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Comment by kevinmchugh | Hacker News Reader

I appreciate BuiltInChicago as an effective way to promote knowledge about the Chicago tech scene and I looked there the last couple times I was job-searching, but this list is really uninspiring. Uber for [moving, dry-cleaning, beauty needs], clones of better-known startups, clones of startups that have already failed.

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/

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There should be more focus on what Chicago's uniquely good at

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.

Judging from this comment, I'd guess that you, Adrian, and Kevin probably agree on Chicago's strengths and weaknesses.

(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.)

Chicago has been, and will continue to be, one of the largest tech hubs in the world. We just are not as dominant as we used to be.

(speaking as a former Chicago startup founder)

On what axis is Chicago competitive with SFBA or NYC as a "tech hub"? On the obvious ones, like dollars of VC funding or number of tech employers, it doesn't even look close.

IMO, Chicagoans like to lean on their prior history of being a technological and manufacturing center.

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.

We still have a lot of those companies here, the R&D has moved to the coasts though.

This isn't a very good snapshot of what's going on in Chicago. I don't know what kind of outreach this site does, but it seems to be tied to local investors.

I was going to say, this reads more like a list of 50 companies who need to show their seed investors some traction.

Super uninspiring list for me also. And the only YC company ever in Chicago wasn't even included.

There are a few companies that have made it in to YC from Chicago over the years.

50?! I would love to see a heatmap of this page. The Chicago start up scene is a total mess right now, and a list of "50 start ups to watch" exemplifies it perfectly. You're right - these are mostly clones (with some exceptions).

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.

Mercaris, data and trading for Organic agriculture, based out of 1871, founders are grads of Excelerate (now Techstars Chicago), recently closed a Series A, hiring/growing.

You're way more connected with the Chicago startup scene than I am. Do you think this list was representative? (I'm not challenging you; I genuinely don't know the answer).

Let's set up an HN meetup.

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