce, economic development corporations, local, state, and federal government agencies, as well as banks, credit unions, and community development financial institutions (CDFI).
Adam has a BA in Entrepreneurship and an MBA from Anderson University.
Adam is currently completing his doctoral coursework for his doctorate in business administration (DBA), with his dissertation focusing on ways to help small municipalities increase local resident spending at locally-owned businesses.
In simpler terms: Adam is researching and writing the book on getting more local money to stay in local pockets.
The American Townsman’s Goal
“I started The American Townsman with a singular goal: to ensure the health, culture, and stability of America’s small towns for the next century.
We do that by focusing on the past, present, and future in three distinct ways:
Preserve our history—good, bad, ugly, and indifferent—so future generations have it to examine, learn from, and enjoy.
Protect what we have now from harmful outside investment, bad actors taking advantage of our resources, land, and people, and big companies coming in trying to squash the locally-owned options. Less Starbucks. More Jane’s Coffee and Bill’s Car Wash.
Promote our towns, what we love about them, what’s going right, and the ideas that can carry them into the next 100 years.
The whole idea here is to help people be part of their small town’s renaissance and revitalization so there’s something to celebrate in a decade rather than something to mourn. We’ve done too much of that in our small towns.”
-Adam Tidrow
Founder & President, The American Townsman
