Allan Tear, co-founder of Betaspring, an incubator program that helps high-tech entrepreneurs turn their ideas into companies, aims to create a “start-up revolution” in areas including art and design and food and beverage that he says are founts of largely untapped economic potential.

Soren Ryherd, whose Providence company Working Planet helps businesses maximize profit through online marketing, plans to launch dozens of retail stores online — with the goal of eventually moving some into empty storefronts to help revitalize Main Streets and neighborhoods.