Chicago startups to watch in 2015
builtinchicago.org
builtinchicago.org
There should be more focus on what Chicago's uniquely good at, and what makes us not just a worse-SF: http://www.holovaty.com/writing/chicago-bootstrapping/
Do you mean whining about how we deserve to be a tech/manufacturing hub but we're not? Because we're pretty good at that.
(As a Chicago startup founder, I'll just add that I hope we don't become a "tech hub". A diverse business community is one of our biggest strengths.)
(speaking as a former Chicago startup founder)
You had some serious engineering here: Western Electric, Teletype, Bell Labs/Lucent, Stewart-Warner, Illinois Tool Works, USRobotics, Admiral Radio, Shure, Abbott Labs, Baxter, Rockola, Seeburg, Williams Electronics, Bally, Zenith, and of course Motorola. Motorola alone seeded lots of other small companies in the area.
The Chicago startup scene has so much potential once people stop "trying to be like SV" OR "trying to be Chicago." There's a fantastic middle ground, just look at Basecamp.
Let's set up an HN meetup.
Wow. Some people really do have too much time on their hands.
Baby clothes particularly, can be an incredible money sink. My twins are four-months-old and have cycled through four different sizes already. I quickly learned there is practically no reason to buy "outfits" and having them live 24/7 in sleepers makes life a lot easier on me. And sleepers can be found cheaply at used clothing stores, baby item swap meets, garage sales, etc.
Seeing the words "kids" and "boutique" next too each other definitely makes me cringe a little.
I don't see how this really is more ridiculous than owning a current gen 3D printer or other expensive geek friendly frivolous toy. In fact, if you're part of the wealthy crowd, what your kids look like affects your social capital as so much of that is image based. If its creating jobs and opportunity, I don't really care about these Gweneth Paltrow-like excesses. Its just business.
Is this a market failure? Has anyone figured out how to build a fully distributed company yet? How about "Built Online"?
edit: Bryce Roberts at OATV is currently running an experiment that could challenge that default VC mindset with Indie.vc: http://indie.vc/
If you’re a recent startup founder, chances are you’ve taken a
huge paycut. Well guess what - America was built on innovators
like yourself and there are government assistance programs
designed to help you while you sacrifice to grow your
business. mRelief helps a user determine whether they qualify
for Illinois government assistance programs like Food Stamps.
I don't think people outside of the city realize how bad things are here. The corruption, handout mentality, patronage, politics, public sector unions, etc are probably the worst in the nation and it only seems to be getting worse. The various attempts to build a SV-like environment in Chicago will continue to fail until this corruption is cleaned up. I don't see a lot of incentive to invest in startups here, especially if we factor in our very high tax load and the little public value we get from it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_fraud#In_the_United_St...
http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/12/20/255819681/the...
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/01/08/3136631/lepage-w...
The only thing local here is the Reagan welfare queen comment from almost 40 years ago, which is far from timely. Nor was I making that argument. I don't think there are welfare queens of any type, but I do see, almost daily, casual abuse of the system designed to help the poor. With little political motivation to fix this broken system, if we consider the patronage from the aldermen, there's actually disincentives to fix this system. Considering our high tax rates, its a shame our leadership can't make this a priority.
Illinois’ error rate, from either overspending on food stamps or not spending enough, is 1.74 percent, according to Januari Smith, a spokeswoman for the state’s Department of Human Services.
So (a) it's a tiny fraction, (b) it's an error metric, meaning some of it is money we didn't spend, and (c) nowhere is any of it categorized as "fraud".
Statistics show time and again that the majority of wealthy people (millionaires or greater) drive used cars[1]
It seems that the people buying brand new Audi, BMW, Lexus etc are people with little regard for personal finance, and are more often than not overextending their credit to afford such a purchase. Any surprise should be aimed at lending institutions who provide low income homes with loans for luxury cars.
[1] http://www.daveramsey.com/blog/cars-wealthy-people-drive
I worked at a Jewel as a cashier for 3 years:
"By groceries I mean high-end items like lobster and steak, which they are clearly cashing out the card on and not shopping for food like everyone else. "
Is mostly an uban legend.
There is some fraud going on, but it mostly lazy people who get disability diagnosises and just live on $1000 a month. Sucks for us tax payers, but they aren't living high on the hog.
Some of my favorite Chicago startups:
1. TempoDB - Database for IOT and sensor data
2. 640 Labs - Precision agriculutre platform
3. Opternative - Online Eye Exams
4. ShipBob (YC S14) - Easy shipping for businesses and personal (Disclaimer: Currently work here)
5. Basecamp - Project Managment Software
Opternative is on the list.
These are all startups coming together in Chicago. All are exciting.
Didn't know about Bikespike, looks cool!
If you're interested in mobile security, you can get an idea about our work in a recently vulnerability we helped Samsung patch impacting 200m+ devices. [2]
Over 50% of our company is remote and we're hiring 30+ people this year. If you're interested in mobile and/or security, would love to hear from you. [3]
[1] https://www.nowsecure.com/ [2] https://www.nowsecure.com/blog/2015/01/27/samsung-corrupdate... [3] https://www.nowsecure.com/careers/
I used to work with one of the founders. A really great guy and his success is well-deserved.
640 Labs is my example of what a real Chicago startup should be. They put their heads down, got to work, and got a product out in the field (literally).