Stephen McConnell Case (born August 21, 1958) is an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist best known as the former chief executive officer and chairman of America Online (AOL).

"[1][2] Since resigning as chairman of the company in 2003, he has launched a venture-capital firm, Revolution LLC, based in Washington, D.C., and authored The Third Wave: An Entrepreneur's Vision of the Future, which in 2016 became a New York Times bestselling book.

[4] In January 1983, his older brother, Dan, an investment banker, introduced him to Bill von Meister, CEO of Control Video Corporation.

[11] Among many initiatives in the early years of AOL, Case personally championed many innovative online interactive titles and games, including graphical chat environments Habitat (1986) and Club Caribe (1989), the first online interactive fiction series QuantumLink Serial by Tracy Reed (1988), Quantum Space, the first fully automated Play by email game (1989), and the original Dungeons & Dragons title Neverwinter Nights, the first Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) to depict the adventure with graphics instead of text (1991).

In 2005, Case wrote in The Washington Post that "It's now my view that it would be best to 'undo' the merger by splitting Time Warner into several independent companies and allowing AOL to set off on its own path.

"[14] Case resigned from the Time-Warner board of directors in October 2005, to spend more time working on Revolution LLC, a D.C.-based investment firm he founded in April 2005.

In 2011, Steve and Jean Case were honored as Citizens of the Year by the National Conference on Citizenship[16] and interviewed by Stephanie Strom of The New York Times about their record of service and philanthropic endeavors.

Early investments include Revolution Money, HelloWallet, AddThis, Zipcar, Living Social, and luxury travel club Exclusive Resorts.

[24] Other exits include the purchase of Revolution Money by American Express in 2009 for $300 million, and on May 29, 2014 MorningStar announced plans to acquire HelloWallet for an undisclosed amount.

[25] Additionally, Case recognized another successful exit when Towers Watson acquired early exchange pioneer Extend Health for $435 million in May, 2012.

[26] The fund's investments to date include Bigcommerce, Custom Ink, Echo360, FedBid, Handy, Lolly Wolly Doodle, Optoro, Orchard, Resonate, Revolution Foods, Sweetgreen, Sparefoot, Bedrock Manufacturing, LDiscovery, Interactions, Cava, DraftKings, Sportradar, Tala, Tempus, TalkSpace and Uptake.

Revolution Ventures has invested in BenchPrep, Booker, Busbud, Framebridge, Homesnap, Insikt, OrderUp, RunKeeper, MemberSuite, PolicyGenius, Paro, Bloomscape and Bright Cellars.

The "second wave" saw companies like Google and Facebook build on top of the internet to create search and social networking capabilities, while apps like Instagram leveraged the smartphone revolution.

A confluence of the industry expertise in these regions, technological innovations and public policy changes makes it easier to start and scale a business anywhere.

[32] Steve Case is also a staunch supporter of opportunity zones, and is credited for having helped pass them as part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed by President Trump.

"[34] In a 2019 interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, Case stated that Trump's passage of opportunity zones was a "step in the right direction in trying to get more money from the coasts to other parts of the country.

[42] However, in 2017, Case met with President Trump stating that he appreciates "that the administration wants to connect with the men and women that are leading Silicon Valley’s/New York’s tech giants.

"[43] In 2024, Case stated that he "was pleased to hear President Trump express his support for issuing green cards to noncitizen graduates of U.S. colleges and universities earlier this year.

"[45] In a 2022 interview with Kara Swisher, Case indicated his preference for a nonpartisan approach to advocacy, and emphasized the importance of bringing Republicans and Democrats together over conversations that transcend the traditional partisan political divide, such as efforts to improve the start-up ecosystem.

Vance to work at Revolution LLC to help advance his effort to promote startup growth in parts of the United States outside of major tech hubs like Silicon Valley, Boston, and New York City.