Why you should quit your job and crash the party(chicagobusiness.com)
chicagobusiness.com
Why you should quit your job and crash the party
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/section/blogs?blogID=ann-dwyer&plckController=Blog&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&uid=16ea2629-7e90-46f0-a706-dd6152764513&plckPostId=Blog%3a16ea2629-7e90-46f0-a706-dd6152764513Post%3ad375b2d3-3777-413a-af3e-c22d8131e3d2&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest
3 comments
not much of a vc scene compared to SF/NY, weather sucks almost half the year, and chicago is generally underrated as a place to live for various reasons.
a lot of it is chicken and egg - the top talent doesn't see chicago as a place to go to achieve your startup dreams so they don't come here, and chicago won't be that place until people come here. groupon - meh. barely a tech company in my opinion, and (correct me if I'm wrong) smart, ambitious, top-notch coders aren't really banging down their door for a software engineering job.
that being said, lightbank now has plenty of money to spread around, and there is an incubator or two to get things going. can't do much about the weather though.
a lot of it is chicken and egg - the top talent doesn't see chicago as a place to go to achieve your startup dreams so they don't come here, and chicago won't be that place until people come here. groupon - meh. barely a tech company in my opinion, and (correct me if I'm wrong) smart, ambitious, top-notch coders aren't really banging down their door for a software engineering job.
that being said, lightbank now has plenty of money to spread around, and there is an incubator or two to get things going. can't do much about the weather though.
This is the sure sign of a bubble when a finance guy can quit his job and be funded in six weeks. Awesome idea, but.. really?
The ingenious and tactful hustle read here only makes me want to work harder. Love how they crashed the party from a tweet all in the name of pitching Dave.
"“When the stars align, they align quickly,”
Not so fast. The toughest and most challenging alignment to get is paying customers. Everything else is easy in comparison
Not so fast. The toughest and most challenging alignment to get is paying customers. Everything else is easy in comparison
"Mr. Leshner thought MelonCard wouldn’t be able to put together a deal in Chicago nearly as fast: “Chicago moves slower. It takes seven meetings (to make a deal), and there’s more of an old-school focus."
Why do you think this the case? Is it Chicago's financial background? Is it the Midwest thing? What keeps it from being one of the startup hubs? All the factors are here: Close to excellent universities, tons of money floating around, culture, etc. (maybe not so great weather). People used to say that it lacked a big, successful startup to act as an anchor, now we have Groupon. So what gives?