The University of Illinois’ Startup Ecosystem

Re:The University of Illinois’ Startup Ecosystem by eldavido on Friday September 04, 2015 @01:04AM (#10168889)

I go back and forth on this; the issue is the lack of a better option. I for one would love to see a viable tech community emerge in Chicago -- we could all be near family, afford houses, hell maybe even inject some much-needed tax revenue in the state of IL -- but the reality is SV is where all the ambitious tech people are, the money is here, and the entrepreneurial management talent is here.

Don't take my word for it: the west coast absolutely dwarfs Chicago in VC (20x as much capital is raised in the Bay Area than Chicago), which is made even worse considering the relative population skew in Chicago's favor: http://www.citylab.com/work/2013/06/americas-top-metros-vent...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:The University of Illinois’ Startup Ecosystem by joezydeco on Friday September 04, 2015 @09:39AM (#10170276)

I for one would love to see a viable tech community emerge in Chicago

Well, we all would. The fact that Chicago is building things like 1871 and UILabs shows they want the image of being a vibrant startup-friendly community but we all know what the true reality is.

Northern Illinois has a extremely valuable legacy in tech, especially in the bio and manufacturing sectors. Think of Motorola, Bell Labs, Teletype, Abbott, Baxter, Sundstrand, ITW, Zenith, Bally, Kraft, Caterpillar, CME, Molex... there's a huge list. But that legacy isn't what's hot and cool with the VC community. Chicago's modus operandi is about going heads-down and getting shit done. But that isn't what's hot and cool with the VC community either.

[ Parent | on HN ]